Scandinavia has to be one of my favorite regions in the world. I’ve spent the last few years exploring Europe’s Nordic countries and I want to show you my favorite places to visit. From the fjords of Norway, to the Northern Lights in Sweden, Scandinavia offers so much variety and history!
Scandinavia is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties. The term Scandinavia in local usage covers the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
On August 10, 1628, the Swedish warship Vasa, billed as the most advanced warship in the world, set sail on its maiden voyage from Stockholm Harbor. Within a mile, it had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. From the Series: Combat Ships: Doomed Vessels
Nordic citizens experience a high sense of autonomy and freedom, as well as high levels of social trust towards each other, which play an important role in determining life satisfaction.
From 2013 until today, every time the World Happiness Report (WHR) has published its annual ranking of countries, the five Nordic countries – Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland – have all been in the top ten, with Nordic countries occupying the top three spots in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Clearly, when it comes to the level of average life evaluations, the Nordic states are doing something right, but Nordic exceptionalism isn’t confined to citizen’s happiness.
No matter whether we look at the state of democracy and political rights, lack of corruption, trust between citizens, felt safety, social cohesion, gender equality, equal distribution of incomes, Human Development Index, or many other global comparisons, one tends to find the Nordic countries in the global top spots.
From a Deadline online article (March 9, 2020):
Born in Lund, Sweden, von Sydow studied at Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theatre before getting his start in the film business through his work with mentor Ingmar Bergman. The pair’s credits included world cinema classic The Seventh Seal, in which he portrays a man who plays a chess game with Death, the Oscar-nominated Wild Strawberries, and the Oscar-winning The Virgin Spring.
Max von Sydow, the Sweden-born French actor whose credits included Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, and the role of Emperor Ming in Flash Gordon, has died at the age of 90.
The actor’s 65-year career spanned acclaimed arthouse, Hollywood blockbusters, and television. In recent years, he played Lor San Tekka in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the Three-Eyed Raven in Game Of Thrones, and voiced a character on The Simpsons.
The Tall Timber Building residence has become a landmark and, during construction, became Sweden’s tallest solid wooden building in the new district of Kajstaden at Lake Mälaren in Västerås. All parts of the building consist of cross-laminated wood, which includes the walls, joists and balconies as well as the lift and stairwell shafts.
Kajstaden – Tall Timber Building is an important landmark for sustainable construction and a reference project that shows that conversion to climate conscious architecture is possible. Through research projects and several active wood projects, C.F. Møller Architects has focused on innovation as well as developing and implementing multi-storey buildings with solid wood frames. In Kajstaden, an active decision was made to prioritise industrial timber techniques for the building material to influence and take responsibility for the impact of the construction industry on the environment and climate change. A crucial advantage of wood, unlike other building materials, is that the production chain for the material produces a limited amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Instead, it is part of a closed cycle, where carbon is retained in the frame of the building.
Research also shows that buildings with a wooden frame make a positive contribution to human health and well-being- thanks to better air quality and acoustic qualities.
From a New Atlas online article:
Scientists have just discovered a new mechanism that can be key in regulating these immune attacks, raising new hopes of drugs that can protect against joint inflammation and the ailments it can bring.
Through the use of the CRISPR gene-editing tool, the Karolinska Institutet scientists have now shed further light on the role they play in inflammation. The technology enabled the team to make adjustments to a set of hand-picked immune cell genes as a way of learning how those tweaks can impact the behavior of the cells.
“The results we obtained using CRISPR were key to quickly understanding how the system under study is regulated,” says Dr Wermeling. “I have high hopes that the experimental use of CRISPR will be hugely important to our understanding of how immune-cell behavior is regulated, and that this can guide us in the development of new efficacious drugs.”
From a Curbed.com online article:
During the summers, the northern Swedish island of Kallaxön is bright for nearly 24 hours a day, which means the windows that wrap the house are put to good use. Inside, the house is clad entirely in pale timber.
The main living spaces are downstairs, while a lofted bedroom is accessed by a ladder. Residents access the toilet and shower from the outside—a true testament to indoor-outdoor living.
Designed by Bornstein Lyckefors, the facade of the gabled cabin looks like it was painted with a pint of mint ice cream. The roof, made with an oxidized copper, blends right in, creating a monochromatic look.
https://www.bornsteinlyckefors.se/
To read more: https://www.curbed.com/2019/9/4/20848180/modern-cabin-mint-green-sweden
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