In the backyard of a quiet regional hospital sits an even quieter area of old residential buildings from different ages. Its story goes something like the following. To attract staff from other cities and towns, apartments were built close to nearly every single public institution. Schools, hospitals, sometimes even churches, received their own residential buildingsContinue reading “The Staff Shortage Seems Real”
Tag Archives: deserted
The Mill Is Open
The Southeastern part of Finland has a strong tradition in forest industry. Since the late 19th century around a dozen pulp mills and dozens of paper mills have cooked wealth to the Finnish society. In recent decades times have been hard. Paper machine after paper machine has been shut down, in the early 2000’s andContinue reading “The Mill Is Open”
Wild Turns for the Nursing Home
When my friend realized where I was driving, she sent me a message about an abandoned nursing home nearby. Built in the early 1930’s as a municipal home, it was enlarged in the 50’s and again in the 80’s. The latter years of the building were a bit more turbulent. After being closed down itContinue reading “Wild Turns for the Nursing Home”
Famous, Yet Forgotten
A-ha, a quarry. That seems promising! It does forbid driving, but driving to the premises is allowed. So if I’ll drive there to visit the quarry, that’s not wrong, is it? The quarry was very old. You couldn’t have figured out that you were in one if you hadn’t known it. So this was it?Continue reading “Famous, Yet Forgotten”
Sorry, Mistook You for a School
Whenever visiting any village that summer, I tried to find something to photograph. In the more modest villages it was perhaps the church, so anything more interesting than that would do, really. I usually just looked up the biggest building of the village, which often was a school. That was ok, school architecture up untilContinue reading “Sorry, Mistook You for a School”
Home Is A Bit Tired, Dear
Abandoned homes next to smaller roads outside cities are a very common sight in Finland. Perhaps they were inherited by people, who never married, perhaps they were built by a couple, who never had children. Or maybe they did, but the children didn’t want to live there. Or broke contact with their parents. Or startedContinue reading “Home Is A Bit Tired, Dear”
First Came Development, Then There Was Fire
For several years now I had read stories and seen photos about an area called Tehtaanmäki (Factory Hill) near Savio, Kerava. There had been a massive rubber factory, and somewhere behind it was the factory’s former residential area. What I understood from articles like this one, there had been several beautiful brick houses and severalContinue reading “First Came Development, Then There Was Fire”
Fill It Up, Please!
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 happensContinue reading “Fill It Up, Please!”
The Pool Just Dried Out
Here we have a true landmark and another sad example of renovations gone wrong. This is the municipal swimming pool in Tapiola, Espoo. Built in 1965, it was designed by nationally famous and well regared architect Aarne Ervi. In the early 2000’s it was closed down for a major restauration. As most of the structreContinue reading “The Pool Just Dried Out”
The Embassy’s Useless Beauty
The idea of roaming through the entire country would be a massive task. One of my aims was to take at least one photograph in each municipality. In some places I knew instantly, where I would head, others were more difficult. One of my first destinations was Kulosaari, an island to the East from Helsinki.Continue reading “The Embassy’s Useless Beauty”