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The Gallen-Kallela Museum 's spring exhibition illustrates Akseli Gallen-Kallela's activities in the role of architect. The drawings and photographs on show present the various stages of designing the Kalela and Tarvaspää studio-homes, and Gallen-Kallela's plans for his unrealized Otto Donner's Pääskyn linna project. Built in the wilderness at Ruovesi, Gallen-Kalela designed the log-walled Kalela primarily as his home and work space, a sanctum of art. Underlying the design of Tarvaspää were also further-reaching plans and ideas for the role of the house as a museum to Gallen-Kallela's life's work. Akseli Gallen-Kallela already dreamed of a far-away studio in the wilderness while studying in Paris , where he prepared the first architectural plans for such a house as early as 1889. A yearning to be among the common people and untouched natural surroundings led the artist to seek a suitable site in the Finnish inland regions, and after a long search, the site for Kalela was found in 1894 on Lake Isonselkä at Ruovesi. The language of form of Kalela is marked by influences from Karelian architecture, which Gallen-Kallela had seen on his honeymoon in Karelia in 1890. Upon completion in 1895, Kalela reflected the contemporary art nouveau concept of a total work of art: I want to do everything myself, from the blueprints to the locks for the doors, coat racks and ashtrays. In 1902, Gallen-Kallela prepared the designs for Pääskyn linna (Swallow Castle). Planned for a high hill of bedrock opposite Kalela, the design had a castellar language of form interestingly prefiguring Gallen-Kallela's Tarvaspää studio-home with reference to the architecture of Finland 's medieval stone churches. Historical references were also markedly present in Tarvaspää, built at Linudd point on Laajalahti Bay in 1911-1913. The Hungarian architect Ede Thorczkai-Vigand observed that in this work, Gallen-Kallela tried to accommodate the whole history of Finnish architecture beginning with Turku Castle. Gallén first showed the plans for his new studio. --- He explained his design, the purpose of the building. He intended to bequeath the house to the Finnish state as his artistic legacy, a kind of “ Gallén Museum ”. --- I studied the floor plan: an immense studio, with a smaller one next to it, several auxiliary rooms, a room for copperplate prints and etchings, a library and dwelling quarters designed in such a manner that they would serve as the home of the museum guard in the future (Ede Thorczkai-Vigand) The exhibition includes paintings, prints and works of applied art from the collections of the Gallen-Kallela Museum. Refurbishing TarvaspääContinuing in the spring in the Tarvaspää area is the Refurbishing Tarvaspää project involving the gradual basic renovation of the museum and Villa Linudd (the Tarvaspää café-restaurant) and the restoration of the yard area with the objective of increasing the use of the outdoor areas of the museum by visitors. The shingle roof of the studio building will undergo repairs and Villa Linudd will be painted on the outside, while the wooden parts of its exterior will be repaired. The work of revealing and repairing the walls by the shore and on the grounds of Tarvaspää will continue. A scenic path will be laid out at the shore of the museum area in collaboration with the City of Espoo and its project for providing shore routes for leisure use. Museum opening hours:
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