April 23: Southern Finland tour – Åbo Akademi
Adjacent to the cathedral is the campus of Åbo Akademi (Turku Academy), the only Swedish-language university in Finland. We toured several of its buildings.
The library, a fine classic-modern building with some details that evoke Stockholm. It was designed by Erik Bryggman, a Turku native, more of whose work we will shortly see, and it was completed in 1935.
A view back to the cathedral.
Well-crafted stairs.
Back outside: most of the cathedral.
The Sibelius Museum, a very interesting building designed by Woldemar Baeckman in the 1960s.
The auditorium area, which is flanked by exhibit halls, has this mushroom-like structure.
The clerestory windows provide nice daylight.
Cool stairwell too.
SYNTHESIZER ROOM :3
Reflected daylight on concrete, a definite strength of Nordic architecture.
Moving on to the Arken complex, an infill project of older buildings, as you can see. It houses a varied program, including auditorium(s?), offices, and cafeteria, and probably a lot more.
The central auditorium is surrounded by a curious chain-mail screen.
Down the links.
A cleanly-detailed skyway.
A cleanly-detailed link.
VOOOM
Old-school cobblestyle.
Back to the cathedral.