Surprise in the Third Row

Kolmas linja 5, street view

This is what it looks like from the street. Ordinary, grey, inconspicuous. You wait for the pizza delivery man to open the gate, step in and see this:

Inner courtyard

Perfectly round, with a diameter of roughly eight meters. A quick look in the archives tells this: Helge Lundström, Helsinki, August 1938. Perfect symmetry, encouraged perhaps by the developer’s desire to build as much as humanly possible. Impressive.

Kolmas Linja 5, floor plan

 I have seen this before – of course there is Pantheon and Tempietto in Rome and the likes – but what comes to mind first is the Quartier Schützenstrasse in Berlin where Aldo Rossi does the same 60 years later octagonally, with more elaboration and postmodern irony but less intensity.

A little classical fantasy in the streets of Kallio.

Kolmas linja 5 oculus

Secret Courtyards

When trying to get a better look at Mariankatu 22 from the inner courtyard I accidentally found a series of small courtyards in neighbouring Mariankatu 24 that almost remind me of Berlin and its successive courtyards, the “Höfe”. This house type is quite rare in Helsinki: probably  a product of late 19th century building speculation and an abnormally deep plot. For some reason the bit connecting Maneesikatu and Yrjö-Koskisen katu is missing and created this secret inner city space.

Courtyard nr. 2, Mariankatu 24

Courtyard nr. 4, Mariankatu 24

Backhouse, Mariankatu 24