Aboutadmin2019-05-31T14:19:49+01:00

· KÄRÄJÄKIVET ·

“Käräjäkivet” is a periodical publication of thought and criticism that was born from a wider project developed around a proposal which was never accomplished, concerning the Saivaara Monument, elaborated in 1978 by the legendary Finnish artist Tapio Wirkkala.

“In 1975, the President Urho Kekkonen expressed as his wish that his monument should be placed in northwestern Lapland, on the Saivaara mountain. […] How to make a monument on a site that is naturally so beautiful that one cannot take away anything from it, neither is man able to add anything to it? Tapio Wirkkala ended up with a proposal in which all the materials of the monument have been picked from the mountain itself.
The monument consists of a straight, paved, almost imperceptible path crossing over the Saivaara mountain. Five stones will be raised from the mountainside to the summit of the mountain, […]. These stones will form a circle, similar to the court venue stones of the old days [called in Finnish as “Käräjäkivet”], on which the wise men of the village got together in order to decide about common matters.

The one who has the strength to climb up the stony path may sit on these stones, look at the landscape and think.
This artless monument is not going to change or destroy the landscape.”

Tapio Wirkkala Rut Bryk Foundation Archive, 1978

In this sense, this publication intends to accomplish, not in form but in content, the idea of Tapio Wirkkala for the Saivaara Monument: the creation of a place where men of all races and colors can gather together to think.

For that purpose, an online platform was created where different invited authors gather together through texts, illustrated and edited in small booklets, expressing their thoughts on architecture, art and culture in general, with the Saivaara Monument as the main driver.

Based in Portugal, it is published, as a general rule, every quarter, by adding a new text that can be viewed or downloaded online.

Käräjäkivet

Finnish word meaning “court stones” or “circle of stones”: places of judgment (originally iron age graves), where judgments were held and justice carried out, accordingly to the Finnish National Board of Antiquities.

In the ancient times, they were important places where the primitive leaders of the North got together in order to discuss and decide about common matters.

· TECHNICAL DATA ·

PUBLICATION NAME:

Käräjäkivet

DIRECTORS, COORDINATORS AND EDITORS:

Márcia Nascimento · Nuno Costa

EDITION:

Márcia Nascimento · Nuno Costa. Architects

LANGUAGE:

English

LANGUAGE ADVISORY AND TRANSLATIONS:

Ana Catarina Mesquita

GRAPHIC DESIGN CONCEPT:

Miguel Peixoto – Design.
Márcia Nascimento · Nuno Costa

KÄRÄJÄKIVET SITE PHOTOGRAPH:

SUPPORT:

Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation

· AUTHORS ·

Márcia Nascimento

Nuno Costa

Márcia Nascimento (b. 1982), Nuno Costa (b. 1984).

They have a Degree in Architecture from the University of Minho (DAA-UM, 2007) and a Master Degree from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC, 2009).

Since then, they run their activity as architects developing their own works from which should be underlined the project Tapio Wirkkala’s Saivaara Monument, awarded with grants, among others, from the Arts Council of Finland (TAIKE, 2014) and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG, 2017).

They are co-founders of Käräjäkivet (2019, onwards).

Juhani Pallasmaa

Juhani Pallasmaa (born 1936), is a Finnish architect, educator and writer who has worked, taught and lectured in several countries since the 1960’s. His design works extends from town planning and architecture to exhibition, product and graphic design and artistic work. His interests as a writer range from architectural theory to anthropology, cultural philosophy to animal architecture, and art criticism to cinematic expression. His work and writings have been published widely in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia.

Books by Juhani Pallasmaa include:

Animales arquitectos: el funcionalismo ecológico de las construcciones animales (Lanzarote 2001); The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema (Helsinki 2001); Alvar Aalto – Villa Mairea 1938-39 (Hesinki 1998); The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses (London 1996); The Melnikov House (London 1996); Animal Architecture (Helsinki 1995) and; Language of Wood (Helsinki 1987).

Juhani Pallasmaa’s awards include:

Finland State Award 2000; The UIA Jean Tschumi Prize for Architectural Criticism 1999; Fritz Schumacher Prize for Architecture, Germany 1997; Russian Federation Architecture Award 1996; Helsinki City Culture Award 1993 and Finnish State Award for Architecture 1992.