Suvilahti gasometer with red balloons

Suvilahti (Swedish: Södervik) is a former energy production area in Sörnäinen, Helsinki. Construction of a steam turbine electrical power plant was completed in 1909 and a gas plant in 1910. The buildings were constructed using the then revolutionary steel-reinforced concrete method. The architect Selim A. Lindqvist was influenced by Viennese Art Nouveau or “Jugend” architecture. Voimalaitos (power plant) represents one of the monuments of Finnish architecture and has been compared to Helsinki’s Central Railway Station in terms of significance. A lively working-class neighbourhood developed around Suvilahti. Local products included bread, soap, bricks, matches and even elevators. The Suvilahti power plant was closed in 1976 upon completion of the new Hanasaari B power plant. The buildings were converted into warehouses and sports facilities. Already in the 1980s Suvilahti was used to stage production by the KOM Theatre. Gas production was discontinued following the introduction of natural gas in 1994.

Various cultural actors and enterprises gradually began moving to the area, and in 2008 the administration of Suvilahti transferred to Kiinteistö Oy Kaapelitalo, a real estate company which began developing, renting and maintaining the facilities. Kiinteistö Oy Kaapelitalo is owned by the City of Helsinki. The company is also responsible for the facilities at Kaapelitehdas (Cable Factory) in Ruoholahti, Helsinki. Industrial environments and urban cultures have always gone together hand-in-hand. Just like a hundred years ago, young people are again flowing into Suvilahti – this time to add their art to the graffiti wall and listen to bands.

For over a century Suvilahti generated energy for Helsinki residents. Now the form of energy has changed from electricity to culture. Suvilahti represents a long-term project and will never be officially opened with any inauguration ceremony. The mission is to maintain this historically unique industrial environment and rent out its facilities. This work will proceed one building at a time for at least the next ten years. Buildings awaiting repairs will be made available for a wide range of temporary, limited and short-term uses.

The somewhat chaotic nature of the next few years promises that this will be an exciting time. The area and its buildings provide a virgin environment in which to break barriers while creating new urban culture. Already today Suvilahti offers visitors an environment that is worth checking out. The atmosphere in the factory courtyard should be experienced right now, and behind an increasing number of the doors are tenants whose activities can be seen and heard to be generating energy.

Suvilahti encompasses nine buildings and two large gasometers. Work, atelier and performance spaces are constantly being renovated at Suvilahti for use by artists and artist groups, while the area is already home for e.g. a graffiti gallery, photography studios, writers, event and TV production companies and advertising agencies. Suvilahti’s unparalleled advantages include its diversity, spaciousness, peace and quiet, and excellent transportation connections. The required building inspections, basic repairs and renovations will take years; at the moment it is estimated that the buildings will be filled by lessors and activities in 3 to 5 years and that technically the buildings will be at the same level as Kaapelitehdas in approximately 10 years. The large courtyard area is used for outdoor events.

The transformation of the Suvilahti area into a cultural centre is part of the broader development plan for the Sörnäistenranta and Kalasatama districts. The cargo harbour at Sompasaari moved to Vuosaari in 2008, and the vacated space will be used to create a new urban district over the next years. The district will eventually house around 18,000 residents and 10,000 workplaces.

Visit www.suvilahti.fi for more information.

Central Helsinki in 1820 before rebuilding, drawn by Carl Ludvig Engel

Helsinki (Swedish: Helsingfors) is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is 588,941 (31 January 2011), making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is located some 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden, 300 kilometres (190 mi) west of St. Petersburg, Russia and 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia. Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities.

The Helsinki Metropolitan Area includes the city of Helsinki and three other cities: Espoo and Vantaa, which immediately border Helsinki to the west and north, respectively; and Kauniainen, which is an enclave within the city of Espoo. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the world’s northernmost urban area among those with a population of over one million people, and the city is the northernmost capital of a EU member state. Altogether 1.1 million people, approximately one in five Finns, live in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Helsinki is Finland’s major political, educational, financial, cultural and research centre as well as one of northern Europe’s major cities.

Helsinki was established as a trading town in 1550 as the town of Helsingfors, which was intended to be a rival to the Hanseatic city of Reval (today known as Tallinn), but it was not until Helsinki was proclaimed the Finnish capital in 1812 that the town began to develop into a substantial city. As elsewhere, technological advancements such as railroads and industrialization were key factors behind the city’s growth.

Despite the tumultuousness of Finnish history during the first half of the 20th century, Helsinki continued its steady development. A landmark event was the XV Olympiad (1952 Olympic Games) held in Helsinki. Finland’s rapid urbanization in the 1970s, occurring late relative to the rest of Europe, tripled the population in the metropolitan area, and the Helsinki Metro subway system was built. The relatively sparse population density of Helsinki and its peculiar structure have often been attributed to the lateness of its growth.

Helsinki is spread across a number of bays and peninsulas and over a number of islands. The inner city area occupies a southern peninsula, which is rarely referred to by its actual name Vironniemi. Population density in certain parts of Helsinki’s inner city area is very high, reaching 16,494 inhabitants per square kilometre (42,720 /sq mi) in the district of Kallio, but as a whole Helsinki’s population density of 3,050 per square kilometre (7,900 /sq mi) ranks it as quite sparsely populated in comparison to other European capital cities. Much of Helsinki outside the inner city area consists of postwar suburbs separated from each other by patches of forest. A narrow, ten-kilometre-long (6 mi) Helsinki Central Park that stretches from the inner city to the northern border of Helsinki is an important recreational area for residents. Major islands in Helsinki include Seurasaari, Lauttasaari and Korkeasaari – the latter being the site of the country’s biggest zoo. Other significant islands are the fortress island of Suomenlinna (Sveaborg) and the military island of Santahamina. Pihlajasaari island is a favourite summer spot for naturists, very much comparable to Fire Island off New York City.

The cityscape of the historical center of Helsinki was widely designed by a neoclassical German architect Carl Ludvig Engel (1778–1840). The focal point of Engel’s city plan is the Senate Square. It is surrounded by the Government Palace (to the east), the main building of the University (to the west), and (to the north) the enormous Cathedral, which was finished in 1852, twelve years after C. L. Engel’s death. Subsequently, Engel’s neoclassical plan stimulated the epithet, The White City Of The North. Helsinki is, however, perhaps even more famous for its numerous Art Nouveau (Jugend in Finnish) influenced buildings of the romantic nationalism, designed in the early 1900s and strongly influenced by the Kalevala, which is a very popular theme in the national romantic art of that era. Helsinki’s Art Nouveau style is also featured in large residential areas such as Katajanokka and Ullanlinna. The master of the Finnish Art Nouveau was Eliel Saarinen (1873–1950), whose architectural masterpiece was the Helsinki central railway station.

Eliel Square at a summer midnight

Helsinki also features several buildings by the world-renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto (1898–1976), recognized as one of the pioneers of architectural functionalism. Renowned functionalist buildings in Helsinki by other architects include the Olympic Stadium, the Tennis Palace, the Rowing Stadium, the Swimming Stadium, the Velodrome, the Glass Palace, the Exhibition Hall (now Töölö Sports Hall) and Helsinki-Malmi Airport.

The biggest historical museum in Helsinki is the National Museum of Finland, which displays a vast historical collection from prehistoric times to the 21st century. The museum building itself, a national romantic style neomedieval castle, is a tourist attraction. Other major historical museum is the Helsinki City Museum, which introduces visitors to Helsinki’s 500-year history. The University of Helsinki also has many significant museums, including the University Museum and the Natural History Museum. The Finnish National Gallery consists of three museums: Ateneum Art Museum for classical Finnish art, Sinebrychoff Art Museum for classical European art, and Kiasma Art Museum for modern art.

Finnish and Swedish are the official languages of the municipality of Helsinki. The majority, or 84.3% of the population, speak Finnish as their native language. A minority, at 6.1%, speak Swedish. Around 9.6% of the population speak a native language other than Finnish or Swedish. Helsinki slang combines influences from both Finnish, Swedish and Russian languages. Finnish today is the common language of communication between Finnish speakers, Swedish speakers and speakers of other languages (new Finns) in day-to-day affairs in the public sphere between unknown persons. In case a speaker’s knowledge of Finnish is not known, English is usually spoken.

Pohjoisranta (Northern Shore) in the evening

In Helsinki slang the city is nicknamed as either Stadi (from the Swedish word stad, meaning “city”) or Hesa (short of Helsinki + slang suffix sa), with Stadi being used to assert that the speaker is native to the city. Helsset is the Northern Saami name of Helsinki.

For more information, visit the official website of the City of Helsinki.

Kotiharju public sauna in Kallio, Helsinki

Finland (Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.

Around 5.4 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern region. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. A total of about one million residents live in the Greater Helsinki area (which includes Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa). Other larger cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio.

Among the first documents to mention Finland are two rune-stones. There is one in the Swedish province Uppland, with the inscription finlonti, and one in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea, with the inscription finlandi, the latter dating from the 13th century. The name Suomi (Finnish for “Finland”) has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a cognate is the Proto-Baltic word zeme, meaning “land”. In addition to the close relatives of Finnish (the Finnic languages), this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian. Alternatively, the Indo-European word ghmon, “man” (cf. Gothic guma, Latin homo), has been suggested, being borrowed as ćoma. The word originally referred only to the province of Finland Proper, and later to the northern coast of Gulf of Finland, with northern lands such as Ostrobothnia still being excluded as late as the 18th century. Earlier theories suggested derivation from suomaa (fen land) or suoniemi (fen cape), and parallels between saame (Sami, a non-Finnish people in Finland) and Häme (a Finnish people and a province) were drawn, but these theories are now considered outdated.

According to archaeological evidence, the area now comprising Finland was settled at the latest around 8500 BCE during the Stone Age as the ice sheet of the last ice age receded. The artifacts the first settlers left behind present characteristics that are shared with those found in Estonia, Russia and Norway. The earliest people were hunter-gatherers, using stone tools. The first pottery appeared in 5200 BCE when the Comb Ceramic culture was introduced. The arrival of the Corded Ware culture in southern coastal Finland between 3000–2500 BCE may have coincided with the start of agriculture. Even with the introduction of agriculture, hunting and fishing continued to be important parts of the subsistence economy.

The Bronze Age (1500–500 BCE) and Iron Age (500 BCE–1200 CE) were characterised by extensive contacts with other cultures in the Fennoscandian and Baltic regions. There is no consensus on when Uralic languages and Indo-European languages were first spoken in the area of contemporary Finland. During the 1st millennium AD early Finnish was spoken at least in agricultural settlements of Southern Finland, whereas Sámi-speaking populations occupied most parts of the country.

Finland was historically a part of Sweden, and from 1809–1917 was an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire. The Finnish Declaration of Independence from Russia in 1917 was followed by a civil war in which the leftist side was defeated with German support. Finland fought World War II as essentially three separate conflicts: the Winter War (1939–1940), the Continuation War (1941–1944), and the Lapland War (1944–1945). Finland joined the United Nations in 1955, the OECD in 1969, the European Union in 1995, and the eurozone at its inception in 1999.

Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialisation, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. Thereafter, economic development was rapid. Finland built an extensive welfare state and balanced between the East and the West in global economics and politics. With the best educational system in Europe, Finland has recently ranked as one of the world’s most peaceful, competitive and livable countries.

Finland is one of the world’s northernmost countries. It lies between latitudes 59° and 71° N, and longitudes 20° and 32° E. Of world capitals, only Reykjavik lies more to the north than Helsinki. The distance from the southernmost – Hanko – to the northernmost point in the country – Nuorgam – is 1,160 kilometres (720 mi).

Finland is a country of thousands of lakes and islands – 187,888 lakes (larger than 500 m2/0.12 acre) and 179,584 islands. Its largest lake, Saimaa, is the fourth largest in Europe. The greatest number of islands are to be found in the southwest in the Turku archipelago. Further from the coast lies Ahvenanmaa or Åland (in Swedish) Islands.

A lot in the geography of Finland is explained by the Ice Age. The glaciers were thicker and lasted longer in Fennoscandia compared to the rest of Europe. Their eroding effects have left the Finnish landscape mostly flat with few hills and fewer mountains. Its highest point, the Halti at 1,324 metres (4,344 ft), is found in the extreme north of Lapland at the border between Finland and Norway. The highest mountain, its peak being in Finland, is Ridnitsohkka at 1,316 m (4,318 ft), directly adjacent to Halti.

The retreating glaciers have left the land with morainic deposits in formations of eskers. These are ridges of stratified gravel and sand, running northwest to southeast, where the ancient edge of the glacier once lay. One of the biggest of these are the three Salpausselkä ridges that run across southern Finland.

Due to having been compressed under the enormous weight of the glaciers, terrain in Finland is rising due to the post-glacial rebound. The effect is strongest around the Gulf of Bothnia, where land steadily rises about 1 cm a year. As a result, old sea bottom turns little by little into dry land: the surface area of the country is expanding by about 7 square kilometres (2.7 sq mi) annually. In a sense, Finland is rising from the sea.

Forest covers 86% of the country’s area, the largest forested area in Europe. The forest consists of pine, spruce, birch, larch and other species. Finland is the largest producer of wood in Europe and among the largest in the world.

The landscape is covered mostly (seventy-five percent of land area) by coniferous taiga forests and fens, with little arable land. The most common type of rock is granite. It is a ubiquitous part of the scenery, visible wherever there is no soil cover. Moraine or till is the most common type of soil, covered by a thin layer of humus of biological origin. Podzol profile development is seen in most forest soils except where drainage is poor. Gleysols and peat bogs occupy poorly drained areas.

Read more about Finland here.