Kick-starting from the Nürburg, over the astonishingly green shores of Ireland, across the mosaic city profile of Lisbon, via the triumphal arch in Madrid, through the underground network of London on the way to Hertfordshire, on foot on the silky and warm marbles of Athens, the RESCuE team representatives landed on snow and ice covered ground glittering in the light of horizontal sun of the late winter. This time the meeting took place in Inari municipality, in one of its several villages, tourist resort Saariselkä. Saariselkä was originally known as a place of natural beauty (next to the Urho Kekkonen nature park) and later as a state owned research station. Later the area with the built infrastructure was given to the municipality and was developed into the beating heart of tourism industry. That is probably one of the main reason the municipality is doing better than many others in similar circumstances, when it comes to the employment and income rates due to the drastic structural changes in industries and economy in the Northern Finland.

Paradoxically, being in a tourist resorts does not mean necessarily holiday, but premises for intensive working. This is rather “business as usual” than an exception. Still the spatial features of the surrounding environment where approached for example by walking on the winter route, in the dim light with some very northern and very dry refreshments, salted and dried reindeer meat, naturally.

Text and photos by Joonas Vola