Finland living design

Elisabeth Gaynor


Fine condition, hardcover book
Saara Hopea, Risto-Matti Ratia, Armi Ratia Bökars, Heikki ja Kaija Siren, Yrjö Kukkapuro, Antti ja Vuokko Nurmesniemi..... and others homes or country homes and lots of more 250 pages

From the northern wilderness of Europe, Finland has quietly established a worldwide reputation as a leader in twentieth-century architecture and design. As a meeting ground between East and West, Finland has felt cultural influences from both Russia and Sweden. The result is a rich blending of designs that emerges to form a distinctively Finnish style. The evolution of this esthetic inheri- tance into a modern design style is traced here against the everpresent Finnish quality of living that depends on simple objects and natural materials, esteem for traditional values and respect for an unspoiled nature. This book is a record through pictures and impressions of a lifestyle from which the Finnish design sense evolved. In 480 photo- graphs, it is a glimpse of the unseen Finland, a place that is still largely a forested terrain with houses and cottages tucked in near lakes, down narrow lanes. It is a look into the private domains of a very private people. Thirty-seven homes-private houses, apartments in modern city blocks and renovated turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau style buildings, all lived in today-show innovative and well-detailed furnishings in a variety that reflects the tastes of each owner. It gives a feeling of sauna-much more than just a cleansing ritual-Midsummer, dark and long winter nights and summer days that last virtually twentyfour hours. Seen also are collections by celebrated designers of old and new objects: functional furniture, colorful textiles, timeless glass, ceramics, cutlery and crafts. It was the work of such great architects and designers as Eliel Saarinen, Alvar Aalto, Tapio Wirkkala, Yrjö Kukkapuro and many others, who in the decades following World War II, won prestigious awards that has made modern Finnish design internationally admired and respected. Here is an attempt to communicate the spirit of living design in a country known for excellence in crafts and industrial design...a place where simple objects today are made by sophisticated methods, but where people still trust their senses and accept and appreciate the ways of nature. FOREWORD Finland is one of the world's Meccas of modern design. As a journalist specializing in this field, I made several trips there to report on trends. Members of the design community have come to recognize and expect high quality in furniture, textiles, glass, ceramics, cutlery, crafts, plastics, machinery and even toys from this part of the world over the last thirty years. In the decade following World War II, Finnish designers quietly produced some of the most original, beautifully scaled and well-detailed home furnishings, objects that were fresh but at the same time human. That some special esthetic was operative had been demonstrated in architecture earlier in the century by Eliel Saarinen and Alvar Aalto, two Finns whose reputations on the international scene were by then well established. By the 1970s so many of the categories in which Finns had pioneered were integrated into contemporary design vocabulary that the impact of their contribution was cushioned by popular acceptance. Graphic cotton fabrics by Marimekko won immediate approval among architects, fashionconscious women and even students who could afford only a yard of the material to stretch and hang on their walls. Designs for stackable dishes and glasses, and cookware that was handsome enough to move from oven to table, all became kitchen staples by the 1950s. Other recognizable symbols of good Finnish design were now at home anywhere: the orangehandled scissors with a perfect cutting edge, birch and pine furniture, clean modular upholstery, rya rugs. Sauna, a Finnish way of bathing that dates back two thousand years, came to be sought after as much for its physical and psychological benefits as for the thorough cleansing it gives. Another Finnish contribution to American life-the log cabin-was making a comeback as a desirable, country style house. Trips to Finland reacquainted me with the general excellence of articles that originated there. But the real reward of these forays was the chance to experience the way of living from which the esthetic emerged. A way of sensing of seeing, touching and perceiving-had as much to do with the fine look and valid function of Finnish architecture and design as had sound logic. Hundreds of years of virtual isolation had taught people to trust their senses, to rely on the work of their hands, to accept and appreciate the ways of nature. Today Finland enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world. it was a developing nation that developed in the twentieth century-but did not lose its esteem for traditional values, for the unspoiled environment, for a sense of close community. Two Finnish words come to mind to explain the success of this rite of passage: Sisu is a kind of stamina or willingness to stick it out that characterizes both the family that weathers the long arctic night in a carefully constructed log house, as well as the designer patient enough to devise the perfect grip and spout for a coffeepot. Sointu means harmony or balance, and typifies the care with which a new house is planned so as not to ruin the natural surroundings, or the restraint with which a piece of fine glassware or furniture is articulated that gives it timeless appeal. This book is a record through pictures and impressions of a lifestyle, at its best, from which the design sense evolved. It is a glimpse of the unseen Finland, a place that is still largely a forested terrain with country houses tucked in near lakes, down dirt lanes. It is a look into the private homes of a very private people: the renovated turn-of-the-century apartment buildings with simplified Art Nouveau touches, the city houses with inner courtyards or views to the sea, the manor houses of wood with provincial furniture and simply manicured grounds. It gives a taste of sauna, Midsummer, the candlelit dark days of winter-those rituals so characteristically Finnish-and a view of old and new objects for which Finland is celebrated. Here is an attempt to communicate the spirit of living design in a country known for excellence in that area--a place where simple objects are made by sophis- ticated methods and where a sophisticated architect like Alvar Aalto could explain one of his motifs in the simplest way...from the trim on his mother's bloomers.