Helsinki: The Design Capital of the World

This morning we went for a walk through Helsinki’s Design District.  Helsinki was named the World Design Capital for 2012.  As usual our daily promenade started off at the Espaladin Park which is just outside our hotel.  It was still dark so all the Christmas lights could be seen.  The park had a fairylike feel to it.

 

We walked onwards to what we call the Stockmann building.  The building is beautifully decorated with Christmas lights and the architecture is typical of the Swedish influence on Finland.

 

THE CENTRAL RAILWAY STATION

The next stop was the Central Railway Station.  This huge building is one of Helsinki’s most recognisable landmarks.  The entire building was built with granite blocks and was opened in 1919.  Four giant granite figures with round lamps in their hands stand next to the entrance.  Trains leave this station for all parts of Finland and also connect to Russia.  Underneath the station is the underground Metro station.

 

THE HELSINKI NATIONAL THEATRE

The theatre was built in 1902 in the National Romantic style.  The theatre has three main stages.  At least 10 new shows are premiered each year of which all are, as a tradition, in the Finnish language.

 

THE SWEDISH THEATRE

The Swedish Theatre has an interesting past.  The first theatre was constructed from wood in 1827.  The building soon became too small, was torn down and a bigger one was rebuilt in 1860.  Three years later the theatre was destroyed by fire.  The building as seen today was designed and built by a Russian architect in 1866 in the Neoclassical style.  Productions are mainly in Swedish with actors coming from Sweden.

 

THE DESIGN HOTEL KLAUS K

This is not a very interesting building but apparently very important in the design circles.  It was recently changed from early National Romantic style to a more contemporary lifestyle look. 

 

THE DESIGN EERO AARNIO BUILDING

Inside this building is a history of Finnish furniture design.  The famous futuristic solid plastic see through chair was born here.

KOMIKULMAA PARK

This park is almost in the middle of the Design Centre of Helsinki.  A bronze statue by the Finnish sculptor Yrjö Liipola was erected here in 1928.  It is of the Finnish Forest Goddess Tellervo.

 

THE DESIGN FORUM FINLAND BUILDING

Just next to Komikulmaa Park is found the Design Forum Finland building.  The building was completed in 1875 and is maintained by the Finnish Society of Crafts and Design.

KOULUPUISTIKKO PARK
In the middle of this small park we found a bronze sculpture seen in the picture below.  It is of the writer Zacharias Topelius surrounded by children as he is telling them a story.  He is famous for having written the libretto for the first Finnish opera, “Kung Karls Jakt”.

 

THE HAVIS AMANDA STATUE

We had a job to do for the day.  We had to clean and organise Alex’s office at the Embassy.  On our way there we came across the Havis Amanda statue.  It was sculpted in 1908 in Paris and then transported to Helsinki.  In the middle is a nude figure which some Finns consider controversial (considering the placement of her hand).  The poor naked lady is oddly decorated with a christmas “doughnut” around her neck.  On May Day celebrations university students place a student cap on top of the statue's head.

 

Now follow a few more pictures taken during the day.

This is Alex in his new and sparkling clean office.

This is a photo of Alex trying to lose his tongue (silly!!).

This is Alex touching a mini glacier.

 

This is an amazing photo of a duck surviving the cold weather.

 

These two photos are of a part of the Port of Helsinki starting to freeze.

 

The next two photos are of a part of the Port of Helsinki that has already frozen solid.

 

Everywhere we walk we come across cars that have been snowed in.  Dirkie has already uploaded some photos of these cars on previous posts, so this is a final collage.

 

This car has an interesting attachment that can be very useful! (Maybe in Johannesburg's traffic as well!!)

 

And the best photo of all!  OUR CAR!!!  It was Rudi’s car that we bought from him.  We can’t drive it yet as we still need to organise registration and insurance.  It will take about a week to sort it out.  Hence Dirkie will have to do some digging…..more and more and more snow is predicted.....