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Finland is very proud of its architectural tradition.
We can learn about that by taking a tram ride through the city, starting at the main railway station.
Tram tickets can be bought from a ticket machine or using the app for zones ABC costing €4.10. For more details, see the HSL website.
Trams are a good way around Helsinki and the HSL map below is easy to follow.
By the way, I've made an interactive Google map which you can get here so you can follow the places we go to on your phone.
Before getting on the tram, it's worth looking at the serious bit of architecture that happens to be the station. Judging by these guys, even holding a light is a serious business. The station was designed by Eliel Saarinen just before the First World War who was part of a movement to make something new for Finland. Let's go and see why.
First stop is the Senaatintori or Senate Square containing the Cathedral, Prime Minister's office and University buildings. You could get the tram here, but it's just a short walk.
So how would you describe it?
Impressive, maybe even majestic?
The guy in the centre of the square is Tsar Alexander II, and the square was built when Finland was part of the Russian Empire. Some have called it a mini-St Petersburg.
During the 19th Century, stronger feelings of national identity arose and this, in part, took shape in works of art and writing. But when it came to building, what style would make sense?
Time to enable that tram ticket and head for Tiilimäki, which is near the end of the line (see map)
This is Alvar Aalto's house.
Alvar Aalto along with his wife, set up an architecture practice that challenged our ideas not just of what makes for a good building, but how a good building might make good humans.
Alvar didn't hold strong convictions about any particular architectural movement and his designs were softer that some of his contemporaries - like the brutalist architects who got to work on other modern town centres around the world.
"We should work for simple, good, undecorated things...things which are in harmony with the human being and organically suited to the little man in the street"
It's a warm summer's day when I visit and there's a strong smell of pine from the trees in the garden. For me, there's a strong memory of this place but not here. Last time I saw brilliant white buildings infused with the smell of pine forests was at the Mediterranean coast in Cataluña.
Alvar and his wife had spent a five week honeymoon in Italy learning about modernist building styles that were taking off there.
These days, it feels like the house is being slowly taken over by plants. You can book a guided tour of the house here (By the way, it's €30...).
However, Helsinki isn't on the Med - maintenance to keep it weatherproof and stop it turning green is an ongoing task, which somewhat takes the shine off that crisp white exterior.
Let's go for a walk to work - Alvar Aalto's studio is just a couple of streets away. It has the same clean, white angular feel.
To get a sense of what Alvar was reacting to when creating his designs, we can see the sorts of houses that were typical then on the same street. There are also house build after Alvar's time - we can see the direction of travel.
Mindful of time, let's get back on the tram and go into the centre again.
On the way, we pass a stylish McDonalds - I think it should have been a burger.
As we come closer into the centre, the tram takes a long sweep around an outcrop of rock. In the 1960's Temppeliaukion Church was hewn into the outcrop. Despite he warning signs, it seems too tempting not to climb all over it.
As we get towards the station we pass Bio REX, which is giving me '50's American diner vibes.
and back past Mini-St Petersburg, with tourists getting their perfect instagram picture
and on past the imposing Orthodox cathedral, getting off at Vyökatu.
In the streets around here is a collection of buildings that show Finland in a different light. Architects like Lars Sonck and Herman Gesellius wanted to build something that actually felt Finnish. They didn't try to recreate the classical world of the Romans and Greeks. Nor did they design buildings that might have been better suited to the Mediterranean coast.
They made baronial halls with cave-like doorways.
Buildings usually look best in the sun, but I'm not so sure with these buildings. I quite like them when it's all a bit gloomier.
They make you want to go inside.
Although some are more welcoming than others.
Afterwards, it's just a short stroll back to Tove Jansson Park (Tove Janssonin puisto), where the author thought about a very different kind of Finland.
For more details on how to use the Helsinki trams and buy a ticket see here: https://www.myhelsinki.fi/en/info/getting-around-helsinki
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