Aside from endless design ideas, last summer’s trip to Finland has yielded a several part series at Atlanic Onlines’ Food Blog, starting today. The Atlantic posts will be ongoing for the next few weeks and will be mostly food-centric – woven through with cool design – until we get to the home of a Finnish farmer and an island shack that will knock you out…(we’ll post those stories here as well). In the meantime here are some examples of Finland’s wonderful everyday design, starting with the Alvar Aalto stools stacked by a snack stand in Helsinki’s outdoor market by the port, set up under bright orange-red tents..
Helsinki’s Metro trains are painted that same amazing orange-red (vivid color being an instant antidote to the very long, dark winter)…
One of our favorite buildings in Helsinki: Lasipalatsi (Crystal Palace) that is home to a wonderful restaurant by the same name (one the top floor – looking out over a bustling boulevard), and a farmer’s market featuring nothing but LOCAL Finnish products. Built in the 1930’s, it is considered a fine example of functionalist architecture. We LOVE those yellow awnings…
Just walking down the street in Helsinki we stumbled upon wonderful design elements, like these “window shades” at the Design Museum:
Even signage in Helsinki is pretty awesome…
Not to mention this napkin with a buttonhole at Savoy, the restaurant where the room and just about everything in it was designed by Alvar Aalto;
*Orange Metro photo via Creative Commons License.
bless you, neat website
in what way to make blog posts that will smash in people:
http://tinyurl.com/ykyfxyy
Finland is a beautiful country, I’ve lived there two years, and my husband is from there. I’ve started a Finnish food blog, cookingfinland.blogspot.com to chronicle the traditional Finnish foods, as we introduce them to our children.
Wishing you big success with your blog. I was amazed at the incredible ingredients I found in Finland…you are luck to have them to cook with…