Sunday 8 April 2012

Architecture

In 1811 the Russian Emperor founded the 'Office of Intendant' to supervise building competence in Finland and today the Senate Properties continues the objective of looking after and creating public buildings and this set of stamps commemorates its 200 years.  The stamp designer, Pekka Piippo shows details of six well known buildings owned by the State of Finland, each reflecting a different era. This first is the Government Palace of 1828 which houses the prime minister and government departments.  The other two I have
show Malmi Airport - the curved lines so typical of the era it was built (1938) and today still with the original buildings and runway system, considered possibly the best preserved pre WW2 international airport in the world. In contrast next is the Finnish Embassy in New Delhi (1985) which the Embassy site describes as standing " like a Finnish island adrift in the middle of India, permeated by an Indian spirit of place"


Next in complete contrast are some of the 1970 stamps celebrating vernacular architecture in this set of 'British Rural Architecture' designed by David Gentleman
with this house in Fife, Scotland. Harling is a weatherproof shield for a stone building rather like pebble dashing, as the wiki paragraph says "well suited to the Scottish weather".
The soft tones of Cotswold limestone.
and the fascinating thatched roof.


Lastly in a month where one week the temperatures were in the mid 20s centigrade and and then the next week snow was falling and they were reopening the the ski centres in Scotland
two Bulgarian stamps of ski hotels issued in 1988. The left, the Rila Hotel, Boravets situated right at the bottom of the ski runs and right, Perelik Hotel, Pamporovo.  The winters here tend to be mild but they have 150 days of snowfall a year which makes the ski season a long one where you can swoosh down the runs under sunny skies.


An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps theme of Architecture

7 comments:

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

As usual, the Swedish stamps are very attractive but I do like the British ones too.

I have to wonder why anyone would want to put ski hotels on stamps, but I often do wonder about some of our own stamps issues too.

viridian said...

Chimneys and thatched roofs do not make a good combination unless your weather is quite damp. I learned that at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts. the pilgrims switched to wood shakes after the thatch caught on fire too many times. thanks for participating!

Bob Scotney said...

I never did get my hands on Gentleman's set from 1970. The Cotswold Cottage is my favourite.

Postcardy said...

My favorites are the British Rural Architecture.

I like seeing the Bulgarian ski hotels because I didn't know that Bulgaria was a good country for skiing.

Helen said...

The Bulgarian ski hotels stamps are my favourite. They seem very exotic. But all the stamps you have chosen are quite lovely.

Lisa B said...

A wonderful selection of different architectural styles. I like the Bulgarian hotel stamps and hope that someone used them on postcards of the hotels.

VioletSky said...

I have family from Fife and I absolutely love the Cotswolds. I would also like to test that airport in Finland. But, Bulgaria sounds very intriguing! Those are some pretty nice images of the hotels.