Slideshow

Layers of everyday architecture

Old multi-story buildings of downtown Helsinki tell their story of the city’s evolution. Many buildings have been expanded, heightened, combined, remodeled and modernized for various reasons. From the perspective of building protection and architectural purism, the revamped and layered buildings are peculiar or worse, as if they were hybrids. But for everyman a historical building is beautiful and valuable as such, even if Neo-Renaissance suddenly gives way to Functionalism in the upper floors of the building.

Architect Juha Ilonen studied the layers of downtown Helsinki buildings for five years and photographed over 300 buildings and details. The aesthetic images portray the buildings as personalities. The photographs have been compiled in a book that challenges readers to view their environment in novel ways. The book titled Kolmas Helsinki (Third Helsinki) is in Finnish only.

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