For one reason or another, I’ve grown very fond of architect Martti Heikura’s buildings. Heikura, along with Uki Heikkinen has been a very influential figure in determining how the city of Oulu, my former home town looks like nowadays.
Sadly, several of Heikura’s buildings have been featured in this blog previously. They include the Pajarinkulma and its neighbour Rautakaupankulma demolished in 2013, the old vocational school dormitory demolished in 2019 and the old primary school of Haukipudas demolished in 2022.
In the heart of Oulu was one of Heikura’s most majestic works, the old mercantile academy, which also featured the hall of the city orchestra. The building later became the school for kindergarten teachers and after that the school of music teachers.
In 2013 the music teacher school moved to the main campus of the university, and the old mercantile academy was left abandoned. The owner of the university’s buildings teamed up with a local construction company to do something with the area.
The redevelopment plans became public for the first time in 2018. They suggested demolishing the regionally valuable school building with a 9-storey block of flats.
Every single authority from the museum authorities to the regional government said, that this shouldn’t be done. Yet the city council approved the plan in early 2023. It was the ugliest political theatre, which I have ever seen. Several members held speeches, where they said, that this shouldn’t happen. Then they voted for it.
The company owning the old school was the same, which had allowed me access to the school for children with special needs back in 2013. They had hinted, that it would be possible for me to photograph this location, but after I started writing several articles about the need to protect it (I was working at the local newspaper at that time), I sort of figured out, that I was no longer welcome.
I had to do what I could. Go out there and document the place.
It was impossible to photograph the school in one picture, as it was sitting tightly between new blocks of flats, a high school and a historically important area of small, wooden houses.
The back of the lower wing.
A better view of the lower wing. This was where the city orchestra once performed.
The lower wing seen from the seaside.
The hexagonal windows were a distinct feature of late 1940’s and early 1950’s buildings.
The seaside end of the building. There were alternative plans to convert the building into apartments, but the company owning it said,that it couldn’t be done without damaging the values of the building. My question is, what damages the values more: the modification or the demolition of the building. And the politicians bought this nonsense.
The back of the building facing the old wooden houses. The high school is visible in the lower right corner of the photo.
A vertical photo showing better, where they want to build their 9 storeys to.
The building seen from the yard of the high school.
And finally the yard. No entry, as I had expected. The building had been abandoned for almost 10 years, and there had never been one.
I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. My friend set me up with a group of architecture students, who wanted to appeal about the detail plan allowing the demolition of the building. I wanted to do that too, but couldn’t as I no longer lived in Oulu.
The result was, that we wrote an application together. I was their ghost writer, they were the official applicants. We knew, that this would take time, so we submitted it and waited.