We went on a grand (self-guided) walking tour of Central Helsinki, beginning with the amazing (relatively) new public library where you can work at sewing machines and borrow an electric guitar:-

Next, we went to Kiasma, the Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by Steven Holl and opened in 1998 – surprisingly long ago:-

There is good strong detailing on the nineteenth-century buildings:-

A fine late nineteenth-century building on Kasamitori which doesn’t appear in the architectural guide:-

And an apartment building opposite designed by Herman Gesellius, Arnas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen which does:-

Down to the docks and the old market hall (1889):-

On the other side of the harbour are Aalto’s 1962 office block and the Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral:-

East and south of the cathedral are good art nouveau and classical blocks with excellent stone detailing:-

We admired the old Custom House (1902):-

Then back into the neoclassical city:-

We ended with a cup of tea in the Cathedral Square:-

We went on a day trip to Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium, which made his reputation internationally: designed in 1928 and 1929 by Alvar and Aino Aalto; an unexpectedly large sanatorium for 286 tuberculosis patients, who were only cured by an extensive period of rest.

The sanatorium is surrounded by forest.  It is designed in the latest, Modernist style, a factory of rest and well-being: dust-free, everything designed for its therapeutic character, including the choice of wall colours, done in consultation with a decorative painter, Aino Kauria:-

Good details:-

We went to the Seurasaari Open-air museum, on an island just north of Helsinki.  It was established in 1909 to preserve aspects of Finnish rural life, including, at its heart a large wooden farmstead:-

There is a fine rustic church, dated 1685 and moved to Seurasaari in 1912:-

A manor house, with more sophisticated interiors:-

And a house from Karelia:-

An obituary of my aunt has appeared in today’s Times, if you have a subscription.

It is an unvarnished description of her character.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/022082fd-f0f9-4ab7-a3c6-daf3844e6f2d?shareToken=2ef84a9b7cb4cb9a1b1efa0f45b079fe

We arrived in Helsinki last night, but have so far not had a chance to appreciate more than the glories of its railway station – designed by Eliel Saarinen in 1904 and opened in 1919:-

Annette Rubery, herself a scholar of Vanbrugh, has written an excellent, thoughtful review of the Soane Museum’s exhibition in exactly the spirit in which the exhibition was intended: an exploration of the status of Vanbrugh’s drawings and how they relate to Hawksmoor’s. Vanbrugh’s drawings were done at speed as outline sketches of ideas, often for small buildings, particularly at the end of his life. But the two he did of Castle Howard probably provide the best clue as to why he was commissioned to design it. He was able to convey the character of the building, if not its detail, in exactly the way that modern architects do – for example, David Chipperfield in his initial outline sketch of Hepworth Wakefield.

Vanbrugh: The Drama of Architecture – BSECS

Rory Fraser and I were on the first ten minutes of Front Row tonight – link as below – talking about Vanbrugh: the multifariousness of his talents; Rory on his plays; me on how and why he became an architect – I wish we knew; Rory on the role of the Kit-Cat Club and how modern he was; me on the exhibition at the Soane Museum and the glories of the three watercolour drawings of Blenheim done by Soane’s assistants to illustrate his lectures.

The exhibition closes on June 28th. so it’s more than half way through.  Do please go if you haven’t already.  And there are still lots of events planned for Vanbrugh300, including a conference in Durham on July 8th. on Vanbrugh’s work in the north east.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002w5v4

I haven’t been back to the Faith Museum since it opened in October 2023 and was impressed how well it has worn: dense displays downstairs and then an amazing Matt Collishaw installation in the beautiful, grand space upstairs – all of it contained in Níall McLaughlin’s stone wigwam/tent:-

The V&A organised an excellent, wide-ranging conference to commemorate the many activities of Peter Thornton, who was Keeper of the Furniture and Woodwork Department at the V&A from 1966 to 1984, when he went to be (part-time) Curator of the Soane Museum from 1984 to 1995. 

What came across was how dynamic he he had been: pioneering the study of upholstery when an Assistant Keeper in the Department of Textiles; installing the V&A’s collection of musical instruments on a mezzanine in the costume court, with a jukebox playing historic recordings (I remember loving this); pioneering the study of inventories and the re-display of Ham and Osterley; editing the series of studies of furniture for Faber & Faber, including himself translating Svend Eriksen’s Early Neo-Classicism in France. 

And his impressive internationalism, bilingual in English and Danish, serving in army intelligence in Austria after the war, always documenting his explanations with drawing, in touch with furniture experts in France, Holland, Stockholm and the USA.

There are surprisingly few pictures of him:-

I have been allowed a sneak preview of Sarah Ainslie’s admirable and moving photographs of women at work in East London in an expectation that I might know and recognise some of them.

Pauline Forster has been fighting a valiant campaign to save the George Tavern on Commercial Road:-

And I was at university with Diane Abbott who I have always liked:-

The book is a fine collection of images of the great range of work women undertake – from priests to striptease artists.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/sarah-ainslies-women-at-work-book