Auguste Léger, Maison aux coquillages / House of shells

 

this picture and the next three courtesy of Tipeek Photos

The shell-decorated house pictured above is located in Gravigny, a municipality of about 4,000 inhabitants in the Normandy region of France.

The house is situated on its own grounds on a corner at the end of a street, which ends at a roundabout, and this specific location means that not only the front along the street can be seen, but also the sides to the left and right. 

These two sides are also decorated, in a design that is comparable to the decorations on the street side.

Readers who know a bit about Google Streetview can see this for themselves

The shell decorations were applied by Auguste Léger, about whom no biographical information can be found on the internet.

Some information about the period in which the decorations were applied can be obtained via the website Habitants-Paysagistes of the Lille Art Museum, where three photos of the house can be seen, made in 1983 by Francis David.

These photos radiate a certain naturalness, as if the decorations have been adorning the house for years.

This would mean that the shells were applied at least forty years ago and probably date from the 1970s.

Documentation

* Short article (1983) on website Habitants-Paysagistes, with photos by Francis David

* Short article (undated) on the website of the municipality of Gravigny, with the remark that the  house  currently is private property

* Article (September 2024) on Tipeek Photos with a series of recent photos

Auguste Léger, 

Maison aux coquillages

7 Rue du 23 Août 1944

Gravigny, dept Eure, region Normandie, France

can be seen from the street

Google Streetview

Bernard Rein, Maison décorée / Decorated house

front of the house
pictures are from Google Streetview, May 2023

The French municipality of Kembs with some 4100 inhabitants (2005), is located along the river Rhin. The city has the first and oldest (1932) of the eight lock complexes that shipping encounters between Basel and Strasbourg.

Of a completely different order, but certainly as interesting from the perspective of art environments by non-professionals, is the house with decorations pictured above.

the decorations as in 2008 on Streetview 

Life and works

The decorated house is a creation by Bernard Rein, who started the project in 1998.

It all began in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, a commune in the Vosges, about 90 kilometers from Kembs, known for its mineral trade. There Bernard Rein found all kinds of stones that appealed to him and which he bought with the idea to use these to decorate the outside of his house.

top of the front facade

He used the stones indeed to embellish the exterior of his house, but the decorations do not only consist of purchased minerals. 

Bernard Rein is a true collector of all kinds of stuff and the basement of his house is full of items found at flea markets or, as the project progressed, donated by friends who wanted to support the decorative project.

Adding decorative items is done by Bernard Rein on the basis of the inspiration of the moment, without a preconceived plan, just following themes or stories that come to his mind.

In this way the house gradually became a colorful art environment, with a completely filled facade, a partially decorated side wall on the right and a decorated front of an adjacent small building,

right side of the front facade

left side of the front facade

The decorations include a colourful collection of all sorts of items. For example, there are small sculptures from Djibouti, an African country located along the Red Sea, but also all sorts of fossils from Morocco.

There are small sculptures of Indians, all sorts of compositions in which shells are incorporated, souvenirs from trips made and all sorts of items from flea markets, found by Bernard Rein himself or by one of his friends

One can also see items that relate to the area near the house. For example, there is a plaque with a name that is not immediately familiar to everyone, understandably, because it is an item connected to a ship that was no longer used for navigation and was moored in the Rhône-Rhine Canal, that flows through the area behind the house.

decorations on the right side wall

Other items with a background that may not be immediately clear to everyone, originate from a collaboration between Bernard Rein and a magician and friends, who were involved in a circus in Switzerland and whom he assisted in performances or other activities.

Comparing the recent images of the site with the image of the front of the house in 2008, it can be seen that the tympanum had not yet been worked on and that the other surfaces have a calmer appearance than they do now.

This may be related to Bernard Rein's increasing skill and daring in treating the walls with a mixture of plaster, cement, water and natural pigments, which he now adds resolutely to the area to be decorated, in order to transform it into creative items or to incorporate found items into it.

the house as situated along the road

Documentation

*  Article (July 2023) in regional journal l'Alsace with a large series of photographs showing in particular details of the decoration

* Article (August 2024) in journal France 3 Grand Est

* Entry (September 2024) on the newspaper of BFM TV Alsace, with a short video (can't be added here)

Bernard Rein, 

Decorated house

14, rue des Jardins 

68680 Kembs, dept Haut-Rhin, region Grand Est, France

the decorated house can be seen from the street

Google Streetview

Lino Corradi, Giardino e interno decorati / Decorated garden and interior

the tower of the church La Ghirlandina in Modena, Italy
all images as published on the website "Lino Corradi"
compiled by his family in his memory 

The tower pictured above is a replica of the tower of the La Ghirlandina, the tower next to the main cathedral of the city of Modena, located in the province with the same name in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna

Life and works 

This replica was constructed by Lino Corradi (1935-2023), who was born in the municipality of  Bastiglia. He worked his whole life in the marble sector, where he gained a lot of experience and skill in manually processing pieces of hard rock.

He married Bassoli Osvalda in 1962, and in 1973, when he was 37 years old, he and his wife decided to build a house in a small village in the Apennine area of ​​the province of Modena..

With his manual skills he also made parts of the furnishings himself, such as tables and cabinets.

a marble seagull

When he retired in the 1990s, Corradi did not opt ​​for a quiet life, but he began kind of a a new career in making sculptures which he used to decorated his house and garden.

He made creations from marble, such as the seagull in the image above.

canon

But he also made creations from wood, such as the cannon above, and a series of wooden figures depicting all kinds of types, such as a cowboy, an Indian, and Pinocchio below.

a cowboy

an Indian

Pinocchio

Below an image of l due angeli (the two angels), a creation made of sheet metal, which was not situated in the garden, but on a nearby hill .

In selecting the images of Corrari's artistic work for this article, the emphasis was put on creations that are situated outdoor. this in order to stress the concept of carving as part of an art environment.

During Lino Corradi's lifetime his creative work received virtually no recognition. Fortunately, thanks to Giada Carraro, an art specialist and writer who publishes articles about art environments in Italy, his artworks were given publicity with an article about Lino Corradi that appeared in her website Bric-à-brac Italia.

Documentation

* Website about Corradi's creations made in his honor by the family after he passed away 

* Article about Corradi's life and work by Giada Carraro on her website Bric-à-brac Italia

Lino Corradi

Decorated garden and interior

Located in a small mountain village called Riolunato

in the Apennines of Modena,

region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Pentti Kangasaho & Mervi Rintala, Polttopuista tehdyt rakennukset / Buildings made from firewood

this photo and the next four courtesy of Minna Haveri

A recent post in this weblog, published on January 24, 2025, was dedicated to Veikko Salo from Padasjoki, Finland, who in 2017 began building small-scale houses and other buildings from stacked firewood, which he situated in a wooded area along road 24.

From the responses to the article it became clear that there is at least one other art environment in Finland that focuses on creations made with wooden materials collected in the forests as firewood.

Life and works

This refers to an art environment created by Pentti Kangasaho and Mervi Rintala, living in a hamlet that is part of the municipality of Urjala in the Finnish region of Western and Central Finland.

This hamlet, called Pertunkulma, is located some 5 km east of the built-up area of ​​Urjala and is situated in a very wooded area.

Pentti Kangasaho and his wife Mervi Rintala live here in a rural home, which means that there is plenty of space around the house to situate piles of firewood, a fuel that in Finland is widely used for heating homes, especially in rural wooded areas. 

This was also the case at Pentti and Mervi's house, and so it happened that Pentti, who always found it very attractive to make something with his hands, came up with the idea of ​​transforming piles of firewood into small buildings. 

And so, in 2005 Pertti, assisted by Mervi, began constructing firewood buildings which got situated in the space near their house. as shown in the photos.

The first building the couple created, was a stacked construction of firewood, covered with a ridge of a fiber cement plate, which protected the stack from too much moisture.

After more than ten years of creative construction and partly also the burning of some creations, in the summer of 2017 a cozy village had been established, comprising a church, a rectory and several residential buildings.

The church, depicted below, named Ketunaho Chapel, occupies a special place amidst all other creations.

Fifteen cubic meters of birch and spruce wood were used for its construction.

The roof, in the shape of a saddle roof, has been made of old mineral wall plates and the whole is decorated with a small square tower with a spire made of residual wood.

The church was consecrated in 2013 by the Reverend Kauko Keränen, who stated in his speech that Mervi and Pentti had the right to set fire to the building if this was considered as convenient and appropriate.

Another notable event involving the church occurred in 2014, when the Finnish newspaper Yle Tampere organized a competition for the most beautiful photo of a self-created wooden structure, which was won by Mervi Rintala who had made the photo of the church which she herself had helped to create.

The above text describes the situation of the art environment as it had developed in around 2015. No information is available on the internet about the developments of the site in the ten years or so that followed.

This also means that it is currently unclear whether the site can be visited, which in the early years was possible once a year during a weekend in a summer month.

Environmental and health aspects of collecting and burning wood

For followers of this blog who live in other countries then Finland it can be interesting to hear more about environmental and health aspect of working with firewood. 

The Finnish website Puu-info, a promoter of responsible wood use, states that in Finland, despite the use of wood from forests (which account for 75 percent of the country's total area) thanks to forest management measures, the amount of wood in Finnish forests has increased by 60 percent in 70 years. 

 As for the use of wood as fuel, it is stated that this doesn't lead to an increase in the concentrations of carbon dioxide and sulphur in the air or to an increase in the greenhouse effect of the climate. The combustion of wood releases the same amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the decomposition of wood in nature. 

Finland also has an annual prize, the Wood Award, which is awarded for an interesting and responsible use of wood.

Documentation

* Article (undated) on the website Maaseudun Sivistysliitto, ITE Pirkanmaala/Urjala

* Article  (July 2014) about the site in newspaper Yle Tampere

* Article (July 2016) about the site in regional periodical Luonnon Varassa, p 20-23

* Article (July 2014) in newspaper Yle Tampere about the photo contest, with a series of photos of all kinds of stacked firewood in Finland

Pentti Kangasaho & Mervi Rintala

Buildings made from firewood

143 Pertunkulmantie

Hamlet of Pertunkulma, municipality of Urjala, dept Pirkanmaa, region Western and Central Finland, Finland

it is not clear whether the site can be visited today

an image on Google Streetview, most likely shows the location of the art environment because of the church building that can be seen

Viktor Kompaniichenko, Прикрашений будинок / Decorated house

photos by Olga Stenko, as in her article (May 2019) 
in newspaper Gazeta

Founded in the late 17th century and an estate for many years, the small village of Yakovtsi in 1929 was incorporated in the Ukrainian municipality of Poltava, traditionally a transportation node and an important cultural center. 

In the 1950s the village experienced urbanization, with many newly built houses and other buildings

However, the modest, long-standing house of Viktor Kompaniichenko was not urbanized in the 1950s. It was transformed into an art environment when its  occupant rather lavishly began decorating its exterior walls.

He would spend  about forty years designing the site.

 

Viktor Kompaniichenko was born in the early 1930s and died at the age of 72 in the early years of the 21st century.

After that, his son Oleksandr Viktorovich, born in 1957, became the owner of the house. At a young age, Oleksandr Viktorovich must have witnessed the transformation of the house.

His father had only a primary education and he was a lover of painting, wood carving and making sculptures. He also built the house himself, probably starting after he completed his military service in the early 1950s.

The house has only a ground floor, with an iron roof above. 

In the middle of the front facade is the slightly forward-facing entrance, flanked on the left and right by windows. 

The interior space has an area of ​​over 100 square meters, with a central hall of 25 square meters and two small rooms on either side. 

The front of the house is decorated with stucco work and along the upper edge there is a garland of flowers.

As the image above shows, the decorations Viktor Kompaniichenko added to the exterior of the house also included sculptures, which he made of concrete. Some of these sculptures are now damaged, but Oleksandr does not have the means to restore them.

Along the front of the house is a low concrete fence, decorated with stone flowers. There were also decorations with sculptures of musicians, which are partly damaged.

The brief description of the nature and content of this art environment is based on the documentation dated 2019. It is not inconceivable that the site has deteriorated further in recent years.

Documentation

* Article (May 2019) by Olga Stenko in newspaper Gazeta 

Viktor Kompaniichenko

Decorated house Dykanska street Yakovtsi district, city of Poltava, region Poltava, Ukraine can be seen from the street

Veikko Salo, Pinottu polttopuun luomukset / Creations of stacked firewood

photo (2021) by Juho Haaviko on Google Streetview

In rural areas in Finland it is not uncommon for residents to collect a winter supply of firewood from a nearby forest. It also happens in Finland that someone comes up with the idea to transform such a pile of wood into small-scale buildings, as shown in the image above. 

To my knowledge this is a unique Finnish happening. because so far elsewhere in Europe I haven't come across art environments with singular architecture made from firewood.

photo (2021) by Marja Leena-Kounia on Google Streetview

 Life and works

The small buildings and other items featured in this art environment have been created by Veikko Salo, who lives in Padasjoki, a municipality of about 2,750 inhabitants (2022) in Päijät-Häme in the region of Southern Finland.

He was born in August 1947 and was active as a forestry engineer throughout his working life.

Around 2016 Salo read in an article in a newspaper about people in Finland who had made a creation from firewood. (Maybe about Pentti Kangasaho and Mervi Rintala who in 2005 began to enrich the surroundings of their home in the municipality of Urjala in Finland with all kinds of small buildings made of firewood).

Around 2000 Salo had already made a firewood structure, a kind of pyramid. with a height of ten meters and a round base with a diameter of about eight meters. However, the wooden parts of the structure were stacked very close together and filled a large portion of the interior of the creation, which caused the components to deform from within, resulting in a collapse of the structure.

photo (2022) by Merja Kukkonen as on Google Streetview

The newspaper article in 2016 inspired Salo to start creating firewood structures again, but this time better, taking into account the previous experience.

Assisted by his friend Ripa Töyry, who helped him with the design of the creations, he got to work.

And soon these creations began to form an art environment with its own characteristics.

The images above, dating from 2021 and 2022, show structures with a realistic design. As a visitor, one may get the idea of walking in a cozy village street.

this image (August 2022) and the next
two from Facebook

Because of the experience he had gained around  2000. his new creations got a much more airy structure, such as the tipi pictured above, which has a diameter of 4 meters and a height of 4.7 meters, and includes some 300 wooden stakes. .

this image published in October 2018

The image above shows a close-up of how the buildings that now decorate the art environment takes shape;

They are constructed from trunks of young trees, which are sawn into small units and then stacked, with the sawn surface or the long side facing forward. 

In this way, wall sections are created, which are grouped in such a way that an entrance, a front facade, a roof section or other part of the building emerges.

By maintaining the same dimensions for the various building elements, a balanced whole is created when they are combined.

When structures are somewhat bulky or rising upwards, such as the mill in one of the images above, the help of a mobile tool with a gripper arm is called in, so that for example the mill sails can be easily lifted and attached. 

The video in the documentation below shows such an approach.

this image published in April 2017

In addition to the houses, the mill and other structures that comprise the art environment, there are also some creations in the form of a wooden wall on which a message is proclaimed.

For example, the wall above is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Finland, which was celebrated in 2017. 

Documentation

* Article (November 2018) in newspaper Maasedun Tulevaisuus

* Article (October 2018) in newspaper Yle

* Article (August 2017) in newspaper MTV Uutiset

Video

* Video by Timo Lampinen (2020, YouTube, 4'35")

Veikko Salo

Creations of stacked firewood

along road 24 

Quarter Likoniementie, city of Padasjoki, region Päijät-Häme, dept Southern Finland, Finland

can be seen from the road

Google Streetview

François Alix, Magic Hortus

this image and the next four (2024)
courtesy of the editors of the website tipeek photos 

In Foreil, a small hamlet that is part of the commune of Verrue in the department Vienne, France, there is a forest called Scévolles.

In this rural and wooded area François Alix in 2018 started to create his art environment Magic Hortus.

Life and works

François Alix was born in 1964 in Chinon, a commune about 40 kilometers north of Verrue.

There is virtually no information available on the internet about his early years and education.

His life story begins with the report that he had gone to live in Switzerland, where he sold antiquarian books. He returned to France in 2018, when he was 54. Earlier, in 2010, he had bought the four-hectare site in Foreil.

Francois Alix moved into a house situated on the area he had bought in 2010. Pictures from that time show that this terrain provided space to store caravans and was covered with a variety of small stone structures. 

He came up with the idea of ​​beautifying this area by adding home-made decorations, and because around that time a pile of scrap metal had been dumped in the forest near the area, his first thought went to welding himself all sorts of metal flowers. And so he went to work with a hacksaw and a welding machine, producing small pieces of metal that were put together in all kinds of compositions.

For many years in this way he was active in creating a range of metal flowers, painted in all sorts of colours. With these flowers he could bring colour not only to his own life, but also to the lives of people who come to see his art environment.

.

The sea of ​​flowers on the site, currently partly entwined with rusty foliage, also explains why it bears the name Magic Hortus.

The smaller metal creations also include a group of 365 sculptures of women who dance, spread out across the terrain.

There are also small metal creations in specific shapes that decorate fences situated in various places in the art environment.

And then, they are also used to decorate stand alone metal elements, such as the large round wheel, shown below and a metal bridge that covers kind of a a water feature surrounded by upright yellow colored side walls

Near this bridge rises a tall rusty metal tower, its top marked by a large amount of metal strings hanging down, all together a paraphrase on a tree. Such trees also adorn the site elsewhere.

François Alix’s favorite spot is the "high line" pictured below. It is a large, walkable metal structure, kind of a bridge, made from arches that came from a train station. From this bridge one has a beautiful view of the art environment.

Within the ensemble of iron and stone items that adorn the garden, the carefully placed gravestones occupy a special place, which could give the idea that this is an open-air mausoleum. 

However, the site is more a vast labyrinth or maze of interrelated metal and stone creations.

In March 2024 something completely unexpected happened. A representative of DREAL (Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing) came along, accompanied by a few police officers, to report that the site was considered an unlicensed iron waste heap that had to be cleared within a few months.

François Alix does not accept this and puts up a defense.

 

Documentation

* Article (May 2024) on the website of newspaper France Bleu Poitou

* Article (May 2024) on website Tipeek Photos

* Article (October 2021) in newspaper La Nouvelle République

Video

* Video (YouTube, 2024, 5'46'') 

Francois Alix

Magic Hortus,

along the D347

Hamlet of Foreil, municipality of Verrue, dept Vienne, region Normandy. France

can be visited

Google Streetview