Helsinki is about to go through a massive urban change in the next few years. There are many parts to this, of which a good long article might come in the future, but one of the first ones, will be the introduction of houseboats and pontoon houses into Kaisainiemenlahti and Eläintarhanlahti right in the centre of Helsinki. Last night on the news Marinetek (2) were interviewed, and I don’t know whether they have the job, but you can have a look around and see what they are offering, although these kind o visualisations I find pretty offputting. This really is a nice lake in the centre of Helsinki which is underused, its kind of unconnected to its surroundings I feel. But the next few years will telll whether the urban plan for Helsinki can pull this together into a coherent and lively part of the centre. There was an English Helsingin Sanomat article about it also. Also why doesn’t Helsinki City planning throw this open to the whole city. It seems that this area is the only one being offered up for this kind of development. But why only here when the whole harbour area is shortly to be rebuilt? Anyway it will be interesting to see how this catches on.
3 Comments
I’d love to see the house boats to evolve into a open competition where few of the winning entries would be realised. Maybe two to three different designs for single apartment boats and few boats that have several apartments in them… It would be the perfect place to do some truly experimental architecture.
good source about Famous architects
http://architect.architecture.sk
Jukka,
Yes I agree completely. It is a great opportunity to explore some different ways and forms of urban living. But by the tone of the article and website information it will all be pretty insipid stuff in reality although a step forward. I really wish they would open it up to a competition but the subtext of all this to me is ‘developer lead’.
Amsterdam houseboats are the antithesis of this.