Our first assignment during Tulane's Summer in Finland program was to document the Villa Aulikki, designed by Erkki Kairamo (1936–1994). The building is a summer house on Halsskäret (59.85°N, 22.31°E), a remote, rocky islet in the Finnish Archipelago with evergreen bushes covering the low areas and one small, brave tree perched on the islet's highest point. In part because of Finland's cold climate, summer houses play an elemental role in Finnish culture, being places of recreation and celebration of the meaningful warm season. As such, Finnish architects treat the design of these houses with special reverence. After three days on the island with our professors — as well as with Aulikki Jylhä, Erkki Kairamo's wife and namesake of the summer house — my group of three spent five weeks on drawings and a large model of the house in its site. Throughout 2007, this material formed part of an international traveling exhibition of the Suomen Rakennustaiteen Museo (Museum of Finnish Architecture), "Summer House — Experimental House: Summer Houses by Finnish Architects 1895–1995." From June through October 2010, it will also form part of the exhibition "My Paradise," featuring summer houses by prominent Finnish architects, at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. The model base is built of 5 cm–by–15 cm timbers, individually cut into sections of the island, glued together, shaped with hand and power tools, and stained with coffee. The house itself is made from a sheet of 1-mm Finnish plywood. A mixture of sawdust and glue, worked by hand to achieve the proper texture, represents the evergreen bushes. (Model photo credit: Jari Jetsonen.) Helsinki University of Technology/ Tulane University School of Architecture Instructors: Jari Jetsonen, Sirkkaliisa Jetsonen + Scott Wall Summer 2005