No,
Helsinki is not a post-apocalyptic city as some of my blog posts might
suggest.
For me, the
city has three very different faces : the first one is the one described in the
guide books. Beautiful, ultra clean, homogenous, rich, filled with history,
lively and so on. You will find there fancy dining, design shops, historical
buildings and international atmosphere. People dress up before going there.
The second
one is where most people live, residential districts that have been carefully
designed for a functional living. Often with very little inspiration. It is
clean, the shops systematically to a national-wide chain, the local restaurant
usually not attractive, there are a lot of green space. The style and
architecture of these neighbourhoods are characteristic of the time of building and
thus give a ready-made atmosphere. The main attraction is a local shopping
mall, convenient for the harsh winter time. They are designed to offer
standardize services that can keep you busy all day long making sure you spend
money on the way. Everything belongs to national or international chains and
very few shops are unique. Welcome to an uninspiring environment full of
security guards. This kind of neighbourhood is actually what many people like,
noiseless, convenient and safe. Urban planners seem to appreciate them, the
shopping mall concept means that there is very little in the street for the
police to deal with. Less cost.
The third
one is my favourite. Non-functional, kind of abandoned places. Old industrial
districts that wait for their new life. Where some creative happening seems to
happen easily. Places undergoing metamorphosis, full of their past, pondering
about the future. Graffiti artists might snake in, urban gardener might set
there a few boxes, beginning designers or artists might have a chance to get
some room there. And relax, there you are not constantly filmed by surveillance
camera.
The winter
is coming back, the temperature close to freezing and the light extremely vivid
in the long lasting sunset. I wandered around Hernesaari in south Helsinki
because the area is undergoing deep changes. A third of it is occupied by the
icebreaker shipyard of Aker Artic (if somebody would take me for a tour
there...), another third is occupied by unused sailboats and yachts and the
last third is becoming fancy: park, café, sauna-spa complex. Welcome for a
little tour.
Disturbing, istn't it?
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Fancy café, the wood walls are actually burned on the surface.
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