The Squatted Office

The idea of `The Squatted Office´ touches me because of several issues; first, it continues my theme of Forbidden Places. It also comes close as to the personal experience I have on being offered (the now almost a rule) part-time work and work contracts of 3-6 months, and the problem of expensive housing costs in relation to wages. But the idea and the fact of working only part-time also describes the feeling of freedom you get from being able (albeit economically barely) to not dedicate your entire life to work controlled by somebody else, and the freedom of not being dictated by the mindless squirrel wheel.

Mind you, as this article shows, the time not working for your bread is not spent idle, this time gives one the opportunity to work and study something that really interest you without fear of not following the company agenda. One is free to concentrate on what one loves, and interests of love are seldom treated lightly. This kind of passionate work is much more productive than work done only for money.

Progressive working environments are starting to grasp the idea of “working for love” slowly. There are some books (that immediately became cult books) on the issue, for example “The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida” a book that keeps coming up on seminars time after time. One can hear the cry in the air for a solution from companies and government on what to do when educated people will not dance after the same steps employers have made them dance the past years. What will companies do, when money is not any more the primus motor of the creative class they need so badly?

`The squatted office´ is also close at heart because it brings to mind a friend of mine who as early as the 1970-80´s turned his government work place into something that I could now call a “creative nest” (…or borderline “anarchist nest”). Imagine one of those city bureaus of monotonous facades and people in cubicles (koppikonttori), and suddenly one cubicle with a grand piano in it, music, books not directly related to the work being studied, and an employee not following the 9-17 time scheme. Of course in those days in ultra-conservative small town Finland it was bound to create a lot of stir…well, in most of the Finnish governmental offices it would still do that, when even trying to get the time card coded not to call security after 20.00 is impossible. The rise of the creative class has not by far yet entered our governing institutions.

The issues brought forward by the article touch also on many flaming themes in our society. Not long ago, the press announced that manly because of high housing costs, to be able to live in Helsinki, a family needs to earn minimum 3000 euros/month. This exceeds the earnings of many. Could squatting your work place be part of a solution? If you feel at home on your work place, if you also could bring family and friends there, spend time and cook there, could it replace some of the costly space in your big home?

Employers should take a close look on the concept of work attached living (tulevaisuuden työsuhdeasunto). //aito

Romantic Stories from the Revolution in the Attic

This just in from our friends in Bulgaria. We thought it was worth sharing here as an Eastern European counterpoint to the article about squatting one’s workplace that appeared in the first issue of Rolling Thunder.

This story starts a little before the end of my last term in the university. I’d spent four really crazy years in the students’ hostels in the well known “Students’ Town” in Sofia. The end of the term was coming and my life in the students’ hostel was about to end, too. I had to find a new place for living very fast if I wanted to stay in Sofia. I thought over a lot of options for renting, but all the rents were very expensive for me. I was working for a web page at that time. The job was pretty nice—I used to write news and concert reports, prepare photos, and do kind of a primitive book-keeping at the office. The best thing was that I had one or two free weeks every month and I was able to travel all around the country during this time, but the bad thing was that my salary was very low. It appeared that if I wanted to rent a lodging I had to find more “serious” and well-paid job. For me this was like putting a chain around myself and working the whole month only to get enough money to pay my rent and food, and hopefully to save some money to enjoy the weekends. I didn’t like this idea at all, because I didn’t want to sell my leisure time for a wage.

Then a great idea dawned on me. I thought of squatting my workplace. My boss was living abroad and he was staying in Bulgaria only for some periods of time. I had nothing to lose, so I decided to try it. The office was an attic with two rooms and an anteroom. I had little baggage in Sofia at that time, because my future was unclear and after I left the students’ hostel I was sleeping at the homes of my friends. With my backpack, I was like a snail with my home on my back. So I quietly moved in my office and hid my stuff in a cardboard box. >continue

Really Free Market economy

CrimethInc on really Free Markets. //aito

Once a month two hundred or more people from all walks of life gather at the commons in the center of our town. They bring everything from jewelry to firewood to give away, and take whatever they want. There are booths offering bicycle repair, hairstyling, even tarot readings. People leave with full-size bed frames and old computers; if they don’t have a vehicle to transport them, volunteer drivers are available. No money changes hands, no one haggles over the comparative worth of items or services, nobody is ashamed about being in need. Contrary to government ordinances, no fee is paid for the use of this public space, nor is anyone “in charge.” Sometimes a marching band appears; sometimes a puppetry troupe performs, or people line up to take a swing at a piñata. Games and conversations take place around the periphery, and everyone has a plate of warm food and a bag of free groceries. Banners hang from branches and rafters proclaiming “FOR THE COMMONS, NOT LANDLORDS OR BUREAUCRACY” and “NI JEFES, NI FRONTERAS” and a king-size blanket is spread with radical reading material, but these aren’t essential to the event—this is a social institution, not a demonstration.

Thanks to our monthly ’Free Markets, everyone in our town has a working reference point for anarchist economics. Life is a little easier for those of us with low or no income, and relationships develop in a space in which social class and financial means are at least temporarily irrelevant. >continue

Dictionary: According to the capitalist lexicon, the “Free Market” is the economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses. Any sensible person can recognize immediately that neither human beings nor resources are free in such a system; hence, a “Really Really Free Market” is a market that operates according to gift economics, in which nothing is for sale and the only rule is share and share alike.

MAO - Program for Land Use and Housing

För ett mera urbant Helsingfors

Var finns byggherrarna som är villiga att till dagens kostnader bygga bostäder till morgondagens prisnivå?

Vad har de skyhöga bostadspriserna i huvudstadsregionen gemensamt med klimatförändringen?

Jo, programmet för markanvändning och boende i Helsingfors 2008-2017 avviker radikalt från tidigare bostadspolitiska program. Den här gången är programmet både mera långsiktigt och mera mångsidigt än tidigare, och det syftar konsekvent till att utveckla huvudstaden i hållbar riktning.

När stadsfullmäktige i kväll behandlar dokumentet tar de ställning för - eller emot - en utveckling mot tätare och högre bebyggelse, mindre beroende av personbilar, mera hyresbostäder, bättre energieffektivitet med mera sådant.

Motiveringarna handlar om bostadsbrist men också om växthusgaser och arbetskraftsbrist.

Den kollektiva bastun gör comeback, hyresbostäder får vara mindre än 75 kvadratmeter, stadsstrukturen förtätas överallt inom räckhåll för spårbunden kollektivtrafik, elvärme tillåts inte som huvudsaklig värmekälla i nybyggen, de som lever utan bil ska inte betala för bilplatserna de inte behöver, normer införs för antalet cykelplatser …

Helhetsgreppet på stadsplaneringen är mer än välkommet, likaså den kvantitativa ambitionen: att under de närmaste tio åren få sammanlagt 50 000 nya bostäder byggda i Helsingfors, i medeltal 5 000 per år.

För att bostadspolitiken ska uppfylla klimatpolitiska kriterier måste också den existerande bebyggelsen förtätas så att befolkningsunderlaget för både kollektivtrafik och annan service stärks. Bland metoderna som kan komma i fråga finns ökad byggrätt, ändrad användning och vindsbyggande.
Ska intentionerna kunna fullföljas krävs det nya finansieringsmodeller men också att beslutsfattarna får invånarna med sig, mobiliserade för ett mera urbant Helsingfors än hittills.

Valårets tema är givet. Väljarna i Helsingfors måste förmås att sluta vakta sina “egna” bakgårdar.

HBL , Johanna Westman

Green roof cityscape

Cityscape of flowers

The answer to lost urban wildlife habitats could be found right above our heads thanks to Lindum Wildflower, a ready-made wildflower meadow perfect for ‘green roofs’, which is being developed and tested by Lindum in association with the Landscape Department at the University of Sheffield.

Lindum Wildflower contains a range of wildflower species growing in a biodegradable felt. Using patented Grassfelt technology, it is easy to install, as it can simply be rolled out onto a rooftop like a carpet. >continue

MAKSARUOHOMATON EDUT

- Lisätty vedenvarastointikyky 70-90 % sademäärästä varastoituu Tämä tarkoittaa minimaalista päivittäisveden kuormitusta, samoin vedenkulutusta, jotta maksaruohomaton kasvu saadaan parhaiten onnistumaan. - sitoo pölyä ja haitallisia aineita - äänieristyskyky, niin sisällä kuin ulkona - voidaan käyttää pienillä ja suurilla kattopinnoilla - parantaa ilmastoa kasvipeitekerroksensa avulla * ei lämmitä kattopintaa ja täten ei aiheuta heijastavaa sätelyä * hidas haihtumaan, johtuen vesikylläisyydestä, joka puolestaan vaikuttaa sisätilojen viilenemisenä kesäkautena - pidentää kattopeitteiden elinikää * vähentää lämpötilan muutoksia 80:stä jopa 25 asteeseen saakka * antaa UV-suojan kattopeittelille - varastoi lämpöä, vähentää sisätilojen viilenemistä talvikautena ja täten vähentää lämmityskustannuksia - luo elinolosuhteita eläimille ja kasveille - parantaa ekologista tasapainoa - vähentää kustannuksia * pienemmät lämmityskustannukset * alla olevan eristyksen elinikä pitenee - parantaa ekologista tasapainoa

www.turf.co.uk

Housing project

Low-Tech Green

Two young architects bring a down-to-earth brand of tropical Modernism to the balmy Mexican coast

By Paul Makovsky

Posted January 16, 2008

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been a bit frustrated with a lot of “green” architecture lately—you know, the kinds of buildings that focus on the checklist approach, substituting technical wizardry for simpler, time-honored principles. Enter a breath of fresh architectural air: 32-year-old architect Eduardo Cadaval, who shows up at our offices, portfolio in hand, to show us a recently completed house. His “opera prima” is a beautiful beach house on the Pacific Coast of ­southern Mexico that he and his partner and wife, Clara Solà-Morales, designed—a place where they can go when they aren’t practicing in Barcelona, where she’s from.
Growing up, Mexican-born Cadaval spent his summers in that same sleepy fishing village, Puerto Escondido, now a surfer’s paradise. When he returned as a grad student to work on his thesis about five years ago, he learned that the town was transforming a former trailer park into a residential area. “It’s on the best beach in town, so we bought the site for nothing,” he explains. “My brother, sister, and I paid $9,000—that’s 500 bucks a month for six months for each of us.”
Cadaval says the idea for the project was dictated largely by zoning rules and the need for a low-cost, low-maintenance house: min­imum resources meets maximum impact. Mosquito nets, for example, replace glass windows. The front facade is closed off (“You cannot open it to the south,” he says, “or you will be totally fried”), so visitors enter from the side. “Why have a front door in a summer­house?” The form of the building is two cantilevered blocks—a 16-foot cantilever is balanced on an 8-foot one—that sit atop a small base, forming a kind of Tetris T. Unlike neighboring homes, which are sited in the middle of their lots, the structure’s cantilevered spaces shift off-center to create unblocked views of the sea.
When choosing materials, Cadaval says, the de-signers discovered that good local stone was not available and the small circular ceramic tiles they wanted to use were too expensive, so they settled for a traditional local material: concrete. They brought in a carpenter from Mexico City who could build the wood-frame structure and pour the concrete. After the concrete work was finished, they recycled the formwork for different parts of the house: square tiles—cut like “pizza slices”—for outdoor walkways and longer pieces for fences. Even the excess rebar was used by local crafts­people for custom handrails and chairs. When new wood was specified, they used ayacahuite, an inexpensive, untreated, water-resistant tropical species perfect for the local climate. “I use this wood because the local contractor, who is now my friend, told me to use it,” he says. “All the local workers use it, not the rich guys.”
Cadaval is proud of the cross-ventilation, which eliminates the need for air-conditioning. Even the garden terraces are indigenous: the designers planted dry gardens of river stones with local perennials. “Some of the guys wanted to have a green garden, but we decided we wanted something totally natural with no water expenditure,” he says. “People tend to associate green with sustainable, but real sustainability may mean going the other way around.”

www.metropolismag.com

Living Labs in Helsinki

PRESS RELEASE 12 DECEMBER 2007 

Living Lab marketing brand

The Living Lab Innovations – Successful User Cases seminar
provided an understanding of living lab in the Helsinki
Metropolitan Area in the form of presentations and visits. The
seminar also announced the establishment of a European Network
of Living Labs office (ENoLL) in Helsinki.
The Living Lab Innovations – Successful User Cases seminar
attracted almost two hundred participants interested in living
labs to Helsinki on 28 November, 2007. Among them were players
from companies, public organizations and the European Network
of Living Labs (ENoLL) as well as representatives of Chinese
news agencies and the press.
The event also saw the launching of “Helsinki Living Lab”, an
alliance of the living labs in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area
(Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa), which in the initial stages will
consist of six living labs in various areas of activity,
several science universities and polytechnics, companies and
firms of consultants.
Helsinki Living Lab is a network in which the players,
together with genuine users, develop products, services and
innovations in genuine urban environments and genuine usage
situations.

The aim is to generate better services and
products and to create new business. Helsinki Living Lab will
operate as an open umbrella and as a joint brand for all
living-lab players in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, making
it possible for them to cooperate with each other.
Besides the living labs already operating in Arabianranta,
Pasila, Oulunkylä, and Otaniemi and one near Helsinki-Vantaa
Airport, the construction of the next stage of living labs, at
Suurpelto in Espoo and Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari in Helsinki,
is on the point of starting.

Aiming for global network

The Living Labs Innovations seminar also announced information
about a new European Network of Living Labs office to be
opened in Helsinki in January 2008. Forum Virium Helsinki, a
cluster developing digital services and content, will be in
charge of running the office.
The main coordination inside ENoLL will be carried out by its
Brussels office, which is managed by a Finn, Susanna Avéssta.
The operational side will be led by a management group
selected by Living Labs, with Veli-Pekka Niitamo from the
Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research
(CKIR) at the Helsinki School of Economics and Nokia acting as
chairman.
The Helsinki ENoLL office will coordinate the living lab
cooperation network inside the EU and outside, and it will be
responsible for the network’s communications. Ties with China
have already been opened and the aim is to create a global
network of living labs.
The European Network of Living Labs was established by
nineteen members in Helsinki in November 2006 during Finland’s
Presidency of the EU. The present country holding the
Presidency, Portugal, and its successor, Slovenia, have
assumed responsibility for developing the network, which has
already grown at breakneck pace: at this moment there are 51
living labs in 18 European countries.

Further information is available from: Forum Virium Helsinki

Jarmo Eskelinen, Director
Tel. + 358 50 593 3441
Greater Helsinki Promotion
Johanna Korhonen, Director, Communications
Tel. + 358 400 995699

Helsinki Living Lab

Helsinki Living Lab is a network in which the players,
together with genuine users, develop products, services and
innovations in genuine urban environments and genuine usage
situations. The aim is to generate better services and
products and to create new business.
The living labs in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area that are
involved in the initial stages are: Arabianranta, Forum Virium
Helsinki, Kustaankartano Centre for Elderly, m-cult, RFID Lab
Finland and Well Life Center. Helsinki Living Lab cooperation
is being made possible in the first stages by:

-the Center of Knowledge and Innovation Research (CKIR), Culminatum, DIMES ry/ LiTe Open, Greater Helsinki Promotion, HIIT/HUT, Laurea, Movense, Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and
Innovation), the University of Art and Design Helsinki, VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) and the Cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa.

Further information is available at: www.helsinkilivinglab.fi

Forum Virium Helsinki

Forum Virium Helsinki promotes the development of digital
services. Forum Virium Helsinki is an independent bouncer of
ideas and creators, bringing together large and growing
companies, managing development projects and opening up
connections with international markets. Forum Virium Helsinki
is closely involved in creating real-life test environments in
the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and in planning Länsi-Pasila
and the Fortum Virium Centre, which will be built in that area
of Helsinki. The aim is to generate better services and
increasing business on the basis of strong expertise. The
companies that are providing the impetus for Forum Virium
Helsinki, which was established in 2005, are Destia, Digita,
Elisa, Nokia, TeliaSonera, TietoEnator, Veikkaus, WM-Data,
which is a LogicaCMG company, YIT Group and YLE (Finnish
Broadcasting Company). Co-partners are IBM, Itella, MTV Media,
SOK, Swelcom and Vaisala, and from public management the City
of Helsinki, Sitra (the Finnish Innovation Fund), Tekes and
VTT. SMEs are represented by Idean, ConnectedDay and
Fromdistance: A large number of growth companies operating in
the Helsinki area will also be taking part in development
projects.

Further information is available at: www.forumvirium.com

Greater Helsinki Promotion Ltd Oy

Greater Helsinki Promotion is company owned by the key cities
in the capital area and the Uusimaa Regional Council, whose
role is to use marketing means to increase international
awareness of the area and awaken the interest of companies,
highly skilled experts and investors in Helsinki.

Further information is available at:

www.helsinkibusinesshub.fi

All we have in Finland are trees and brains

“….Helsinki is among the world’s cleanest, safest, and most culture-oriented capitals. It is multi-lingual, with food and refreshment from around the world. The world is now flat, and compact Helsinki sits at the centre of the new map of global trade…”

…The copy writer is really working it this time. //aito

www.helsinkibusinesshub.fi

Expert gives Helsinki car strategy low points

The Danish architect professor Jan Gehl gives Helsinki´s startegy on cars low points. Jan Gehl has much experience in making city centers more pedestrian friendly and active; he has developped these issues in for example cities like Melbourne, London, Zürich, Edinburgh, Rotterdam and New York. In many other bigger cities politicians have woken up to develop the city chore for people, by reducing cars. This boosts business and also tourism, the professor points out. People are drawn to cities because of their quality of urban life. It is not a question of banning cars, Gehl says, but the stategy to put traffic first is devastating for city centres. In Helsinki, instead of developing the city centre into a more pleasant place for people, political decisions on planning force the pedestrians underground into tunnels and spaces without daylight, Jan Gehl criticizes.

The newly appointed Helsinki Mayor for City Planning and Real Estate Hannu Penttilä does not want to comment on Jan Gehl´s views. He needs time to study the case, he says. We hope to hear his opinion one day soon. //aito

Storstadsarkitektur

Expert risar Helsingfors satsning på bilar

HBL Publicerad: 19/01 21:11

Allt fler stora städer gör det, gör tillvaron sur för bilarna i innerstan och tar tillbaka rummet för mänskligt umgänge. Det säger danske arkitekten Jan Gehl. Köpenhamn är föregångaren, Sydney ska ta efter men Helsingfors går sin egen väg.

Jan Gehl har ägnat nästan femtio år åt att skapa mer mänskligt, fotgängarvänligt livsrum i storstäderna. Han är arkitekt och professor och har varit engagerad i starten av förändringen i Köpenhamn. Där insåg beslutsfattarna redan i början av 60-talet att det var dags att återerövra staden och skapa miljöer för människor som möts till fots eller på cykel.

- Utvecklingen har visat att Köpenhamn inte valde fel. Jämfört med mitten av 80-talet rör sig nu fyra gånger fler fotgängare i innerstan och 36 procent av köpenhamnarna åker cykel till jobbet. Innerstan pulserar av liv. Av mänskligt liv.

Köpenhamn ordnade om sitt centrum utgående från fotgängarna och cyklisterna, befriade torg och kvarter från bilar och gjorde allt besvärligare för bilisten.

- Det handlar inte om antingen eller. Men bilarna ska inte få dominera, de ska inte uppta allt rum, fylla alla trottoarkanter och alla torg.

Han skrattar högt åt det ständiga påståendet om att innerstans varuhus och butiker går i konkurs om folk inte kan köra i centrum i egen bil och parkera överallt.

- Tvärtom, och de flesta storstäder upplever samma trend. I dag har folk mera fritid, studerar längre, lever längre, reser mycket, skaffar barn senare och är allt starkare urbant orienterade.

- Folk är inriktade på att njuta av livets goda och söker upplevelser och umgänge i det urbana landskapet, de väljer platser som lämpar sig för möten mellan människor. Människor trivs bland människor, i kvarter som håller liten, mänsklig skala, kvarter som är fyllda av visuell mångsidighet, aktiviteter, museer, kaféer, krogar och biografer, säger Gehl och tillägger att all den där shoppingen kommer vid sidan om.

Han tar också kål på myten om att de stora shoppingcentren i förorterna konkurrerar ut shoppandet i innerstan.

- När du har besökt ett stort shoppingcentrum har du besökt dem alla. De är alla likadana. Och de bjuder aldrig på upplevelser som flanerande i urbana kvarter. Han säger att den ekonomiska utvecklingen i städer som Köpenhamn och till exempel Melbourne som har satsat stort på att förbättra fotgängarnas livsrum är god.

- Tillströmningen av folk till innerstan leder till nya jobb och värdet på fastigheterna stiger.

Jan Gehl och hans arkitekter på kontoret i Köpenhamn är flitigt anlitade i hela världen. De har målat visioner och gjort planer för städer som Melbourne, London, Zürich, Edinburgh, Rotterdam och New York.

New York ska minska trafiken på Manhattan och inför trängselavgifter i likhet med London. Nu har Sydney hakat på trenden och ska åtgärda miljön utgående från en rapport av Gehl.

- Sydney är en skön stad, säger Gehl men ingen är så liten som fotgängaren i centrum av Sydney. Det finns inte en korsning eller gata som inte skulle utgå från bilen och bilisten. Folk som rör sig till fots är hänvisade till smala, trånga trottoarer och trafikljusen växlar så snabbt att inte ens den flinkaste fotgängare hinner kvista över gatan innan röd gubbe lyser. Gågatorna och torgen är bokstavligen underordnade trafiken och under centrum av Sydney löper ett nätverk av promenadstråk med en sammanlagd längd på 2,5 kilometer. Tunga motorvägar löper tvärs över innerstan och nere i den berömda hamnen med det spektakulära operahuset blockerar en massiv tågstation i betong utsikten.

Gehl föreslår att Sydney river den stora motorvägen, bygger torg och breddar trottoarer på bekostnad av bilarna och skapar plats så att folk kan krypa ut ur den underjordiska gångarna. Hans förslag har fått gott mottagande. Kampanjen kallas Take back the city, Återerövra staden.

Även om Sydney med sina drygt 4 miljoner invånare är av annan kaliber än Helsingfors finns ingen anledning till att Helsingfors inte borde se Sydneys innerstad som ett avskräckande exempel.

- Helsingfors är en vacker stad och har all potential. Men trafiken väger tungt och hur förvaltar staden närheten till havet? Var finns de trivsamma torgen och de intima mötesplatserna? Esplanadparken är det lysande undantaget, säger Gehl och tillägger:

- I städer som Helsingfors hänvisar man ofta till klimatet men varför ska man skapa artificiella rum för årets tjugo dåliga dagar när det finns tvåhundra fina. Under de där värsta dagarna kan man väl klä på sig ordentligt.

Han nämner att utesäsongen blir längre om förutsättningarna för umgänge utomhus blir bättre, det vill säga att trivseln ökar på bekostnad av bilarna.

- Förr träffades köpenhamnarna på kaféer och torg mellan maj och augusti. I dag mellan mars och jul.

Gehl understryker att Helsingfors har en hel del att lära av de övriga nordiska huvudstäderna som strävar att fösa bort innerstadstrafiken och upplåta uterummet åt stadsborna. Helsingfors å sin sida leder folk i tunnlar och ger plats åt bilar och p-platser.

- Stockholm införde trängselavgift på prov. Sedan röstade man om avgifterna och valde att behålla dem. Nu njuter stockholmarna. Människan är gjord för att promenera på sina två fötter.
HBL (link)

www.gehlarchitects.dk

Living Room Helsinki

Helsinki needs places - distinct, active, urban, beautiful places; rooms to live in.

Architect Juha Ilonen has mapped some such urban places, that have been neglected by the city so far. Empty pockets inbetween buildings, backyards, gated piazzas in front of public buildings that all provide great possibilities for urban life. In these now inactive spaces, instead there could be cafeterias, galleries, temporary exhibitions, wine bars, workshops open to the public etc. These are spaces that by simple actions (but hindered by a labyrinth of bureaucratic red tape) can be taken into use as rooms for the citizens.

As the City of Helsinki is trying to image itself for example as the innovative “Helsinki Living Lab”, it cannot do this by words alone. Our city culture and space needs to provide the means for innovation to happen. People have to be able to meet, discuss, try out ideas and also fail in an open and flexible city space. We need tolerant spaces to meet.

Please do step on the grass. //aito

The map shows the locations of architect Juha Ilonens city space activation spots. Click on location to see the space:

Olohuone Helsinki map (link)

Bulevardi/Annankatu, the backyard of the Aleksanteri Theatre gets new life when bigger windows are opened on street level in the hotel building next to it

Tulli- ja pakkahuone fenced garden turned into public space and entrances into basement workshops opened in the stone foundation

Helsingin Sanomat article (link)

 

Forbidden places

Abandoned places leave nobody cold. They bring out sentiments of fear, nostalgia, danger, memory and possibility in us.

When I was ten-eleven, me and my friends trespassed on an abandoned dock area in our city. We found an open door, and a room inside that we made our “own”. This was our secret club house where we felt we were in control, where no adults, or ruling gangs of older kids on the streets (Palosaaren mopedijengi) could control us. We made big interior decorations; we painted the walls with old paints we found on the area, we brought carpets and furniture there, we kept a library there etc. The planning and the imagination of all that this could become made us absolutely tied to the place. The area itself was a heaven for a child with all its exciting cranes, old ship parts and warehouses. It was a thrilling time and we would work all day on this almost without any breaks and love it. In modern day entrepreneurial culture they would call this “flow”…. and head hunt me down to some well paid media company.

In the end my mother found out and made an end of it, but I still treasure this time when we were child house occupants.

The site www.forbidden-places.net has a fantastic collection of photographs from deserted hospitals, factories, underground subway stations etc in Europe that war, demographics, economy or other change have made ruins. Some of the photos are just stunning. Would be interesting to see a section from Finland. Enjoy! //aito

www.forbidden-places.net