Feb '12 - Apr '12
Suomenlinna is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Helsinki. It is a huge fortress spanning 6 islands, built when Finland was a part of Sweden in 1748. Masterminded by Swedish Admiral Augustin Ehrensvärd (1710-72) the fort became his life's work and his vision was still incomplete at the time of... View full entry
As part of our study abroad experience, our study abroad coordinator, Associate Dean Peter MacKeith has set up monthly discussion evenings with Juhani Pallasmaa -- an exceptional thinker and well known architect and author. Some of his titles include, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and... View full entry
As part of our semester abroad we get the opportunity to design and build a chair out of bent plywood with the help of our instructor, Julie Scheu. Bent plywood is a beautiful method for furniture construction -- the simple elegance of the forms that are possible with bent plywood as well as the... View full entry
This weekend we traveled north to the arctic circle and the city of Rovaniemi. The town planning was done by Alvar Aalto after the city was burned by the Germans on retreat from the Russian forces in WWII. Our instructor, architect Matti Rautiola, said that when he was a child every stone that... View full entry
We are 2 Master of Architecture students from Washington University, St. Louis. This blog is a way for us to explore the red herrings of the architecture, art, and design world as we continue our education in a study abroad semester in Helsinki, Finland. Helsinki is the design capital of the... View full entry
We are two MArch students from Washington University St Louis who are traveling for a semester abroad to Helsinki, the arctic circle, and Baltic region. Helsinki is currently the 2012 design capital and we are getting to participate in extensive design related seminars and events that we wish to blog about. We are interested in using this blog to share/explore ideas and experiences about design, art, architecture and culture as we experience it.
