As a building that every architect should experience at least once in a lifetime, the Seattle Central Library was one of the primary motivations behind this trip to the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada. After finally experiencing it in person, I was genuinely amazed and refreshed by the experience. It is difficult to imagine that a building more than twenty years old could still feel so remarkably avant-garde and fresh today. Even though I had read and studi

The Hedmark Museum was the final stop of my 2024 Nordic journey in Norway, as well as the last major architectural highlight of the entire trip. After travelling between Oslo and Bergen via the Norway in a Nutshell journey, I set aside half a day to visit the museum in the small town of Hamar, north of the airport, one day before flying to Iceland. As the museum was closed during the winter season, entry was only possible by arranging a private architectural tour in advance

“During overpowering emotional experiences, we tend to close off the distancing sense of vision; we close the eyes when dreaming, listening to music, or caressing our beloved ones. Deep shadows and darkness are essential, because they dim the sharpness of vision, make depth and distance ambiguous, and invite unconscious peripheral vision and tactile fantasy.” — Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses On October 9, 2024, on the same day we visited

As one of the world's classic masterpieces of cemetery design, Stockholm's Woodland Cemetery (Skogskyrkogården), which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List just over fifty years after its completion, is a major work created jointly by two of Sweden's most important twentieth-century architects, Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. In 1915, Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz won the competition with a proposal that sought to intervene as little as possible in the e

As one of Finland's national architectural treasures, Alvar Aalto has exerted a profound influence on the world far beyond the already considerable fame of the four great figures of modernist architecture. Much of what is now widely recognized as the Scandinavian design sensibility—including the Nordic aesthetic so popular today—can be traced back to the rich body of work developed under Aalto's direction, extending from architecture to furniture and domestic objects. Looking

On April 10, 2024, the final day of a trip through central Japan, the ultimate highlight was a stay at Beniya Mukayu, located on Mount Yakushi above Yamashiro Onsen. It was the most expensive accommodation I had ever stayed at during my travels abroad. Beniya Mukayu is regarded as a benchmark of contemporary Japanese ryokan design and one of Japan's finest examples of design-driven hospitality. When I first encountered hospitality design during my years working in architectur

On February 17, 2024, the final day of a trip through Hyogo Prefecture, I returned once again to central Kobe. The original plan was to visit several buildings by Tadao Ando, but many were not open to the public. By chance, the itinerary eventually led to the Yodoko Guest House, located beside the Ashiya River and designed by the American master of modern architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright. The reception room on the second floor of the Yodoko Guest House. Although it is not amo