Sattumalta sain kesäksi 1968 työkaverikseni sveitsiläispojan, sittemmin https://www.argosdegen.ch/ Jos tuon linkin avaa huomaa helposti, että hän on kehittänyt itseään määrätietoisesti ja ollut aktiivinen kirjoittamisenkin alalla. Silloin, vuonna 1968 olimme molemmat vähän nuorempia kuin nykyään. Hän eteni urallaan ja kehityksessään, minä aikanaan väsyin kunnallispoliittiseen jahkailuun ja keskityin enemmän puhdetöihini.
Tuon kesän jälkeen kirjoittelimme toisillemme jonkun aikaa, mutta se jäi, ja nyt vasta joskus v.2017 tapasimme pitkästä aikaa Kihelkonnalla, me molemmat ja puolisomme. Toisen kerran hän tuli vaimoineen Turkuun kesällä 2019. Päivitimme asioitamme ja muistelimme vanhoja. Savustimme lohta Polpyn uunissa, kävimme kävelemässä Ruissalossa, tutustuimme käsityöläismuseoon..
Eräs mieleeni jäänyt tapaus sattui joskus v. 1968 lounaalla. Hän sai syötäväkseen hänelle ilmeisesti ennen tuntemattoman annoksen. Sitä maistettuaan hän kysyi sen suomalaista nimeä. Mieleeni jäi hänen epäuskoisen hämmästynyt ilmeensä, kun hän tavoitteli kuulemaansa kastikkeen nimeä;
tillillillillill.....ha.
Nyt vuodenvaihteen tervehdysten yhteydessä hän yllätti minut lähettämällä otteen teoksestaan, jossa hän muistelee tapahtumia elämänsä varrelta. Siinä hänen minusta maalaamansa kuva on aivan liian mairitteleva, mutta asia on jo vanhentunut. Jos sain autettua häntä silloin jotenkin, se oli pelkkää sattumaa, mutta hyvä henki ja tarkoitus meillä oli.
Ja nyt Peterin tekstiin. Saamani alkuperäinen on saksankielinen. Englanninkieliseen käännökseen näköjään jääneet epäjohdonmukaisuudet ja viat panen googlen kääntäjän syyksi.
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FINNLAND
finnland - selbstbehauptung zwischen wald und wasser
Morning hour and child's mouth
The evening ended humid and happy. Taisto, my "work supervisor" in Helsinki, took me to his in-laws for the weekend in a small village on the Finnish lake plateau. We received an extremely friendly welcome and, after the obligatory visit to the sauna at the lake, were treated with food and more than enough vodka. Now, the morning after, I'm up early, according to my habit. There is still no sound to be heard in the houses and the village, which I reach after a few steps, seems to be in deep slumber. But then children appear, teenage boys and girls, who surround me with happy chatter. I don't understand a word, make this known to you with a pantomine, which doesn't dampen your happiness in the least. One of them takes me by the hand, they all start to want to accompany me on my little exploration. Given her age, it makes no sense to try to make myself understood in one of the foreign languages. So I chat with them in my Swiss dialect, which adds to their exuberance. So we walk through the village, a tall Jurassian, accompanied by the little ones like a flock of butterflies. They follow my gaze, point to houses, trees and small gardens and start everything with explanations. In my idiom I tell them what I see, which always triggers cheerfulness. At the end of the tour we are all enriched. They noticed what was holding my gaze and, conversely, showed me their treasures. Despite all the foreignness of the languages we had a great conversation.
Homo Faber in the woods
My question meets with great astonishment. The head of the office has just introduced me to the employees present as "a Swiss student who has come to Finland to make love with Finnish girls!" And now I stand there and seriously ask about my work. I traveled to Helsinki as an exchange student to do an internship in a traffic and urban planning office. Only later do I realize that the interest in sending students to Switzerland is greater than the other way around. The few students from Switzerland and Germany that I will meet in the Student Club all lead a "fledgling life" with out being forced to work.
After the "boss", an astonishingly young office manager with mischievous crow's feet around his eyes, has made sure of my seriousness, an even younger employee is assigned to me who hesitantly collects his German. Taisto got this foreign language taught in school, but rarely used it. We get along well anyway. Unforgettable are the moments when we both, gnawing our lips, brood over a problem and then apologetically says: "Pjotr, hier brauchen wir noch mehr gedenkungen”..
Taisto leads a working group that deals with the planning of a new town in the scenic area around Helsinki. Koivukylä will one day offer housing and services to 50,000 residents. I duck my head a little when I hear the number. 50,000 inhabitants, which by far exceeds a number of the capital cities of Switzerland. At the moment they are
I will be introduced to plan the junction between the Koivukylä urban motorway and the interurban motorway. In principle, I am equipped for this from my studies, but first I need a crash course in dealing with clothoids. This curved line calculates one of the most beautiful curves in geometry. With their help, a flowing transition is created between a straight line and a circle. I get to work.
People in the process of planning the transport infrastructure. I become still when I become aware of the planning means. The office links photogrammetric orthophotos with geological maps. The year is 1968, so we are well ahead of the digital dawn. The procedure, however, as they strive to balance the masses from the start with the routing of a street, i.e. a zero-sum game of removal and filling, is far ahead of the ETH curriculum at the time.
After two days I proudly present my work to Taisto, the individual arch segments highlighted in color. He has to do the drawing with an impenetrable face, takes a pen and “roughly” outlines into my sheet of paper. His criticism and instructions are brief and precise. Under his hand, I notice actual design flaws and relentlessly go back to the value. On approximately the twelfth attempt, the pattern takes longer. Finally he leans back in his chair and smiles: “In terms of the systemic construction, the connection is now OK. But it's not beautiful yet! ”I react in astonishment. I haven't come across the “beautiful” category in my engineering studies so far. Which Calculation method should this required beauty suffice? Taisto smiles and says: “Today we are going to Tapiola for lunch.” I find out that Tapiola is a forest town built in the 1960s not far from Helsinki. Alvar Aalto's studio is in the neighboring Til-limäki district. I no longer know what is being shown to me, it is mainly architectural buildings. At the end of the tour, Taisto looks at me. I'm still unsure how I should transfer what I've seen to our project, but I nod and, back in the office, I go back to work with confidence. Now the game starts all over again. In every sheet that I present, Taisto finds, in his perception, a flaw in the lines. When I asked a little unnerved about the twentieth original, he laughed and said: "Pyotr, you will make 28 drawings, and then it will be nice!" He is "almost" right ..
Another great amazement sets in when we visit the location of the future city for the first time. I imagine the densification of a pre-existing settlement, but now, in the area, the few houses are lost in the infinity of a bush and forest landscape. A little stunned, I look at the patches of meadow, the dense trees, interspersed with granite knolls - a city, here? My work suddenly takes on a pioneering look, a claim that I have to pursue for a long time in later years in Switzerland.
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Vanhoista ajoista saatuna tällainen palaute, niin posiviivisuudessaan liioitteleva kuin se onkin, kuitenkin jotenkin lämmittää.
Tavatessamme Peter otti esille vielä näitä Koivukylän asioita. Hän halusi nähdä, mitä hänen risteykselleen tapahtui. Ansioituneen professorin ilme synkkeni, kun katsoimme kartasta sen hetkistä toteutusta. Paikalla oli vain yksinkertainen rombinen. Sanoin kuten asia oli, meidän työmme jälkeen poliittinen suhtautuminen autoliikenteeseen muuttui, eivätkä silloiset ennusteet liikenteestä toteutuneet. Junaratakin Koivukylää sivuten sittemmin tehtiin.
Kehitys kehittyy. Kun nyt äsken vilkaisin samaa karttaa, maisema näytti taas erilaiselta, tällä kertaa tältä
https://www.google.fi/maps/@60.3233792,24.9985114,16z?hl=fi
Kuitenkaan Peterin silloisesta taideteoksesta ei näy jälkeä.
Vanhat tapahtumat tulevat näköjään mieleen, kun joku asia ne sieltä houkuttelee.