Tarvaspää atelier

Tarvaspää is the atelier home designed and built by the artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865–1931). Today it serves as a museum in Espoo, Laajalahti (close to the Helsinki border near Munkkiniemi).

When we visited Tarvaspää in the summer, there was an exhibition called “I want to do everything myself”. It made my mother laugh, since, as I’ve heard, “Ammi ite!” (meaning “I’ll do it myself!”) was once the motto of one determined toddler and has since become a bit of a family catchphrase.

It was an interesting detail that Gallen-Kallela, not yet fifty at the time, had already envisioned Tarvaspää as a future museum while planning it. I should probably keep that kind of long-term thinking in mind myself, just in case a huge lottery win ever allows me to design a studio home of my own.

The museum offers plenty of information about the design process of Tarvaspää and its transformations over the years, including small signs that describe the changes made to the building. For example, in the atelier wall there is a marked spot showing where a door once led to a wooden workshop. The workshop was later demolished and the doorway blocked.

Tarvaspää underwent extensive renovations in the 1920s. Before the Gallen-Kallela family moved from the Villa Linudd to Tarvaspää, a kitchen, bathroom, sauna, and laundry room were added. The kitchen was later removed when the building was converted into a museum.

I understand that the amount of sunlight has to be limited in a museum, but in buildings like this I can’t help wondering how magnificent the place would look bathed in full natural light!

Look at the upper right corner of the previous photo. Do you see the small window?

When you go up one floor and then, in a peculiar way,, step a few stairs down from the main staircase into the bathroom, you end up right by that window for a little peek!

The tower’s roof terrace was in frequent use in the past, but today it is closed to the public for safety reasons.

In the photo above, on the right, is Akseli Gallen-Kallela’s Liekki rya designed in 1899. The rya was woven in 1965 according to the original design by Suomen Käsityön Ystävät.

(Pssst. From the photos of the inspiration trip to Hvitträsk, you can spot the Liekki rya that Eliel Saarinen received from Gallen-Kallela as a wedding gift.)

According to the information available at Tarvaspää, the artist himself knew how to weave, but most of his designs were executed by his wife Mary. Below, on the wall and in the close-up, is the Toukka rya.

Next to the Gallen-Kallela Museum is Villa Linudd, built in 1859, where Cafe Zoceria operates. You can find the blog post about the earlier inspiration trip to Villa Linudd here.

For opening hours and exhibition information at Tarvaspää, check the Gallen-Kallela Museum’s website.

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