I want to start the new year with some photos I took a couple of weeks ago when I was in Helsinki with my daughter. We had some time to kill before a meeting at the Italian Embassy and walked around downtown.

The first stop was the Academic Bookstore (Akateeminen Kirjakauppa) in Pohjoisesplanadi.

The Bookstore is part of the Rautatalo office building, which Elissa and Alvar Aalto designed in 1962 for an architectural competition held by Stockman – the owner of a plot in the centre of Helsinki. the building and the bookstore’s construction would only start in 1966, lasting until 1969 (read more here).