7 x Helsinki’s finest wooden architecture districts
Beautifully carved details, lush gardens and little courtyards to get lost in, snowy window frames and lazy cats keeping an eye on you. Sunny porches that make you want to sit down with a cup of coffee and stay.
Wooden architecture and neighbourhoods just have that special magic, and in Helsinki you get to experience it first hand. Take a tour through these seven different Helsinki districts and explore the fascinating history and current day of Finnish wooden architecture.
1. Seurasaari and Meilahti – in the beginning was… the wood
At the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum, you’ll get to walk back (through the most beautiful scenery, and woods, by the way) to the roots of Finnish wooden architecture. The oldest building on the island is Karuna Church, built in 1685–86. The other buildings from following centuries range from smokehouses and crofters’ cottages to farmers’ enclosed-courtyard houses and the manors and summerhouses of the nobility.
On the exterior walls of the houses, you can spot hand-carved Roman numerals that indicate the order in which the logs were to be assembled. Traditional log houses were built without nails, and the log frames were easy to move around. A more recent example of wooden architecture is the newly opened 1950s summer cottage.
Right next to the Seurasaari Bridge begins Meilahti’s elegant villa district – a lush area of prestigious wooden houses – among others the Finnish Prime Minister’s official residence Kesäranta.
While admiring the villas, keep your eyes open for a different kind of wood: the beloved three-forked birch, a speciality of the Meilahti Arboretum. By the way: Birch is Finland’s national tree!
Recommendation: Pop by in Café Mieritz in an old Norwegian-style “Forest ranger’s house” right next to Seurasaari Bridge.
2. Suomenlinna – rulers come and go, wood remains
Construction of the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress began in 1748, when Finland was the eastern part of Sweden. In the 18th century Suomenlinna was really like a city in its own right and had more residents than Helsinki. The capital was not moved from Turku to Helsinki until 1812, after Finland became part of the Russian Empire.
Suomenlinna was a testing ground for new trends – including architecture – that spread from the fortress to the rest of Finland. Among other things on the island you’ll find Finland’s first apartment building – Noah’s Ark (1771). While most of the impressive constructions on the island are made of stone, you’ll find beautiful wooden houses amongst them. One building remains from the Swedish era, most are from the period of Russian rule, as well as wooden villas from the early 20th century. In addition you’ll find wooden structures built in the 1990s.
Reserve enough time for this exploration – it’s easy to spend a whole day in this miniature city within the city.
Recommendation: Cafe Piper! The building is a former summerhouse dating from 1874, but throughout its history it has also served as a residence and a chapel.
3. Linnunlaulu and Töölönlahti – landscape made of wood
When Finland became part of the Russian Empire in 1809 a fervent desire arose to transform Helsinki into a new European capital – complete with monumental buildings and landscape parks to match its new status. Knut Forsberg’s plan for the Eläintarha area in 1865 aimed at establishing a single, cohesive landscape park complex for the new capital.
To this day Töölönlahti Bay remains a magnificent scenic ensemble, and the wooden villas on the bay’s eastern shore – known as the Linnunlaulu Villas (yes, the Birdsong Villas!) – are a distinctive part of it. Six of them still stand today. Once year-round vacation homes for the wealthy, now homes to current day Helsinkians, and workspaces for writers in Villa Kivi.
While at Töölönlahti make sure to visit the nearby Oodi Central Library (designed by ALA Architects) to admire its impressive wooden facade.
Recommendation: The Blue Villa’s Cafe! The outdoor cafe offers one of Helsinki’s finest views – sit down, listen to the birds sing by the Birdsong Villas, and enjoy.
4. Kaivopuisto – building social life (with wood)
For a long time, Finland had no public buildings other than churches and town halls. During Russian rule a new kind of trend spread from Southern Europe – public buildings designed for specific purposes. In the 1820s, Helsinki became the center of Finnish social life, and the Ullanlinna Spa was established in 1838.
The spa building itself was destroyed during World War II, but the restaurant pavilion remains to this day and is now known as Kaivohuone. Designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, the building is a reminder of a time when visitors could enjoy the services of nearly a dozen spas along Helsinki’s shores. In the park surrounding Kaivohuone, you can still sense the old spa atmosphere and – just like nearly 200 years ago – enjoy “health water,” or mineral water, at the Restaurant Elm in the wooden villa at Puistokatu 4. Inside the skillfully restored villa, home for the Space for Science and Hope, you can truly feel how the house made of all natural materials “breathes”.
Recommendation: Try out the cafe on the Uunisaari Island nearby, and have a dip in the sea in front of the island’s wooden swimming huts. A natural spa at your service!
5. Vallila and Alppila – homes for the working class
Small and smoky – that pretty much summarizes the living conditions of common people in Finland for centuries. One- or two-room smokehouse log cabins were the typical housing for nearly everyone living in Finland from the end of the Iron Age to the Middle Ages. Multi-room log houses began to develop among the more affluent, but the common people and the working class continued to live in single-room wooden structures during the estate- and class-based society.
Cities in Finland were originally built almost entirely of wood, and for a long time, Helsinki was primarily a city of low-rise wooden buildings. In 1870, Helsinki was taken over by a boom of apartment building and throughout the 20th century much of the old wooden architecture was demolished. Particularly the homes and neighbourhoods of the “less well-off” had to make way for stone buildings. Larger areas of Wooden Helsinki managed to survive on the outskirts of the city.
Wooden Vallila was also under the demolition threat, but luckily survived. Today, the neighbourhood serves as a living proof of how appreciation for architectural heritage has developed and grown stronger. New examples of wooden architecture in Vallila include the Vallila Library and terraced house designed by Juha Leiviskä. Nearby in Alppila you can visit one of the oldest wooden buildings constructed by the City of Helsinki for its working-class residents. The Worker’s Museum is open during the summer.
Recommendation: Want to feel like you’re in one of Aki Kaurismäki’s films? Step into the neighborhood restaurant Pikku-Vallila!
6. Käpylä – the true colours of a garden city
When thinking about Finnish wooden architecture the classic image that first comes to mind is the red “grandma’s cabin”. Originally, however, the facades of the log houses were left unpainted. Red ochre or oil paint became common among the townhouses of the wealthy in the 18th century. More widespread, among other social classes, red ochre did not come until the 19th century.
One of finest examples regarding the colouring of wooden houses in Helsinki can be found in Puu-Käpylä. The wooden neighborhood was built in the 1920s for the growing working class. Architect Akseli Toivonen developed the houses’ standardized modular structure, and architect Martti Välikangas designed the houses and their placement in the landscape. Puu-Käpylä represents the brief return to classical architecture in the 1920s. The buildings are symmetrical in their composition and reflect the architectural ideals of antiquity.
The coordinated color schemes reflect the 1920s ideal of the English garden city: earth tones, red ochre, or ochre and harmonious oil paint shades from light pink to light yellow. The wooden houses on the western side of Käpylä were built by the residents themselves and are therefore more free-form. Puu-Käpylä was also under demolition plans in the 1960s, but was fortunately saved by a strong grass roots movement.
Recommendation: The café at the Käpylän kiska is a true summer classic and a great place to get to know yet another example of classic Helsinkian wooden architecture – the canopy kiosk.
7. Viikki – future is made of wood
And finally, just about eight kilometers northeast from the city center, enter Viikki – one of the first purpose-built, eco-friendly modern wooden housing areas in Finland. Along Viikintie, you’ll find Finland’s first modern wooden apartment complex (1997) and in the southern part of Latokartano lies the internationally award-winning Eko-Viikki (1998–2004).
Sustainability has been incorporated into everything: the zoning plan, floor plans, and building materials. Viikki Church, designed by JKMM Architects, is built entirely of wood. The facades are clad with split aspen planks, which naturally repel water without the use of chemicals. The exposed structural beams inside evoke the feeling of being in the middle of a forest.
In Viikki, you can also step into the source of it all: the forest. Viikki is home to the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, as well as the university’s research farm with its old wooden agricultural buildings. If the weather is nice, be sure to visit the Viikki arboretum – established in 1969 – as well as the Viikki-Vanhankaupunginlahti nature reserve, considered Helsinki’s most important nature destination.
Recommendation: Hungry after all the walking? This piece of wooden architecture you can enjoy while having lunch: Restaurant Viikin Kartano is located in a Gustavian style wooden manor house.
