ELANTO: Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta area

A closer look at some of the reused industrial buildings in the Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta area.

The clock tower fronting Hameentie, the building’s dominant façade

Elanto Bakery complex:
This complex of buildings was designed by architect Vaino Vahakallio who designed a number of the multistory brick industrial buildings in the Helsinki area in the first half of the 20th century. The complex was built to house the Elanto Coop in 1920 and was later expanded in the 1950s. The entire plot contained a large production bakery, head offices, and a prominent 10-story clock tower on the Hameentie façade. The complex dominated that area of the cityscape at the time. It was the largest bakery in Northern Europe in the mid 1900s.


Old photo of a salesroom
A view showing the many buildings incorporated in the complex
Exterior façade from the courtyard in the middle of the complex

Around 2000 Elanto no longer used the facilities and the building then became home to an arts school. The Finnish firm Brunow & Maunula designed the conversion of the Elanto complex. The various spaces that were essential to the production of bread were now converted into the variety of spaces needed for an art school -- housing dance studios, painting studios, printmaking studios, and administration offices.

Digital model made in designing the entrance and auditorium
The picture under this is of the construction of this space
Digital model depicting the footplates and new space of the conversion to an arts school
The courtyard
Main entrance to the dance school

Low rooms needed for dough raising and preparation were converted into offices and lounge spaces; dance studios are now the former baking rooms that contained high ceilings for the equipment. Though a major effort was made to maintain all the original spaces, new conditions required some alteration of the vertical spaces and evidence of preexisting floors can be seen on the walls at the entrance. Little was done to the exterior of the building. From the street the building looks as if it could still house the Elanto baking facilities except for the large number twenty year-olds dressed in black wandering about with a pack of cigarettes in one hand and a canvas in the other.

One of the dance studios
A new entrance made of a perforated copper screened gate, off of Lintulahdenkatu
Eastern view of the buildings
Façade from neighboring office building
Old photo of the building when it was still the Elanto bakery headquarters

Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta

Current aerial photo of the site area.

The area of Helsinki where the neighborhood of Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta is located.
A digital rendering of the future development of Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta.

The port of Helsinki is constructing a new harbor north of the city center in a location called Vuosaari Harbor. It will become the main port for Helsinki combining the Finnish maritime administration with train and road administrations. Most of the current harbor and port facilities within the Helsinki region are relocating to Vuosaari Harbor. The relocation of these facilities opens up more than 7 kilometers of the Helsinki waterfront for new use

Looking north at the Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta area.
Silos mixed with residential buildings.

Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta is one of first modern harbors to be constructed in Helsinki connecting the rail line and the sea. It is a neighborhood located on the northeast shores of Helsinki, and all of its facilities are in the processes of closing or relocating to Vuosaari Harbor. Currently the city, looking for ideas of what to do with the neighborhood, is holding a variety of competitions for the site. Two important goals are to provide housing for15,000 new residents and to create 5000-7000 jobs.


Hanasaari Power Plant built in 1974 dominates the cityscape in an area composed of smoke stacks, coal elevators, and large brick facades. An enormous pile of coal sits on the waterfront side. This building, whose functions will be transferred to the new port, occupies a huge amount of the waterfront in the area.
Hanasaari Power Plant from the west.
This building was built in 1908, designed by Selim Lindqvist, for the Suvilahti Power Plant. In recent years it ceased functioning as a power plant and has been adapted for a number of different uses: theaters, art installations, warehouses, sports facilities, including a branch of Solmon sports.


Large portions of the site are being demolished, making way for new residential and commercial structures.

Today the area is filled with a variety of red brick industrial buildings. Many of these are still in use; some have already been adapted for new use; others lie vacant or are being torn down. The network of roads, train tracks, and on/off ramps creates an ugly transportation snake pit. The industrial character of the area raises many tricky issues for city planners hoping to create an attractive new residential and commercial neighborhood. Heavy traffic and roads designed for semi-trucks and industrial equipment make it unappealing for residential and commercial uses. The scale of many of the buildings, while suitable for industrial purposes, is inappropriate for most human activity. The street walls are typically overbearing and unfriendly to pedestrians. These and other issues related to large scale urban relocation and adaptation have created a challenging environment for those competing to come up with a workable design for Helsinki’s future.

A closer look at the turbine hall of the Suvilahti Power Plant.
Many smaller administrations buildings are scattered around the area, most of which are vacant today.
Buildings belonging to a gas company designed by Lindqvist are located adjacent to the power plant and match its color scheme.

A typical street in the Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta neighborhood lined with red brick buildings and large loading zones.
Helsinki Municipal Slaughterhouse built in 1933 and designed by Bertel Liljeqvist. The large structure is a refrigeration tower with the administration building adjacent to it. The build ceased functioning as a slaughterhouse in 1992 and since then has played a number of roles in Helsinki’s food industry.

This map shows the future public transportation connections to the site
Street hierarchy diagram of the area’s connection to the rest of Helsinki
A diagram of the future building layout of the area.
Future path of a walkway/park along the waterfront. The area will connect to the already existing public waterfront recreation path.
A map depicting the site’s future greenways and park connections to the rest of the Helsinki area.
Future demolition and construction areas.
New commercial areas.

TAMPERE

Tampere 1800s
Aerial shot showing construction of some of the Tampere dams


Tampere is located about 200 kilometers north of Helsinki on the Tammerkoski rapids that connect lakes Nãsijãrvi and Pyhãjãrvi. The rapids are formed from the 18 meters difference in height between the two lakes. The city was established in 1779 and, due to the water turbine power from the Tammerkoski rapids, became a hub of industrial manufacturing in the 19th century. James Finlayson established the largest cotton factory here in 1820. The buildings’ size dominated the town. The leading industries were textiles and iron, but it was also home to the first paper mill and the first electric light to be installed in a factory was in Finlayson’s. Today the heavier industries have begun to dissipate and high technology has taken over. The dominant name of Finlayson industries has been pushed aside for the more familiar Nokia.
Early picture of the main dam
The dam today
An early map of Tampere; the development centered around the Tammerkoski rapids.

The beginning of dams along the Tammerkoski rapids around1810
Mid 1800s photo of Tampere from the lower lake
Tampere, late 1800s
Mid 1900 Tampere

Maps of a few year later

The sky line of Tampere is still full of smoke stacks and prominent redbrick industrial buildings but on a closer look very few of the smoke stacks ever produce any smoke, and the main entrances to the brick buildings are no longer for large scale machinery. Instead they have been brought down to a human scale with atomic glass doors that swing open where a 10 meter sliding wooden door once stood. The circulation systems of pulleys and chains in the interiors have been replaced with new lighting and small-scale stairways for human circulation.

The Tampere skyline and rapids taken in the early 1800s
Early worker housing around Tampere
Row of early worker housing
Exterior of worker housing


Interior machinery of one of the ironworks factories

The Finlayson complex still dominates the city’s industrial region. When it was built this was a city within a city. Not only was it the source of most of the jobs for the residents of Tampere but it was also a center of housing, schools, and merchandising . Today it is still a lively community but now, instead of industry, it has been reused to house a number of civic and commercial functions: restaurants, shops, museums, businesses, and galleries. Many of the spaces feel as though they have not changed much from the original uses; piping forms and machinery that is no longer in use still run through the ceilings, and chains hanging from cranes that have not operated in years still swing in the drafts in the new ventilation system. The least successful places are the areas that house the restaurants There the former textile mill has been dissected up into a number of chain restaurants that retain few recollections of what the space used to be. Since the facades of these buildings cannot be changed due to strict preservation codes there is almost no natural light in some areas and the whole space is more reminiscent of a Mall food court than a once humming industry.

Collection of worker housing
Plans and section of the first Finlayson building
Finlayson Hall entrance
Exterior of Finlayson Hall
Street façade along Finlayson Hall today.
Looking down one of the main streets in Tampere toward Finlayson Hall
Tampere today looking up toward the Finlayson complex
Pedestrian corridors added on to connect two of the buildings within the Finlayson complex

The interior of Finlayson Hall; beyond this room is the divided up food court
An alleyway within the Finlayson complex heading toward the arts school gallery


A more satisfactory reuse is that of the old engineering works of Tampella Ltd into a Museum Center. Here you can visit Finland Hockey museum, which consists entirely of displays reliving the 1995 World Championship when Finland beat Sweden to win the title. The buildings house six different museums, photo archives, and a café. The buildings began as a linen and iron factory producing both locomotive turbines and damask linen cloths. The textile production ended in the 1970s and the industrial use of the buildings ended soon after that. Between 1995 and 2000 the buildings were converted into the present day museum facilities. The buildings are centered around a large turbine room, into which all exhibits enter and from which they exit on different levels. The central space is left open and provides a generous amount of daylight into the circulation areas. The café is at one end of the turbine hall and extends outside over the Tammerkoski rapids.

One of the buildings of the Tampella complex in the late 1800s
Exterior of the Tampella building today
Workers in a textile mill
Interior of the textile mills 1900s
Workers, interior of Tampella
Interior of the Tampella iron works around 1900
The main hall in the Tampella iron works
Main room in Tampella Hall today, looking down on the end of an exhibit about Finland’s geological history
Digital section model of the Vapriikki Museum

Heading toward the entrance of the Vapriikki museum
The Vapriikki Café situated above the dam and rapids.

Tampere’s core of industrial buildings still stand today though they house new functions. From a street perspective, the facades of the industrial buildings have remained the same and the street wall, though not always pedestrian friendly, makes it easy to imagine what life was like when the person next to you knew how to work a cotton gin rather then a cell phone.
Remnants of an old staircase and doorway. Today this is a gallery.
Exterior of the banks of the river
Tampere 2007
Tampere 1800s