Books from Finland - A literary journal of writing from and about Finland.

Kirkosta savusaunaan. Puusta rakennettu Suomi
[From churches to smoke saunas. A Finland built of wood]
Helsinki: Otava, 2008. 175 p., ill.
ISBN 978-951-1-20337-7
€ 33, hardback

Photographer Juhani Seppovaara and architectural journalist Netta Böök have collected examples of timber construction: timber was traditionally used to build churches, cottages, villas, farmhouses, parsonages, saunas, manor houses and entire residential neighbourhoods. The authors even include dance pavilions – thousands of them were built around the country after the Second World War. As early as the end of the 18th century, doctors were recommending timber houses as healthy places to live in. However, wars and fires have destroyed many of Finland’s wooden buildings. The book also presents stories of those who lived in them and built them. The 1960s and 1970s in particular saw the demolition of valuable timber-constructed neighbourhoods, which were pulled down in order to make way for structures of a more modern kind. Today timber is once more an inspiration for builders and developers.