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· 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 · Isidra Mencos · Nuno Costa

GRAPHIC DESIGN CONCEPT:

Miguel Peixoto – Design.
Márcia Nascimento · Nuno Costa

KÄRÄJÄKIVET SITE PHOTOGRAPH:

SUPPORT:

Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation

· AUTHORS ·

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.

Le Corbusier

1887 – (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) born 6 October at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

1923 – Builds the little house “Le Lac” at Corseaux on Lake Geneva for his parents.

1925 – Builds Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau (Paris) and the Pessac housing estate near Bordeaux.

1928 – Founder member of CIAM (Congrés Internationaux d’architecture moderne) at the castle of La Sarraz, in Switzerland.

1929 – Works on the Villa Savoye (Poissy), the Mundaneum and urbanism in South America.

1930 – Works on urban designs for Algiers and studies for “Ville Radieuse”.

1943 – Publishes the Charte d’Athènes (Athens Charter).

1944 – Works on the Unités d’Habitation, Marseilles.

1948 – Works on La Sainte-Baume Project.

1950 – Starts working on the Chapel at Ronchamp. Publishes Modulor I, Poèsie sur Alger (Poem on Algiers) and L’Unité d’Habitation de Marseille.

1953 – Builds Dominican Monastery at Sainte Marie de la Tourette (Eveux) and de la Maison du Brésil at Cité Universitaire (Paris) with Lucio Costa.

1965 – On 27 August Le Corbusier dies while swimming at Cap-Martin, France.

Maria Reiche

Born 1903, was a German-born Peruvian Mathematics, Geologist and Pedagogue who went to Peru in 1932 to work as a teacher in the house of the German consul in Cuzco. After two years in Cuzco she moved to Lima, where she met the American specialist for ancient irrigation systems – Dr. Paul Kosok.

In December 1941 Maria travelled the first time to Nazca. Dr. Kosok had asked her to take a look at the strange, dead straight depressions in the desert, which look like lines. At first he thought these were irrigation ditches, but then he suspected that it is an astronomical calendar installation.

She started her research work in the desert of Nazca in 1946. In the first days of June 1946 she found a stylized drawing of a spider between the lines. Little by little she discovered more and more of the geoglyphs, but at the beginning it was not her main task. With measuring tape, sextant and compass, later also with a theodolite she measured almost 1000 lines and investigated them for their astronomical orientation.

She investigated the Nazca drawings for more than 40 years.

From 1955 she fought in many ways for the protection of the Nazca Lines. Forty years after in 1995 the Nazca Lines were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Maria Reiche died on June 8, 1998 and was buried near Nazca with official honors.

Carlos Puente

Born in Bilbao in 1944. Architect graduated at ETSAM in 1972. Until 1979, collaborated with Alejandro de la Sota.

He was professor at ETSAM from 1996 to 2009, and visiting professor at other architecture schools.

His work has been subject of various exhibitions and publications in different countries, and obtained different awards and distinctions, among which should be highlighted:

1987: The Architecture Prize of the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid (COAM) for the City Council of Valdelaguna.

1991: The García Mercadal Prize of the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Aragón (COAA) for the Zaragoza Library.

1994: The European Community “Europa Nostra” Medal and Diploma for the Restoration of the Palacio de Linares in Madrid.

1994: The European Community “Europa Nostra” Medal and Diploma for the Restoration of the Casa de las Conchas of Salamanca.

1996: The IberFAD “Alejandro de la Sota” Prize for the Ciempozuelos House of Culture (Madrid).

In 2008 Arquia published his “commonplace book”, Idas y vueltas.

He currently lives in Finland.