And so my summer holidays were over. I left my former home town and came back home to the Capital Region and resumed my daily habit of going to the office. As September came, my weekly dance lessions started, too.
The weather was still beautiful and warm, and I had some strange surge of energy after my vacation. I decided to use a city bike to get from my home to the school we practised in. After all it was only around 10 kilometers, although the area is not the most biker friendly in the country.
I had been dancing with this same group since a year ago (but not for a year thanks to the pandemic). I had paid attention to a rather large lot close to our training premises, which seemed empty.
It was formerly owned by a company running a large mall in downtown Helsinki. The area contained a huge car dealership, a petrol station and storage and manufactoring facilities. The lot had been vacated as a plan to construct apartments existed. Only the petrol station and one additional building would be preserved.
That day I noticed that work had started. The to be preserved petrol station and ad tower are to the left, the to be demolished car dealership is to the right and one of the factories is at the back.
I wasn’t happy with the sight. The summer had brought back my long lost passion for urban exploration, which I had lost back in 2017 after some failed photography projects. When I noticed that this location was vanishing, I thought I should become more active again. I wanted to explore and photograph places before they were destroyed.
I didn’t realize it yet, but this was the start of something.