On our way to Helsinki we dropped into Hamina. A friend of Anna-Maija runs the restaurant at the Bastion. We visited the place on our first day in Finland with the big membrane roof structure. The restaurant is in the old armory storage section of the defensive wall. It is an amazing structure, brick catacombs stretching for hundreds of metres. The restaurant can seat 500, very comfortably. We were served coffee and quiche. It was lovely.
Most of the arched doors are the restaurant
We drove to Helsinki and parked under Finlandia Hall, designed by Alvar Aalto.
Unfortunately the acoustics were not good enough for the orchestra so they have built a new theatre for them down the road.
The building looks new, however it is over 40 years old, it is so well designed.
Alvar designed all the furniture and fittings in the building as well. It is primarily of white, grey and black colouring. When asked why he had designed such a 'colourless' building he replied 'the people will add the colour'.
The colourful underground car park is good. Alvar had nothing to do with the coloured lighting.
Next we went to the rock church, built in 1969. The interior is excavated out of solid rock. It is one of the most visited buildings by architects and architectural students in Europe.
The building is considered to have the best acoustics of any building and regularly hosts orchestras. This is because of the rough unfinished rock hewn walls. Alvar Aalto should have considered this.
We then wandered around Helsinki for a bit taking in the old and new architecture. Helsinki is a wonderful city.
We went to the sea fortress
'Suomenlinna' on the ferry. Construction started in 1748 when Finland
was still part of Sweden. It was taken over in 19th century by Russia
and the guns that face west are still there.
Back in the city, we went to the Lutheran Cathedral completed in 1852. It was designed by a German Architect 'Carl Ludwig Engel' and was modelled on the Kazan Cathedral in St Petersburg.
Alvar Aalto declared that it was time for a building designed by and for Finland based on all the previous architecture in Helsinki that he considered borrowed from elsewhere in Europe and Russia. Hence Finlandia Hall.
However it is still a fabulous Cathedral.
Many of the roads in Helsinki are cobblestones, mainly of granite. The zebra crossings are made from black and white stones, they will never need repainting.
This building has the supporting structure on the outside to maximise the internal space. This is what the architect would have us believe. I don't recall buildings with this amount of supporting structure on the inside, you would have to wonder, how much of it is for show?
As we headed home there was a magnificent sunset, it must be getting late.
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