PITTSBURGH FINNS
Finnish Room Committee, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Chapter, Finlandia Foundation
A Walk Through the Finnish Room
You are in the Cathedral of Learning, on the third floor. You are entering Room 306.
The sky is dark. Overhead, you see the northern lights with the Big Dipper. In front of you, students are going into a log cabin. Behind them is a smaller cabin.
You are in the Finnish Room. It is a winter morning in Finland and daylight has not yet appeared. You are looking at the sauna and farmhouse of a Finnish farmstead where classes are being held. Woods are on the left. A stone courtyard is underfoot.
You can go straight ahead into the sauna and sit on the sauna bench. Or you can follow the students to the farmhouse. ​
You follow the students to the farmhouse.
You are looking into the farmhouse. The farmhouse has a central table, typical of Finnish farmhouses. At the end of the room are two ryijy rugs which cover an electronic display screen. The fireplace is in the corner on the right. It has no chimney. To the left are plates depicting scenes of the Kalevala, Finland's epic poem.
You walk to the end of the farmhouse room and turn around.
As you look back, you see the doorway through which you just entered; to the right of it, you see a cut-through to the sauna. The sauna is a separate building in real life, but we have made an opening so that Pitt students can sit in the sauna and listen to classes in the farmhouse.