Artek Flipbook

Aino Marsio’s Travel Sketchbook, 1921

The following is a full reproduction of Aino Marsio’s travel sketchbook, seen in the case above. The first half of this book traces Marsio’s study trip to Germany, Austria, and Italy in 1921, following her graduation from the Polytechnic Institute of Helsinki. Along with two fellow women architecture students, Marsio visited museums and architectural sites, sketching what she saw in graphite and colored pencil. The second half of the sketchbook follows Marsio’s travels in Ostrobothnia, a region in western Finland, where she made sketches of interiors, rubbings from gravestones, and meticulous ground plans of farms.

Select pages are bookmarked at the top of the screen and feature English translations of Marsio’s handwritten notes and captions. To see each translation, touch any text on these bookmarked pages.

Interactive Credits

Marsio’s 1921 trip began in Germany, with a visit to the National Gallery in Berlin.

Click on any text on the page to right to see its translation.

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From Berlin she traveled to Dresden, where she sketched a number of Chinese decorative arts pieces at the applied arts museum.

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This sketch strongly resembles Marsio’s later designs for floral textile patterns.

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As Marsio made her way south towards Italy, her next stop was Salzburg.

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In early June, Marsio spent several days in Rome sketching Renaissance architecture, like this unidentified building by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (1507–1573).

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While in Rome, Marsio sketched not only architecture but also smaller artifacts, like these vessels recorded at Vignola’s Villa Giulia (1551–53) for Pope Julius III.

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Upon her return from Italy, Marsio traveled to Lapua, a town in Ostrobothnia on the Lapua River. On this page she drew the ground plan of a farm in the village of Hellanmaa.

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This rubbing from a gravestone follows several pages of similar rubbings and sketches of three-dimensional ornaments found in Ostrobothnia.

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Here Marsio laid out another homestead in Ostrobothnia.

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Marsio also recorded interior architecture during her time in Lapua.

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This plan accompanies Marsio’s sketch of the Rintala interior on the previous bookmarked page.

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While in Lapua, Marsio demonstrated just as much interest in native Finnish design as she did in the decorative arts of foreign cultures, seen earlier in this sketchbook. At right, she notes the colors of this ornamental detail.

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In this longer text Marsio compares homes and farms in Lapua with those in nearby Ylihärmä and Alahärmä (now Kauhava, Finland). She was particularly impressed by the “beautiful cornice moldings” and “Renaissance doors” she found in both areas.

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Marsio recorded an elaborately wrought door in Lapua, perhaps one of the “Renaissance doors” cited on the previous page of the sketchbook.

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Marsio spotted decorative details even in the most unassuming locations, like this profile of a carved wooden shelf with dovetail joints in a Lapua farmhouse.

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Digital Design: Alex Weiss Hills
Concept: Nina Stritzler-Levine
Translation: Tuomas Hiltunen, Wif Stenger
Interpretive Text: Kirstin Purtich
Photography: Bruce White

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Greek tomb monument

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Berlin National Gallery

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Dresden Kunstgewerbemuseum (Applied Arts Museum)

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Dresden 1921

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St. Peter's Church courtyard
Salzburg

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Vignola stairs, Rome

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Villa [di] Papa Giulio, Roma

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Sinnemäki. Hellaanmaalla [Hellanmaa]. Lapua

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Field

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Yard

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Orchard

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Birch grove

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Country road

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1. The dwelling house
2. Two-storied outbuilding
3. Storehouses
4. Stable
5. New cowshed
6. Tar shed
7. Shed
8. Lamb shed
9. Small hall
10. Calf shed

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11. Smithy [workshop]
12. Shed
13. Water
14. Barn
15. Sauna
16. Storehouse
17. Carriage house
18. Well
19. House for dependents
20. Pig house

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21. Old cowshed
22. Play cabin

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Lapua cemetery

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ca. 1877

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Ylä-Tuomaala in the Lapua village with a church

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Country road

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Hay barn

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Straw barn

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Stable

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Main building

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Storehouse

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Storehouse

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Pathway

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Sauna

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Gate

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Shed

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Wood shed

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Kitchen

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Yard

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The dwelling house

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Pathway

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Cow shed

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Gate

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Fence

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To the river

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Two-storied outbuilding

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The Hiipakka cabin in Lapua, part of the Tiiste farm/hamlet.

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RINTALA. Lapuan Tiisteellä
[The Rintala homestead in Lapua, part of the Tiiste farm/hamlet].

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sauna

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2-story residential building

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loft

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open-sided shed

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shed

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ramp

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yard

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stable

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barn

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road

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fence

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woodsheds

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open-sided shed

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open-sided shed

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Black

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Green

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Red

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Vainio’s house in Tiistenkylä [village] in Lapua

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Old wall decoration

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Lapua’s parish village is densely populated on both sides of the river. Each house has a narrow plot between the river and the country road. Normally the dwelling house is along the river. One enters the yard through a gate and along a long alley. On one side of the yard there is a Luhti outbuilding and on the other side there is a storehouse. It is almost a rule that a [horse] barn is opposite the main dwelling house. The cowshed behind the barn forms a separate yard for livestock. In the older farms the dwelling houses have a large main room 7 x 7 meters or 8 x 8 meters and a porch and a back room. Later the bigger houses have built another main room and also back rooms behind them. This kind of placing of farmhouses continues on both sides along the Lapua River. In Yli-Härmä [Over Härmä] the houses are almost the same type as in Lapua. There are a lot of windmills here – almost in every house. In Yli-Härmä we first saw a “frantespiisi” [a frontispiece]. There are windmills also in Ali-Härmä [Under Härmä]. Here the farmhouse plan is a little conventional. Opposite the dwelling house there is a two-storied building through which there is a gate. Usually this building has stores on the first floor and sleeping rooms on the second floor. A freeholder’s farm in Ala-Härmä, in the village of Isotalo, has been well preserved. Through the gate one enters a fenced yard. In the older villages the buildings are next to each other forming a chain of buildings on one or both sides of the country road. In Lapua there are beautiful cornice mouldings, in particular in storehouses. Beautiful renaissance doors. Lots of renovations. Handmade here in Lapua and Härmä regularshaped corner shelf units and two-floor beds.

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Old door for Ilkka’s underground potato storage. Probably an old church door, which came from Lapua.

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Wall shelf in the main room of Lassila’s farmhouse

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