2010-01-08.The house was visited by photographer/architect Matti A. Kallio, who took a nice evening shot of the house. We are ready for the press conference on the 14th of january!
2010-01-01. The house looks into the new decade from a fairy tale winter landscape. It is mind blowing to think that we started planning ten years ago!
2009-12-29. This winter we have exceptionally much snow. The yellow colour of the house looks nice against the white snow.
2009-12-21. Jan-Erik glues the sound proof glass, shielding Yuichiro Nishizawa work, a slit in the wall of Adrian’s room, shaped like a pine needle.
2009-12-20. We now start to understand why experienced builders told us to make the house completely ready before we move in. Now when we already live in it, we have big difficulties to motivate ourselves to do all the unfinished things. Here Jan-Erik is fastening the last full spectrum tubes for the light fixtures to be installed under the beams, which keep up the roof.
2009-12-06. Adrian likes to make expeditions up to the top of the mountain behind the house. From there you get a nice view of the house.
2009-12-04. Welders from the Saarenhovi metal workshop attach the last ornate panels in connection with the staircase. They keep people from falling down.
2009-11-28. Artist Susanna Peijari finishes her work under the concrete bridge.
2009-11-25.The new fabric, designed by Johanna Kunelius, for the sofa in the living room has arrived and ?? is sewing bags to put over the old sofa.
2009-11-22. Jan-Erik is taking away old paint from the swing which has been standing in the garden for some years. We are going to paint it red and place the whole swing, with attached tables and cupboard, inside the living room.
2009-11-17. Artist Pertti Toikkanen, has made a hat lamp with dried wheat for the kitchen.
2009-11-16. Jan-Erik makes the ornate linoleum floor in his studio space for computer work on the second floor.
2009-11-13.The ornate linoleum floor on the second floor is ready. The pattern, using computer cut triangle and square shaped pieces, was designed as a collaboration between Jan-Erik and Matilda Ekman.
2009-11-11. The house was chosen as one of the 52 most creative ideas of the year. The ideas were displayed as big playing cards exhibited among other in TAIK, the University of Applied Arts in Helsinki.
2009-10-29. The work on the kitchen table in three parts started five years ago. Now two of them are ready and Jan-Erik finally gets to make the top layer with acrylate varnish.
2009-10-02. The Polish curator and artist Agnieszka Wolodzko talks with Aino-Maria Niemelä. Wolodzko stays for a few nights to experience the spirit of the house. The house will be presented in an exhibition, Living Space – an Unusual Experience, in the Laznia Art Center in Gdansk in the autumn of 2010.
2009-09-28. Aino-Maria Niemelä helps to glue the ornate linoleum pieces on the floor in the first floor.
2009-09-15. A new Nest structure is being built outside of the house with help from art students from the Turku Art Academy.
2009-08-28. The experience to spend the first nights in the house is extraordinary. For example to walk up a few steps to the sleeping loft enjoying all the iconic views constantly changing. This is certainly an iconic space.
2009-08-15.The well known performance artist Reijo Kela makes a surprise performance.
2009-08-15. Johanna from La Caffettiera serves cake.
2009-08-15. Jan-Erik, Marjo and Adrian cut the first piece from the leaf shaped cake, specially made for the occasion by Johanna and Samuli from La Caffettiera. We are flanked by the Ladies club, a performance group from Jakobstad.
2009-08-15. Finally, after ten years since the planning started, we can move into the house.We have got permission to move into the house by the city officials although there are still some unfinished details. The opening speeches are held by Jan-Erik, Marjo and Robert Powell (translated by Susanna Peijari). The visitors are all kinds of people involved in the building process from electricians to construction planners.
2009-08-14. A lot of people help to clean up left over construction timber from the surroundings of the house before the opening party. Susanna Peijari, Aino-Maria NIemelä and Huey Powell, who came over from UK for this occasion, enjoy a break.
2009-08-14. The day before the opening party. The poet and director of the Beam center, Robert Powell, together with Adrian check the still unfinished–and plastic wrapped–one third of the kitchen dining table.
2009-08-13. We are celebrating the installation of Frank Brummel’s concrete table, a part of his art work for the house. From left to right; Marjo, Owen Powell, Susanna Peijari, Aino-Maria Niemelä, Frank and his children Noah and Jule.
2009-08-13. Ilkka Pekanheimo from AD-Lux, who has been a consultant for planning the full spectrum fluorescent daylight system in the house, checks which bulb would suit one of the fixtures.
2009-08-13. Kimmo Landell from Lasiluoto glass company installs the mirror in the entrance hall so the poem by Robert Powell on the inside of the entrance door can be read.
2009-08-12. Owen Powell helps artist Frank Brummel with the mounting of the concrete table, a part of his art work for the house.
2009-08-11. Marjo paints the shelf/wall for the sleeping loft on the second floor.
2009-08-11. The poet Alice George from Chicago helps to finish the ornamentation for the floor. She wrote a poem about the working rush before the grand opening party. The poem – to be found and read –is printed on a sheet of paper and stuck into on of the constructional holes in the concrete walls on the first floor.
2009-08-08. Owen Powell installs his father’s, Robert Powell’s, poem for the house on the inside of the entrance door. The poem can only be read through the mirror on the opposite wall.
2009-08-08. Marjo helps sound artist Shawn Decker to install the wind sensor for his sound work.
2009-07-21. The plumbing is made by Kautonen.
2009-07-20. The curved metal plates are made by Paappanen.
2009-07-19. The Bluebell is an excellent place to have a break.
2009-07-17. A great moment! The builders Heinonen and Juvonen have finished the facade. From left to right; Marjo, Heikki Heinonen, Susanna Peijari, Esa Juvonen and Adrian.
2009-07-15. Susanna Peijari is spray painting the shelf/wall for the sleeping loft on the second floor.
2009-07-14. We are making the fixtures for the fluorescent lights which will run under the 14 meters long gluelam beam carrying the roof in the center of the house.
2009-07-11. After a year of planning, computer designing and printing into laminate, Karin Andersen’s art work for the table top in the kitchen is finally installed. Jan-Erik is spreading silicon in the seam between the table top and the kitchen wall.
2009-07-09. The structure for the front door stairs arrive from the Saarenhovi metal workshop, supervised by the manager Kari Suominen.
2009-07-08. Jan-Erik and Adrian are painting Jan-Erik’s working table for the third floor studio space.
2009-07-07. The builders Heinonen and Juvonen are working with the last part of the facade.
2009-07-04. Jan-Erik works to finish artist Karin Andersen’s work for the table top in the kitchen.
2009-07-03. Artist Susanna Peijari is helping to make the mosaic work for the toilet on the second floor.
2009-06-23. Artist Frank Brummel continues his work for the house consisting of the concrete stone flooring in the front of the main entrance and a table made of different concrete mixtures. Now it is the table’s turn to be made.
2009-07-02. There is a lot of fine tuning to get all the undone parts done. Here Jan-Erik is scratching away mastic to be able to apply silicon.
2009-07-02. Artist Karin Andersen’s work for the table top in the kitchen arrives. Her artwork, designed in Photoshop, has been laminated in USA by iZone. Now we wil have to glue it on the pre sawn wooden table.
2009-07-01. Most of the 26 light fixtures which make up Jan-Erik’s light installation are installed. Marjo paints the final layers of concrete paint on the floor.
2009-06-22. Jaakko Kallio makes the water insulation for the floor in the toilet on the second floor.
2009-06-19. The triangles and squares, computer cut in linoleum, which we will use to make the pattern for the floor surfaces on the second and third floors, have arrived. Unfortunately many of them are badly cut, so we cannot get the floors done. New carpets have to be ordered from Holland and it will take weeks before they can be cut.
2009-06-19. Adrian helps Marjo to paint the floor in his room. He chose the color himself, police-blue of course.
2009-06-12. A lot of painstakingly slow work is needed to get all the surfaces cleaned for the opening of the house. Here Jan-Erik is getting rid of dozens of stickers on the vent pipe.
2009-06-11. Adrian helps to clean the dirty toilet stool. This like all the other toilets stools and wash basins are bought from recycling centers.
2009-06-10. The house is visited by well known Estonian artist Leonhard Lapin who is also teaching architecture in Tallinn.
2009-06-05. The jig saw is needed to make ornaments in plywood around the electrical switches.
2009-05-31.Jan-Erik makes molds and does the concret work for a lot of small structures inside the jhouse.
2009-05-30. Marjo is in a hurry to paint the second and third layers of paint on the outer wall of the computer studio on the third floor, before the scaffolding will be demounted.
2009-05-27. A lot of energy goes to finding old light fixtures to get the right touch for the bathroom and the toilet.
2009-05-27. Jan-Erik is trying his skills as a carpenter by making a bench, a table for the wash basin and a support structure under the bathtub.
2009-05-21. Jukka Salonen is installing the chimney top designed by Jan-Erik. The design is inspired by the chimney tops in Venice.
2009-05-18. To get the right scale for the ornaments, test versions in plywood are made in different sizes.
2009-05-18. The builders Esa Juvonen and Heikki Heinonen relax on Trudi Entwistle’s apple-heart sculpture/bench in the spring sun.
2009-05-11. Marjo is doing most of the painting work inside the house. Here she is using a special brush to avoid the brush marks.
2009-05-01. During the first of May partying some partygoers vandalized Trudi Entwistle’s apple heart-sculptures. Fortunately the damage is rather easy to repair.
2009-04-30. Marjo is cleaning the windows of the Bluebell winter garden. Left over wood protecting liquid, from sheltering of the roof of the Bluebell, has flowed down and stuck to the windows. A lot of effort is needed to get it off.
2009-04-28. Half of the house is ready except for the ornamentation.
2009-04-16. Esa Juvonen.
2009-04-16.
2009-04-16. Jan-Erik makes a try out in cardboard for the ornamentation on the outside of the house. The ornament will be computer cut in metal and placed 10 cm in front of the wooden surface close to the roof.
2009-04-16. Artist Susanna Peijari makes the floor tiling for the bath room following Andersson’s design. The green and brown plates are planned to create connotations to a grassy small island with sandy shores.
2009-04-14. Artist Frank Brummel makes the mold for the outdoor concrete table he is planning as a part of his art work in front of the entrance to the house.
2009-04-09. Jaakko Kallio makes the water insulation for the bathroom floor. To get this done properly professional help is needed.
2009-04-07. Artist Susanna Peijari works in the house for five weeks. She is taking a degree in interior design and this is her practice period.
2009-03-23. The workers Esa Juvonen and Heikki Heinonen begins the work with the outside panelling though it is still cold and snowy.
2009-03-08. The wooden shelves, which function as a half open wall to the loft, are installed. They still need to be painted. The ornate metal railings, which will include Shawn Decker’s sound installation, are fastened to the concrete bridge. The dimmable lights under the roof beams function beautifully.
2009-02-12. Esa Juvonen nails the plywood sheets onto the wall structure in Marjo’s room.
2009-02-18. Electrician Mauri Karlin fastens the dimmer system for the full spectrum daylight tubes under the Kerto wooden beams. They will be covered by ornate wooden leaves, designed by Jan-Erik.
2009-02-25. The metal workers Jimmy Lindroos (left) and Jermu Hakanen (right) from Saarenhovi metal workshop are welding the parts for the spiral staircase together on site. The pattern on the ornate plates is designed by Jan-Erik. As pictorial elements he is using electrical plug-ins and stars.
2009-02-11. The manager of the Saarenhovi metal workshop, Kari Suominen, is studying the process.
2009-01-21. Jan-Erik improvises a Dragon or Sea monster in mosaic.
2009-01-22. The whole family is having fun! Adrian designs a robot, who is firing a laser gun underneath Jan-Erik’s airplane.
2009-02-01. The inner walls are ready, except for two layers of additional white paint.
2009-02-11. The structure for the walls in Marjo’s and Adrian’s rooms on the second floor is being built.
2009-01-02. Artist Susanna Peijari helps to make the mosaic work in the bathroom. The idea is to make a landscape with trees growing from the grass with the sea and the setting sun in the background. Then we improvise a surreal happening in the setting,
2009-01-19. While Jan-Erik will take care of the “yellow” part of the mosaic work Marjo will do her own, more minimal mostly black and white, scenery around the door opening.
2009-01-08. The builders Heinonen & Juvonen begin to make the inside wall paneling. In the front part of the house we use a material, wooden finger panel, common in Finland in the 50:ties.
2009-01-019. Marjo has done a huge amount of work painting all the wooden wall panels. The builders skills are tested in applying the panels to the walls, which curve both vertically and horizontally. The result is precise and beautiful.
2008-12-08. Jukka Salonen has just finished the installation of the pipe and teach us how the owen functions. An emotional moment; the first fire!
2008-12-19. Jan-Erik is frying the first steak in the half ready kitchen. We are celebrating that the Bluebell winter garden on the top of the roof finally is ready. Today Heininen and Juvonen removed the scaffolding built outside around the top of the Bluebell.
2008-12-19. The meal is ready and the builders Heikki Heinonen (left) and Esa Juvonen (middle) together with Marjo (right) and Jan-Erik can start eating.
2008-12-19. Marjo is painting the ornamental leafs, designed and sawn by Jan-Erik, which will cover the electical equipments fastened on the wooden beams under the roof.
2008-11-05. The builders Heinonen and Juvonen make the floor for the Bluebell winter garden.
2008-11-20. The builders Heinonen and Juvonen make the floor for the computer studio on the second floor. The studio ends in the Bluebell winter garden.
2008-12-01. The roof makers from Protan make a layer of Protan plastic on the floor of the Bluebell winter garden. To be sure that if condensed water falls from the glasses down on the floor (in case the water easily make damage in the roof construction) we have decided to make the floor water secure. The Bluebell winter garden is a half warm space and temperatures can get down below zero during the coldest months, which can make water condense on the windows.
2008-12-08. Jukka Salonen from KM-hormi installs the rain water shelter on the top of the pipe. This part of the pipe is painted green to refer to a stalk on a real Bluebell flower.
2008-09-20. Marjo paints the first layer on the wooden panels for the walls of the ground floor. The reminding two layers will be painted when the panels have been fastened on the walls.
2008-09-20. Jan-Erik prepares the found old iron bathtub for painting. All the toilet seats and washstands in the house are from recycling centers.
2008-10-08. Jukka Salonen and ? from KM-hormi installs the last part of the 13 long pipe. This part, which goes through the Bluebell winter garden, is not ultramarine blue, like the lower part, but reflecting.
2008-10-18. The internationally well know architect and theoretician Juhani Pallasmaa together with the professor in Environmental Art in the University of Art and Design, Markku Hakuri visit the house. They are the opponents in my dissertation for the Ph.D. in visual arts later this autumn.
2008-08-14. It feels great to have the main window installed. It is a different sensation to experience the outdoor nature through a leaf shaped window compared to a rectangular window. This is an important part of my Ph.D. studies; to study (by feeling and seeing) if and how pictorial elements, through their natural forms and symbolism, can mediate and bring in the nature outdoors inside the house. The rectangular window symbolizes a distance from nature and acts more like a camera through which we “take snapshots” of the outside.
2008-08-26. The builders Heinonen and Juvonen are working on the top of the Bluebell winter garden. The final shape of the house is slowly emerging.
2008-08-21.The painter Jan-Kenneth Weckman makes a drawing on the surface of the owen. The four surfaces of the owen act like painting canvases. Weckman is here touching the beginning of art where our ancestors took burned sticks from the fire and started to draw!
2008-08-22. The house project was shown in the Fennofolk exhibition in the Design museum in Helsinki during the summer. Together with the model and a few pictures from the building process, a monitor showed the two live web cams from the site.
2008-07-15. I got the idea to have the ventilation pipe make an extra turn inside the bathroom. Aulis Salminen, who is doing all the ventilation works in the house, realized the idea!
2008-07-15. Artist Susanna Peijari helps to paint the concrete floor in the kitchen.
2008-07-17. Adrian helps to paint the apple-heart bench/scultures in the garden, designed by landscape artist Trudi Entwistle.
2008-08-09. Design student Viktor Nylund has finished the buliding of the shelves/walls for the bed loft on the first floor. He has been working in his father’s workshop in Jakobstad. The shelves will be painted later.
2008-06-19. Artist Susanna Peijari covers the concrete walls with two layers of varnish. We have decided not to paint the concrete with colour. The greyness and rustic feeling of the concrete is needed to create an “earthy” feeling for the ground floor.
2008-06-21. The blue tarpaulin is back again, but only a small piece! We still need it to cover the small roof on the top of the Bluebell winter garden. The three plates with different shades of yellow are try outs for the final colour of the facade.
2008-06-26. The house attracts a lot of visitors. This is a TV crew from Hong Kong Cable TV. They spotted the house on Internet and came to make a program about it.
2008-06-21. We ordered 13 m3 sand to flatten and cover muddy parts o the landscape design around the house. Marjo and Adrian are spreading the sand where it is needed.
2008-06-06. Artist Susanna Peijari helps with the painting of the concrete roofs. Her skills are needed to get a beautifully rounded edge line.
2008-06-12. The installers from Lasiluoto are struggling to install the curved windows into the wooden profiles. Reijo Rasi the manager of the Puutyöliike Rasi, which is responsible for the profiles, is supervising.
2008-06-18. A big moment! The web cam picture shows the builders Heinonen and Juvonen, when they remove the tarpaulin, which has been covering the Bluebell winter garden and the roof for almost two years.
2008-06-18. The builder Esa Juvonen is celebrating the moment when the structure of the Bluebell winter garden is revealed.
2008-05-20. Marjo is grinding off excess concrete from the ornaments on the concrete walls.
2008-05-28. The house was open for the public during a few hours on the Hirvensalo päivät, a festivity arranged by the local Hirvensalo society.
2008-05-29. Bengt Karlsson adds a final touch to the shaping of the earth around the house. We are following landscape artist Trudi Entwistle’s design.
2008-06-05. Artist Jan-Kenneth Weckman and the bricklayer Juha Konkka try out methods for Weckman’s drawing on the surface of the owen.
2008-05-12. Student Jonas Biström helps to dust the plywood walls. We will keep them like this, with two layers of acrylic varnish as a cover.
2008-05-13. The international Nurope research group is keeping a seminar in the house about ways to commercialize the house project, without loosing its artistic credibility, to be able to finance the payback of the loans.
2008-05-20. KImmo Landell from Lasi-luoto installs the windows.
2008-05-20. Marjo fine tunes the border between the plywood wall and the concrete floor. The staircase will be welded around the metal pillar in this space.
2008-03-04. Builder Heikki Heinonen fine tunes the inside of the main leaf shaped window. The inner walls are being prepared for the wooden paneling.
2008-03-28. Marjo is painting the inner roof white and the wooden beams green. Three layers of paint together with taping makes the process last over a month.
2008-04-09. Paappanen makes the sheet metal for all of the windows.
2008-05-05. Jukka Salonen and ? from KM-hormi start to install the 13 meter long pipe. It in coloured ultramarine blue up to the Bluebell winter garden on the third floor.
2008-02-08. A moment we have been waiting for a long time; the floor heating is turned on!
2008-02-09. After the insulation work is finished, there is a lot of cleaning up to be made. Marjo is ready!
2008-02-17. The spraying of the Ekovilla insulation left excess insulation glued to the Kerto-plywood, which has to be removed manually. the work is painstakingly slow and dirty.
2008-02-27. Marjo shows her strength by using the maching for sanding the concrete floors. Thr excess glue needs to be sanded off befor any more works on the floor can be made.
2008-01-15. Builder Esa Juvonen makes the walls around the spiral staircase. We will keep the plywood sheets unpainted, only covered with varnish.
2008-02-04. Student Matilda Ekman makes try outs for the floor ornamentation in the corridor on the second floor.
2008-02-04. Jari Kallio makes the water insulation for the bath room.
2008-02-05. Student Matilda Ekman works on the kitchen table for the Life on a Leaf house in Jan-Erik’s studio.
2007-12-20.This is how the building looks like before the Christmas holiday. This winter is snowless and warm, which is good because the floor heating has not been turned on yet.
2007-12-20. The vertical windows are installed. We still have to wait for the organically shaped windows, though. To keep the heat inside we have put styrofoam sheets in the windows’ place.
2007-12-29. JJ-Villa OY makes the insulation by spraying ekovilla on the walls. Ekovilla is an insulation product made from certain types of newspaper. During the production process, fire retardants are added to the insulation material. The material is used as insulation in roofs, walls and floors. When used for walls, the Ekovilla insulation material is sprayed with hose and an Eko adhesive is added to the material at the same time.
2007-12-12. The vents are installed before the insulation can be done.
2007-11-30. Builder Esa Juvonen installs the heart window.
2007-11-28. The carpenter Saarinen installs the lip shaped window.
2007-12-03. The carpenters Pekka Sopola and Saarinen installing the leaf shaped main window. On the wall are Trudi Entwistle’s Apple sculpture/benches waiting to be painted.
2007-11-30. The carpenter Pekka Sopola installs the leaf shaped main window.
2007-11-11. Adrian helps to paint the wooden window profiles.
2008-1-16.The putty used to fasten the windows need to be sheltered by wooden strips applied on the outside. The strips are painted with one layer of mold resistant liquid and two layers of colour.
2007-11-19. The wooden profiles for the leaf shaped main window.
2007-11-5. The carpenters Pekka Sopola and Saarinen shows the wooden window profiles they have made for the drop shaped window and the Konstantin Melnikov window by bending and gluing veneer sheets.
2007-10-25. Keijo Kallonen and Timo Landell from Lasiluoto first fill the gaps between the windows with loads of black putty and then attach an aluminum plate to keep the windows safely on the structure.
2007-10-27. As soon as the glasses on the Blue bell are on place, the roof cover, Protan plastic, is being put on the roof. The work is done by two experienced Estonians, Marx and Ints. The sheets of plastic are welded together by heating the plastic seam.
2007-10-27.
2007-10-02. Students from the Turku Art Academy helps to assemble the Nest installation close to the house.
2007-10-11. Sopola and Saarinen work on the vertical window frames.
2007-10-15. Sopola and Saarinen make excellent result with the very difficult task of making the curved window profiles.
2007-10-16. Sopola and Saarinen prepare the Blue bell structure for the windows by taping the wooden profiles with aluminum folio tape.
2007-10-19. Finally, the windows arrive! They all fit very well into their individual places.
2007-09-16. The working model of the Life on a Leaf house was exhibited in the WILD – Fantasy and Architecture exhibition in the Turku City Art Museum during the summer of 2007. The exhibition was curated by Jan-Erik Andersson and Jen Budney from the Kamloops Art Gallery.
2007-10-02. The floor heating tubes are installed by Warmia on the ground floor and first floor.
2007-10-02. Marjo Malin is doing the fine tuning before the concrete will be poured on the floor heating tubes. It is important that no part of the plastic fasteners will stick up from the concrete surface, because many parts of the concrete floor will be used as such with only paint on.
2007-10-08. The Danish artist group N55’s Microdwelling (www.n55.de), a single person’s house, is transported to the building site from the Turku City Art Museum, where it has been a part of the WILD – Fantasy and Architecture exhibition during the summer of 2007. Now it will be a guest house for people visiting the Life on a Leaf house.
2007-08-20. Timo Landell from the Lasiluoto Glass company makes templates for the glass windows on the Blue bell structure.
2007-08-27. The German artist Frank Brummel, who is a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki, makes his own Bee dance work in concrete stones in front of the main entrance.
2007-08-27. Artist Markku Haanpää helps by painting the ornamented base of the building.
2007-09-04. Finally the roof is ready. Builder Heikki Heinonen enjoys the excellent result. But the Protan plastic roof cover cannot be installed before the work to put on the windows on the Blue bell structure is finished.
2007-07-25. Adrian paints the floor of the small building orange. In the hardware store they looked suspiciously at me when I bought the colour wondering why I wanted to paint the floor “carrot red”!
2007-08-12. The house was a part of the WILD – Fantasy and Architecture exhibition in the Turku City Art Museum during the summer of 2007. Every second weekend tours were arranged by the museum to the building site. Here is one of the guides, Mikaela Lostedt (fourth from the left), with a group of visitors.
2007-08-07. The carpenter Pekka Sopola from Puutyöliike Rasi makes the demanding and painstakingly slow work to create wooden profiles for the windows on the blue bell structure.
2007-08-08. Student Owen Powell from Wakefield, UK helps to prepare for painting the roof of the computer studio behind the blue bell.
2007-06-29.The building consultant Veijo Honka discusses new wooden solutions for the fastening of the windows on the blue bell winter garden on the roof of the house with Lilja from Lasiluoto glass manufactory and carpenter Rasi from Puutyöliike Rasi.The earlier method, using aluminum profiles, turned out to be too expensive.
2007-03-14. The builders Heikki Heinonen and Esa Juvonen are constructing the computer studio on the top floor of the house. The tarpaulin gives a bluish tone to the pictures.
2007-06-01.The computer studio and the blue bell winter garden, covered by the blue tarpaulin, are ready for the glasses to be installed. The air ventilation pipes are installed on the bottom of the roof.
2007-06-01. The doorway from the computer studio to the blue bell winter garden.
2007-05-25.In connection with Andersson’s Ph.D. symposium “Iconic Space” a tour to the building site was arranged for the participants and lecturers in the symposium. Here architect Erkki Pitkäranta (left) discusses with architect Kathryn Findlay (Ushida Findlay, UK) and artist Jan Svenungsson (right).
2007-05-25. Architect Steve Badanes (Jersey Devil Architects, USA) and environmental artist Trudi Entwistle (UK).
2007-05-25. Architect Kathryn Findlay (Ushida Findlay, UK) and sound artist Shawn Decker (USA) in the computer studio on the top floor of the house.
2007-05-26. Sound artist Shawn Decker (USA) experiments with speakers and computer generated sounds for his soundwork on the railing of the concrete bridge of the first floor in the house. The small leaf house functions as a temporary studio.
2006-12-21.The weather is cold, also under the tarpaulin cover! Architect Erkki Pitkäranta discusses different ways to fasten the double glass insulating windows on the bluebell winter garden.
2006-12-24. Adrian shovels snow, so the builders can drive to the site.
2006-12-24. Experiment with computercut patterns in linoleum plates for the living room floor. Different parts of the floors will have different ornaments, combined with monochrome concrete surfaces.
2007-01-21. Many friends want to see how the house is progressing. The small leaf house is already heated with thermal heat, so hot coffee can be served to get relief from the cold.
2006-12-21.The pre made glulam arches are lifted up on the roof. They will form the bluebell shaped glass dome, the winter garden.
2006-12-24. It is Christmas eve, but we cannot stay away from the building site! After seven years of planning and negotiating, we have reached the top of the building; all the parts of the bluebell winter garden are now fastened.
2006-12-24. Waiting for Santa Claus.
2007-01-10.It is our luck that the winter is late and we still have time to cover the whole building before the snow comes.
2006-10-27.The thermal heat pump arrives.The small leaf house has got a cover of Protan roofing membrane on the roof, which accentuates its curviness. At the moment the house has a very minimal outlook, but it will later be ornamented.
2006-11-13. Juvonen and Heinonen put on sheets of insulating fibreboard. The raw material used in fibreboard is pure wood, which is reduced to fibres without damaging the cell structure. The manufacturing process retains the inherent properties of the wood fibres.
2006-11-29. The inner part of the roof is ready. It is made by long sheets of Kerto-wood. The Turku castle can be seen in the horizon.
2006-12-18.The arches, pre made of Kerto-wood at Finnforest, form the structure for the computer studio on the second floor.
2006-09-25.Heinonen and Juvonen have made the first of Trudi Entwistle’s (UK) three apple sculpture/benches to be placed in the garden of the house.
2006-09-27. Environmental artist Entwistle supervising the earth works around the house, which are being made according to her design.
2006-10-03. The Glulam pillars made at Finnforest are being put up.
2006-11-08.The central beam is made of Glulam and the smaller beams are made of Kerto-wood. Both made according to computer drawings at Finnforest.They take their shape from the veins of the leaf.
2006-08-28.The small leaf is under construction. It will house the thermal heat pump and will also be a place to wash laundry.
2006-08-29. Juvonen and Heinonen are making the rounded roof according to their own design.
2006-09-06. The result is perfect.
2006-09-19. Marjo Malin is painting the roof of the small leaf house.
2006-07-05.Susanna Peijari is making a work of her own design on the concrete bridge. The idea is that somebody has danced over the bridge, when the concrete still was wet, the feet sinking through the concrete.The footprints can be seen under the bridge when the work is ready.
2006-07-11. Juvonen and Heinonen are making the concrete casting for the first floor.
2006-08-15. All the concrete parts of the structure of the house are now made successfully.
2006-08-15.The door opening to the kitchen with the seed releasing buttercup ornamentation.
2006-06-16. The leaf shape can still be seen on the form of the foundation.In the middle are the casting forms for the two curved supporting walls.
2006-06-16. The platform for the second floor is being built.The floor will be casted in concrete.
2006-06-14.Heikki Heinonen makes the stopper which stops the concrete from pouring into the opening in the wall. The design needs a lot of thinking because both the shape of the opening and the wall are curved.
2006-06-14. The prolonged heart shaped stopper, which will form an opening in the wall after the casting, is in place.The flower ornaments will be seen as marks on the wall facing the corridor between the kitchen and the bathroom.
2006-06-05. Our second version of a Greek pillar is made from a waste pipe. Heikki Heinonen inserts a plastic light shelter into the waste pipe. It makes a pattern in the concrete which is poured inside.
2006-06-13. The Neo Greek pillars are ready. Because of the “cheap” construction method they have a rough and “ruiny” feeling. The pillars are a comment to the classical architecture as well as the much disliked postmodern style and the ruin architecture of the 18th Century Romanticism. Visual artist Susanna Peijari assists in making the ornamentation.
2006-06-14. Inspired by the successful casting of the foundation ornaments Jan-Erik designed ornaments for the walls of corridor between the kitchen and the bathroom. The shower ornaments also uses the plastic cones used in the casting of the walls. The ornaments are thus integrated in the tectonics of the walls. Visual artist Susanna Peijari assists in making the ornamentation.
2006-06-16.The wall before the concrete casting. The mark left by the yellow plastic cones, which are a structural part of the casting, along with the white cones and sticks, will be a part of the ornamentation.
2006-05-19. Siku Leinonen and Adrian are testing the prototype for the “apples”, which the environmental artist Trudi Entwistle is planning for the garden.
2006-05-25. The ornamentation for the concrete foundation for the smaller building is taking a more expressionist direction compared to the almost classical ornaments on the foundation of the main building. Here the marks are made with different electrical tools and a chainsaw.
2006-06-02. Esa Juvonen dismantles the casting mold. The ornaments came out successfully!
2006-06-05.The front pillar, designed by Jan-Erik, arrives from the Saarenhovi metal workshop.This is a new version of the greek pillar with the primary forms; the triangle, the circle and the square as pipes welded along the main pipe.
2006-05-05. Making of the ornaments around the concrete foundation. The plastic sticks and cones will leave marks in the concrete after the casting.
2006-05-06. The question why the web camera wasn’t working during the winter months was answered; a small animal had bitten through the Ethernet cable under the snow! IT expert Mika Vuokko and his son figure that you can’t beat the nature.
2006-05-07. Italian artist Karin Andersen imagining the kitchen desk on which she will make a digital image work.
2006-05-17.Heinonen and Juvonen start the casting.
2006-05-05. Art student Sara NIlsson and her boyfriend helping to fasten the ornaments, which leave marks in the concrete foundation after the casting.
2006-05-03. Jan-Erik makes designs for the front pillar, inspired by the builders’ advices about different kinds of additions he can make into the building structures.
2006-05-03. Heikki Heinonen and Esa Juvonen start to make the concrete foundation of the building.
2006-04-28. A water pipe, which had been “forgot” to put in the ground when the earth works were done, is being installed before the casting of the foundation can begin.
2006-04-16. Work on the 1:5 scale model continues.
2006-04-13. Skärgårdens brunnsborrning AB is drilling the 160 meters deep hole into the rock for the pipe containing the geothermal fluid tubes.The Life on a Leaf house will be warmed by a geothermal heat pump, which taps into the earth’s surface to use the energy and relatively consistent heat found in soil and rock. This means that the house doesn’t have to rely on electricity or oil for heating.
2006-03-22. A few quiet months.
2006-03-08. A design for the floors made of computer cut plates of linoleum combined with primary coloured concrete surfaces. Might be too expensive to make!
2005-10-16. The concrete pillars need to be covered from the cold so that the frost in the ground doesn’t get to move them.
2005-10-13. Marjo Malin helps to shelter the concrete pillars with sheets of styrofoam.
2005-08-05. Work on the concrete foundation.
2005-08-07. Andersson designs ornamentation for the concrete base of the building.
2005-07-27. The Pikisaari road needs to be cut through, to connect the building to the communal sewer and water pipes.
2005-06-15. The ground work begins.
2005-06-15. Environmental artist Trudi Entwistle from Leeds is visiting the site to plan her work around the building.
2005-04-12. Andersson and Pitkäranta (above) build a model of the house in the scale 1:5, which makes it possible to solve problems with the construction.
2005-04-12. Andersson tries out how it feels to be inside the leaf shaped house!
2004-05-27. The small scale model is useful for trying out different interior solutions.
2004-04-28. Artenom Anu Mäkinen helps to make the dining table for the house in Andersson’s studio. First the table, then the house!
2003-06-17. Architect Oliver Walter (right) discusses the 3D model of the house he is making, together with architect Erkki Pitkäranta (left).
2002-04-23. Architect Jyrki Tasa attends a seminar, where he suggest an even more organic touch to the design.
2001-10-24. Architect Erkki Pitkäranta makes the floor plans for the Life on a Leaf house.
2001-10-08. Design student Dafna Maimon works with the roof for the small scale model.