📰 Helsinki · page 2

Twentieth century

By the 1910s, Helsinki's population was already over 100,000, and despite the turbulence of Finnish history in the first half of the 20th century, Helsinki continued to grow steadily.82 This included the Finnish Civil War and the Winter War, both of which left their mark on the city.83 At the beginning of the 20th century, there were roughly equal numbers of Finnish and Swedish speakers in Helsinki; the majority of workers were Finnish-speaking.84 The local Helsinki slang (or stadin slangi) developed among Finnish children and young people from the 1890s as a mixed Finnish-Swedish language, with influences from German and Russian, and from the 1950s the slang began to become more Finnish.[51]85 A landmark event was the 1952 Olympic Games, which were held in Helsinki.86 Finland's rapid urbanisation in the 1970s, which occurred late compared to the rest of Europe, tripled the population of the metropolitan area.87 This increase in population put a strain on the existing transportation infrastructure and thus the Helsinki Metro subway system was built and put into operation in 1982.[52]88 This subway system expanded in 2017 and 2022 into Espoo, further improving the public transportation of the area.[53]89

Geography

Main article: Geography of Helsinki

Known as the "Daughter of the Baltic"[2] or the "Pearl of the Baltic",[3][54] Helsinki is located at the tip of a peninsula and on 315 islands.[46]90 The city centre is located on a southern peninsula, Helsinginniemi ("Cape of Helsinki"), which is rarely referred to by its actual name, Vironniemi ("Cape of Estonia").91 Population density is comparatively high in certain parts of downtown Helsinki, reaching 16494 PD/km2 in the district of Kallio, overall Helsinki's population density is 3,147 per square kilometre.92 Outside the city centre, much of Helsinki consists of post-war suburbs separated by patches of forest.93 A narrow, 10 km long Helsinki Central Park, which stretches from the city centre to Helsinki's northern border, is an important recreational area for residents.94 The City of Helsinki has about 11,000 boat moorings and over 14,000 ha of marine fishing waters adjacent to the capital region.95 About 60 species of fish are found in this area, and recreational fishing is popular.96

Helsinki's main islands include Seurasaari, Lauttasaari and Korkeasaari – the latter is home to Finland's largest zoo, Korkeasaari Zoo.97 The former military islands of Vallisaari and Isosaari are now open to the public, but Santahamina is still in military use.98 The most historic and remarkable island is the fortress of Suomenlinna (Sveaborg).[55]99 The island of Pihlajasaari is a popular summer resort, comparable to Fire Island in New York City.100

There are 60 nature reserves in Helsinki with a total area of 95480 acre.101 Of the total area, 48190 acre are water areas and 47290 acre are land areas.102 The city also has seven nature reserves in Espoo, Sipoo, Hanko and Ingå.103 The largest nature reserve is the Vanhankaupunginselkä, with an area of 30600 acre.104 The city's first nature reserve, Tiiraluoto of Lauttasaari, was established in 1948.[56]105

Helsinki's official plant is the Norway maple and its official animal is the red squirrel.[57]106

Metropolitan area

Main article: Helsinki capital region, Helsinki metropolitan area, Helsinki urban area

The Helsinki capital region (Pääkaupunkiseutu, Huvudstadsregionen) comprises four municipalities: Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Kauniainen.[58]107 The Helsinki urban area is considered to be the only metropolis in Finland corpus.[59]108 It has a population of about million, and is the most densely populated area of Finland corpus.109 The Capital Region spreads over a land area of 770 km2 and has a population density of 1,619 per km².110 With over 20 percent of the country's population in just 0.2 percent of its surface area, the area's housing density is high by Finnish standards.111

The Helsinki metropolitan area or the Greater Helsinki consists of the cities of the capital region and ten surrounding municipalities: Hyvinkää, Järvenpää, Kerava, Kirkkonummi, Nurmijärvi, Sipoo, Tuusula, Pornainen, Mäntsälä and Vihti.[60]112 The Metropolitan Area covers 3697 km2 and has a population of about million, or about a fourth of the total population of Finland.113 The metropolitan area has a high concentration of employment: approximately 750,000 jobs.[61]114 Despite the intensity of land use, the region also has large recreational areas and green spaces.115 The Helsinki metropolitan area is the world's northernmost urban area with a population of over one million people, and the northernmost EU capital city.116

The Helsinki urban area is an officially recognized urban area in Finland, defined by its population density.117 The area stretches throughout 11 municipalities, and is the largest such area in Finland, with a land area of 669.31 km2 and approximately 1.36 million inhabitants.118

Climate

Helsinki has a cold hemiboreal humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb, Trewartha Dcbo).[62]119 Due to the moderating influence of the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic Current (see also Extratropical cyclone), winter temperatures are higher than the northern location would suggest, with an average of -4 C in January and February.[63]120

Winters in Helsinki are significantly warmer than in the north of Finland, and the snow season in the capital is much shorter due to its location in the extreme south of Finland and the urban heat island effect.121 Temperatures below -20 C occur only a few times a year.122 However, due to the latitude, the days around the winter solstice are 5 hours and 48 minutes long, with the sun very low (at noon the sun is just over 6 degrees in the sky), and the cloudy weather at this time of year exacerbates the darkness.123 Conversely, Helsinki enjoys long days in summer, with 18 hours and 57 minutes of daylight around the summer solstice.[64]124

The average maximum temperature from June to August is around 19 to 22 C. Due to the sea effect, especially on hot summer days, daytime temperatures are slightly cooler and nighttime temperatures higher than further inland.125 The highest temperature recorded in the city was 33.2 C on 28 July 2019 at the Kaisaniemi weather station,[65] breaking the previous record of 33.1 C set in July 1945 at the Ilmala weather station.[66]126 The lowest temperature recorded in the city was -34.3 C on 10 January 1987, although an unofficial low of -35 C was recorded in December 1876.[67]127 Helsinki Airport (in Vantaa, 17 km north of Helsinki city centre) recorded a maximum temperature of 33.7 C on 29 July 2010 and a minimum of -35.9 C on 9 January 1987.128 Precipitation comes from frontal passages and thunderstorms.129 Thunderstorms are most common in summer.130

Neighbourhoods and other subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of Helsinki

Helsinki is divided into three major areas: Helsinki City Centre (Helsingin kantakaupunki, Helsingfors innerstad), North Helsinki (Pohjois-Helsinki, Norra Helsingfors) and East Helsinki (Itä-Helsinki, Östra Helsingfors).131 Of these, Helsinki City Centre means the undefined core area of capital, as opposed to suburbs.132 The designations business center and city center usually refer to Kluuvi, Kamppi and Punavuori.[68][69]133 Other subdivisional centers outside the downtown area include Malmi (Malm),[70][71] located in the northeastern part of city, and Itäkeskus (Östra centrum),[72] in the eastern part of city.134

Cityscape

Neoclassical and romantic nationalism trend

Carl Ludvig Engel, appointed to plan a new city centre on his own, designed several neoclassical buildings in Helsinki.[46]135 The focal point of Engel's city plan was the Senate Square.136 It is surrounded by the Government Palace (to the east), the main building of Helsinki University (to the west), and (to the north) the large Helsinki Cathedral, which was finished in 1852, twelve years after Engel's death.137 Helsinki's epithet, "The White City of the North", derives from this construction era.138 Most of Helsinki's older buildings were built after the 1808 fire; before that time, the oldest surviving building in the center of Helsinki is the Sederholm House (1757) at the intersection of Senate Square and the Katariinankatu street.[43]139 Suomenlinna also has buildings completed in the 18th century, including the Kuninkaanportti on the Kustaanmiekka Island (1753–1754).[73]140 The oldest church in Helsinki is the Östersundom church, built in 1754.[74]141

Helsinki is also home to numerous Art Nouveau-influenced (Jugend in Finnish) buildings belonging to the Kansallisromantiikka (romantic nationalism) trend, designed in the early 20th century and strongly influenced by Kalevala, which was a common theme of the era.142 Helsinki's Art Nouveau style is also featured in central residential districts, such as Katajanokka and Ullanlinna.[75]143 An important architect of the Finnish Art Nouveau style was Eliel Saarinen, whose architectural masterpiece was the Helsinki Central Station.144 Opposite the Bank of Finland building is the Renaissance Revivalish the House of the Estates (1891).[76]145

The only visible public buildings of the Gothic Revival architecture in Helsinki are St. John's Church (1891) in Ullanlinna, which is the largest stone church in Finland, and its twin towers rise to 74 meters and have 2,600 seats.[77]146 Other examples of neo-Gothic include the House of Nobility in Kruununhaka and the Catholic St. Henry's Cathedral.[78][79]147

In addition to other cities in Northern Europe that were not under the Soviet Union, such as Stockholm corpus, Sweden, Helsinki's neoclassical buildings gained also popularity as a backdrop for scenes intended to depict the Soviet Union in numerous Hollywood movies during the Cold War era, when filming within the actual USSR was not possible.148 Some of them, including The Kremlin Letter (1970), Reds (1981), and Gorky Park (1983).[80] were possible due to such Russian cities as Leningrad and Moscow corpus also having similar neoclassical architecture.149 At the same time due to Cold War and Finnish relations with the USSR the government secretly instructed Finnish officials not to extend assistance to such film projects.[81]150 The city has large numbers of underground areas such as shelters and tunnels, many used daily as swimming pool, church, water management, entertainment etc.[46][82][83][84][85]151

Functionalism and modern architecture

Helsinki also features several buildings by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto,[55] recognized as one of the pioneers of architectural functionalism.152 However, some of his works, such as the headquarters of the paper company Stora Enso and the concert venue Finlandia Hall, have been subject to divided opinions from the citizens.[86][87][88]153

Functionalist buildings in Helsinki by other architects include the Olympic Stadium, the Tennis Palace, the Rowing Stadium, the Swimming Stadium, the Velodrome, the Glass Palace, the Töölö Sports Hall, and Helsinki-Malmi Airport.154 The sports venues were built to serve the 1940 Helsinki Olympic Games; the games were initially cancelled due to the Second World War, but the venues fulfilled their purpose in the 1952 Olympic Games.155 Many of them are listed by DoCoMoMo as significant examples of modern architecture.156 The Olympic Stadium and Helsinki-Malmi Airport are also catalogued by the Finnish Heritage Agency as cultural-historical environments of national significance.[89][90]157 The Linnanmäki Amusement Park, owned by the non-profit Children's Day Foundation, was opened in 1950.[91]158

When Finland became heavily urbanized in the 1960s and 1970s, the district of Pihlajamäki, for example, was built in Helsinki for new residents, where for the first time in Finland, precast concrete was used on a large scale.159 Pikku Huopalahti, built in the 1980s and 1990s, has tried to get rid of a one-size-fits-all grid pattern, which means that its look is very organic and its streets are not repeated in the same way.160 Itäkeskus in Eastern Helsinki was the first regional center in the 1980s.[92]161 Efforts have also been made to protect Helsinki in the late 20th century, and many old buildings have been renovated.[92]162 Modern architecture is represented, for example, by the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma,[55] which consists of two straight and curved-walled parts, though this style strongly divided the opinions from the citizens.[88]163 Next to Kiasma is the glass-walled Sanomatalo (1999).164