Leaving town meant also saying goodbye to all the familiar urbex locations I had explored during the past few years. One which I was especially fond of was the modernist villa in Toppila.
Since my previous visit the surroundings of the villa had changed a lot. A new temoprary service road had been punctuated in the brick wall surrounding it, the construction company owning it had stopped taking care of the yard alltogether and it was now overgrown.
Things had changed inside, too. When there was nothing left to destroy, vandals had started destroying the walls inside the building. There were chuncks of concrete, pieces of brick, insulation and wood splinters everywhere. The walls which had been almost clean during my first visit had gotten a whole lot of graffiti on them.
Something had changed with my photography too this summer. I hadn’t used my camera since I retired it after photographing my old workplace in 2017 . Between then and this visit to the villa I had become active in Instagram’s stories. I was solely photographing houses for that purpose, so I now only took vertical photos, a decision I have regretted since starting this blog.
The poolroom. The original colour of the tiles is no longer visible from underneath the graffiti.
Someone has carved big holes in the walls made of glass tiles. It has taken quite a lot of effort. And power.
The reality inside the abandoned villa was quite different from the outside, where clean, expensive cars were parked by new blocks of flats.
The original text was one of my favourites in this building. Somebody else didn’t like it. I really find it fascinating, how the vandals have started communicating with each other.
The fireplace downstairs is still there. I think there have been decorative tiles on the front, as the bricks really don’t match the style of other parts in the building, and their finish is also not very good.
When you say you’re going to the poolside, I don’t think this is what you’d expect.
One of my favorite shots from this building. The creatures look pretty cute to me.
I don’t know what they are, but the whole washroom wall was decorated with them.
This was actually also one of my favorite tags from the previous visit, but now the whole mirror has been destroyed.
More photos in the next post.