We’ll start our tour on the dark… I mean the old side with a cupbord under the stairs, where the local Harry Potter has hidden Christmas flowers and a bottle of brandy.
The basement was a mess just like everything else. On the floor there are construction drawings, but what interests me the most is the floor. The red and white combination was actually pretty cool and was in no other place in the building. The doors matched the red pretty well.
So where’s the machine gun?
These shelves contained office equipment. The tiny pink bottle contained stamp ink.
This seemed like the old boiler room. I would be surprised, if the original form of heating hadn’t been oil. It had been replaced at some point by district heating.
These would have probably qualified as antiquities. A lot of the furniture in the dorm rooms was from the 1970’s and 1980’s. This is just a guess, but maybe this was the original furniture from the 1950’s when the place was originally built.
There wasn’t much point in exploring the rooms very thoroughly. They were just a complete mess.
The funny thing is that the TV sets stored in the basement were more modern than those in the girls’ dorm rooms.
This basement room had been a popular bar.
The dorm even had a VHS player, but it was apparently for special occasions only, as there were none in the dorm rooms.
The end of the corridor housed some storage cupboards, which were mainly empty. Oh the irony.
Another office room. Note the ultra modern computer even by 2008 standards.
The office of Välkkylä (or Väläkkylä in Oulu dialect). As the pupils were moved from this old dormitory to Välkkylä a couple of kilometres away in 2008, I believe that this was a temporary solution, which had something to do with the move.
The corridor did seem to serve as a bowling alley. This explains the bowl I found early on in my adventure.
Another plastic carpet style. I have already lost count on the number of different floors built in this dormitory.
Random installation, unknown artist. Materials: a sink, a fridge shelf and a beautiful Finnish forest scenery. Embedded.
So, how are you feeling today?
Nice art probably made by the pupils. But why put it in the basement?
A dirty room with tempting jars.
There was even a gym for the inhabitants in the basement.
At the end of the corridor was the home of the bowls. There was no bowling track, however, so I guess it had been the corridor floor then.
The original purpose of all of these rooms was a bit difficult to see.
This one resembled a flea market a lot more than a dorm basement.
A strange cart. Wait, does this have something to do with laundry?
A football! Wonder if my touch is still as it was in my teens when I played it myself. Probably not.
I’ve always wanted to sneak to the women’s sauna.
So this is the women’s shower room. A pity the women aren’t here anymore.
Yup, there really is a sauna in a student dormitory building. This is Finland.
Close the door, the sign says. But someone doesn’t believe in signs.
Back in the side staircase. And time to go finish exploring the upper floors of the annex building.