The Capital region is an unlikely place to find lots of abandonements from. Land and property prices are sky high, and the population is constantly rising. Whenever a building is empty, it usually isn’t empty for long. Unless it has been emptied for good and will be demolished. Even in those cases destruction usually happens pretty quickly.
Kauniainen, or Grankulla in Swedish, is a small town completely surrounded by the neighboring Espoo. Immediately as I crossed the border, I noticed a building, which was unmistakenly just awaiting its fate.
A former petrol station. To some they might look all the same, but the different chains had actually their own style of buildings in different decades. This one looked a lot like a 70’s/80’s Esso to me, which means that it became an ST1 somewhere between 2007 and 2010.
It was evident, that the place was closed for good and would never be reopened again. The amount of vandalism was massive. There were tags and graffiti all over the place, and even the physical damage done to the building was enormous. Everything that people could rip off the walls had been ripped off, even physical pieces of the wall elements.
A view from the backside inside the garage. The place had been cleaned up before abandonment, and there really didn’t seem to be much to be seen here.
The back door was open. As all the windows were covered, it was quite dark inside. The doors lead to some office rooms and toilets. The first ones were empty, the second ones completely smashed, as you can see pieces of a toilet seat on the corridor floor.
The corridor led to the café and shop of the building.
The story with the shop was quite similar as the one with the garage: there wasn’t much here.
And poor Samuel. He really needs to find better friends.
This wasn’t much. But it was a nice start to the season. The petrol station was demolished later in 2020.