Finland Architecture, Design and Nature.
Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale is every two summers and Helsinki Design Week is in September, before winter arrives water and air quality can be the best excuse to visit Finland.
The happiest country in the world has more than 40 national parks, and is the place where Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto born and built a lot of buildings to visit and live on. Following all the country houses built, we can understand the live, architecture and society.
I follow this map with spots to follow, My route in Finland spent 10 days, 3 days in Helsinki to visit the city, and a route to Fiskars Village, Sanitori Paimio, Villa Mairea, Itaala Factory Glass, 2 days in Säynätsalo, Muuratsalo Experimental House, Jyväskylä and the last 2 nights at Espoo.
Aalto (3 February 1898–11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. I visit most of his architecture, homes and public venues.
The Library called Harald Herlin Learning Centre of Aalto University at Spoo, it was iconic and full of interesting publications, magazines and small corners.
Half a million people live in the centre of Helsinki, the main capital of Finland, with 1.3 million in the capital region and 1.61 million in the metropolitan area, on third of the population of the country. Winter temperatures are with an average of −4 °C in January and February and the average maximum temperature from June to August is around 19 to 22 °C (66 to 72 °F).
One of my first and favorite spots to visit was The Central Library from Helsinki: Oodi, mady by Ala, a striking building with its glass and steel structures and wooden facade, its design a combination of traditional and contemporary flavours. I travel with my kid of 1 year and a half, I was astonished about the kid's zone on the 3rd floor and surprised by the playground in front of the park. The playgrounds had a program called Summer at the Playgrounds with guides, activities and games.
One of musts visits are the Kluuvi with Shops like Artek, specially Artek 2nd Cycle, Marimmekko, Arket ,Stockmann at the Kaartinkaupunki and the crossing to Katajanokka where you can walk thought modernist buildings and taste fish at Helsinki Market Square.
The streets of Helsinki are nice to walk in summer: The Design District, Kamppi and Punavuori. The Designmuseo Design Museum, founded in 1873 as a study collection for the arts and crafts school depends on the temporal exhibition the importance to visit it. I recommend to take dinner at Haru Plus Sushi.
If you move to the north i recommend to visit Iittala & Arabia Design Centre, Gallery and Design Museum, The museum displays the products of the Arabia ceramics factory and the Iittala glassworks. I reccomend to take lunch at Restaurant Bistro Bryk. If you have time and travels with kids visit the Korkeasaari Zoo half a day. If you want to live a sauna in Helsinki i reccomend: Kulttuurisauna Public Sauna or Löyly Helsinki.
Close to Helsinki we have Suomenlinna and Vallisaari Island, Porvoo, Espoo and Fiskars Village.
Espoo it is home to the Helsinki University of Technology and the VTT or Technological Research Centre of Finland, as well as the headquarters of the telecommunications company Nokia, Espoo has EMMA — Espoo Museum of Modern Art were you can find the Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation. A curated pick of alternating works from the Saastamoinen Foundation is on permanent display at the museum, featuring the latest relevant names in Finnish and international contemporary art. The Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation Collection is on display in a special gallery called Visible Storage,
Fiskars Village is a tematic park, part of Fiskars Group. Since 1649, the Group has designed products of timeless, purposefull and functional beauty though Fiskars, Georg Jensen, Wedgwood, Royal Copenhaguen, Itaala, Gerber, Waterford, Rostrand… During the Bienal, the village has a couple of exhibitions that depending on the curatorial direction can be interesting in design or contemporary crafts.
To plan your route to the nature reserve. Once you have booked your trip, you might also want to consider offsetting your carbon footprint with National Railways or Travel planner around Finland.
Get close to nature at every opportunity you have, stop next to the road or move a bit to visit the guide paths in public natural parks.
Going West we find the Sanatori Paimio, a former tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Southwest Finland, designed by Alvar Aalto. Aalto received the design commission having won the architectural competition for the project held in 1929. The building was completed in 1933, and soon after received critical acclaim both in Finland and abroad.
A part from his architecture, the surroundings have a nice path to walk, and the objects created for the sanitorium like Paimio armchair 41, Combining a traditional outline with a light, organic form, this revolutionary interpretation of the club chair set new standards in modern furniture design, sold by Artek.
Villa Mairea, is a villa, guest-house, and rural retreat designed and built by the Finnish modernist architect Alvar Aalto for Harry and Maire Gullichsen in Noormarkku, Finland. The building was constructed in 1938–1939. The Gullichsens were a wealthy couple and members of the Ahlström family. The bad of the house has art pieces and doesn’t allow taking pictures or photos inside.
We made a technical stop at Scandic Eden Nokia, which is highly recommended to stop at the sauna from Gösta Serlachius Museum.
LItaala Glass Factory, 40 minutes from Tampere, offers a unique opportunity to see the production of all kinds of glass artifacts, already 140 years ago, in 1881, when a glass factory was founded in the village of Iittala. We can find the Finnish Glass Museum and the factory and the outlet with the showroom of the products.
Going to the North to Jyväskylä, make a stop at Kulta kioski from Isojärvi National Park. On the road is crazy how many traffic signs you will find that make you reduce the speed for finding mosse.
Before arriving to Jyväskylä, sleep at Säynätsalo Town Hall, and from there make a guided tour to Muuratsalo Experimental House.
There are various ways to experience and enjoy the clean Nordic nature, so whether you are travelling solo or with kids, the parks have plenty of options and most of the cities have playgrounds.
