I’m starting this post with a punch.

I got my Architecture degree 24 years ago and it took me all these years to finally visit a building designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto.

As an Architecture student, I spent many hours researching in the faculty’s library, passionately going through thousands of images and drawings from projects designed by renowned Architects.

Then I got my degree, got a job, started working. And all of a sudden that passion from the past evaporated, the memories of those projects left buried somewhere in the back of my brain.

Yet every now and then when I travel the opportunity comes to revisit these projects, no longer in books from the faculty’s library – but in real life.

And I can feel that passion again.

Even though I’ve been working as a Project Manager for the past 20+ years, representing the project owner. I’m no longer a designer and spend most of my time discussing budget, project progress, operation requirements and boring stuff like this.

But deep inside, I know I’m still an Architect because the passion is still with me.

Anyway.

With the three photos above from the “Finlandia Hall” in Helsinki, designed by AIvar Aalto, I made a somehow sarcastic Facebook post:

Truly Scandinavian:

🇫🇮 from Alvar Aalto

🇫🇮 in Helsinki

🇸🇪 shot by Hasselblad ( 🇨🇳 )

(In case you miss the joke, Hasselblad is now owned by DJI from Shenzhen, China).

China or Sweden, to me it’s irrelevant because nothing will change the fact that the Hasselblad 907x 100c is an excellent camera.

And walking around Helsinki, taking photos with it, it’s a real joy.

Talking of joy, another one from Alvar Aalto. The controversial building in Helsinki known as the “Sugar Cube”, completed in 1962.

I’d decided to convert these to black and white because they look good to me this way.

Back in the days I would take black and white copies from the books. I realized without the distraction from colours I could better appreciate the space and the geometry of the buildings.

But for the detail of the marble façade and the wood window frames in this building, colour is necessary.

And the Hasselblad captured it beautifully.

* All photos shot with Hasselblad 907x 100c with XCD 4/28P lens. Post-processed to taste using Phocus 2 app in iOS.