Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2011 | Page 14

Call of the Wild Daniel Libeskind discusses past, present and future architecture in Finland Superstar architect Daniel Libeskind is crazy about Finland – and doesn’t care who knows it. “I admire Finland very deeply; it has such incredible culture to go with the remarkable social aspect. In many regards, Finland is the model for the rest of the world.” ccording to Libeskind, the story of Finland is an inspiring one – a small, backwoods country that embraces industrialisation and education, eventually hits pay dirt with Nokia and charges onto the new millennium among the leading information societies in the world. “Finland has gone through a great transformation to get where it is today.” The master architect and Finland go back a long time, too. Libeskind first visited the country in 1970 and has been coming back ever since. “I’ve lost count, how many times I’ve been to Finland,” he laughs. He observes that to get to the core of any nation, you have A 12 Nordicum to visit again and again. “I’ve been fortunate enough to make many good friends in Finland and this has helped me to get into the depths of the country.” Saarinen’s Shadow It seems that Libeskind has not been able to get away from Finland even when he is back home in the USA. Case in point: he served as Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of the legendary Cranbrook Academy of Art for almost two decades (1978–1995) and the academy buildings were, of course, designed by Finnish master Eliel Saarinen. Saarinen also ran the school for a time.