18th century Finnish common housing in the City of Turku

[Tapcho]

I haven't presented any Finnish made paper models because there aren't many available. Most that I know have long been sold out and they don't circulate too well. Shame though, maybe someday I will try to collect a small inventory of the subject.

Anyway here is one that I have - a model presenting a typical pre-urban common housing from late 18th century to early 20th century. The building lot N:o 173 was bought by Helena and Henrik Söderlund in 1798 a year after their marriage. Henrik was a carpenter/joiner and he gradually filled the lot with buildings for various uses and needs.

They had six daughters and the eldest lived with their parents on the same lot. Three of their childers became seamen, one of them a whaler who sailed as far as on the Sea of Okhotsk. Hence block 173 got the name The Seamen's House. Family resided the lot up until 1940's when it was sold to The City of Turku.

The area where the house is located is called Luostarinmäki (Cloister Hill) and it is now a very loved and popular museum where the 'olden way of life' is very delicately preserved. The museum also shows old artisan professions and able masters have workrooms in the houses. Their products are sold in the museum shop.

The kit is well made, has lovely graphics and builds nicely. But it's big.and I don't have room for big models anymore. So I scaled it down. The original scale is not mentioned in the kit but I estimate it's between 1/80 to 1/100. My model is a quarter of the original so you can do the math. I can't, never could do these calculations.

I include a couple of old photos of the area here too and a map of the museum area. Block 173 is number 8 in the map. Right across the street is The Palander House and that inner yard is a favourite of mine (two las pictures).

A picture heavy post but I hope you find them interesting.

Tappi

[Philip]

I just love it to pieces. How long have you been sitting on this one?

[Siwi]

Quite charming. A good move by the designer to include the sloping ground rather than awkwardly modify the buildings onto a flat base.


Personally, I would love to have a model of Ainola, and the rock church in Helsinki.

[Tapcho]

Thanks gents, I'm glad you like this one too.

Philip, for 3 decades I guess. Some 25 years ago I built this kit as it is but the model got lost at some point in our lives. The spare one has been waiting for the right moment. This build was completed last Wednesday. I have a couple of more different kits waiting. :-)

Siwi, a sloped base is much more like the original one located on the side of a hill. Ainola is a wonderful house but no model as far as I know. Rock church on the other hand might exist. I have to check on that one. I'll let you know if I'm lucky to find it.

Tappi

[Viator]

One can estimate that the doors are 2 m high, so the scale seem to be around my favorite 1/300. Very nice model!

[Erik Zwaan]

Hi Tappi, that's a very charming model! I like the nostalgic atmosphere, very peaceful. Somehow when looking at the black and white photo with the people on it, the houses look bigger than compared to the modern color picture. Trick of the eye, of course.
Noticed that your place of residence is Vantaa - The Vantaa of the airport, close to Helsinki? Been there a few times en route to Singapore

Cheers,
Erik

[SCEtoAUX]

Very nice. Were models of the other building lots shown on the map available so you could put together a pre-urban display?

[Tapcho]

Thank you friends.
Erik, I bet people were smaller back then. I have to bow my head when entering any of the houses in that museum. And yes, Helsinki-Vantaa Airport is just few kilometres west of our house.
Doug, I wish they were and that display could be called pre-suburb. ;-)

Tappi