Suvilahti Cultural Centre
The Suvilahti cultural centre is a former power plant and gasworks area that has become home to a wide range of cultural actors.
Suvilahti is a unique industrial milieu that is changing all the time: at least its graffiti wall looks different every day. Suvilahti generated gas and electricity for city dwellers until the 2000s, when the type of energy became cultural. Many cultural actors and organisers of large public events and festivals have made Suvilahti their home.
The former power plant and gasworks area in Suvilahti comprises nine buildings; Voimalaitos, Makasiini, Tiivistämö, Puhdistamo, Konttori, Kojehuone, Mittarikorjaamo, Porttirakennus and Valvomo and 2.5 hectares of open-air yard space.
The two gasholders, built of steel and brick, have become city landmarks and are administered by the City of Helsinki. The brick gasholder has been fully refurbished and planning of repairs to the steel gasholder has begun. Once refurbished, the gasholders can be repurposed for cultural use.
There is a permanent graffiti wall in the area around the Helen Electricity Network power plant.
In Suvilahti, you can visit the restaurant Peloton Cycling Eatery, Stadin Panimobaari, Cirko – Center for New Circus, the event venue Tiivistämö, Oranssi ry’s cultural center, Make Your Mark garage/gallery, and Södervik Gallery. Additionally, Suvilahti is home to numerous creative industry professionals and artists.
Since the beginning of 2008, Suvilahti has been administered by the property management company Kiinteistö Oy Kaapelitalo owned by the city of Helsinki. The company is responsible for renovating and renting the former industrial buildings for arts and culture.
ERIH Member
Suvilahden kulttuurikeskus
Sörnäisten rantatie 22
00540 Helsinki
Highlights
History
Energy production facilities owned by the city of Helsinki operated side by side in Suvilahti from 1910. Electricity and gas plant operations were municipalized at the beginning of the century. Before that, electricity and gas were produced by private companies.
The power plant and the gas plant both used coal as raw material. Most of the coal was transported by sea, so the plants had to be close to the port. In addition, the proximity of the railway was important due to the transportation of the by-products of the gas plant (e.g. coke).
The new production plants were built 1908-1910 according to the plans of the same architect, Selim A. Lindqvist, and with the structural solutions of engineer Jalmar Castrén.They used advanced reinforced concrete technology in the buildings. In terms of style, the buildings represent the so-called Viennese Art Nouveau.
In the year of completion in 1910, Suvilahti’s industrial complex included twelve buildings. There are currently nine of them left: Voimalaitos (power plant), brick gasometer, Makasiini (warehouse), Tiivistämö (condenser room), Puhdistamo (purification room), Konttori (office), Kojehuone (machine room), Mittarikorjaamo (meter repair room) and Porttirakennus (gate building). Almost all the buildings have been changed from the original.
When the operations of the gas plant were changed over the years, three of the original buildings were demolished. One of them was the furnace room, which was Finland’s tallest building made of reinforced concrete structures when it was completed. In addition, the small water gas bell and the ammonia and water gas factory were demolished.
The Suvilahti furnace room produced raw gas by burning coal. In the gas plant’s production process, the raw gas was refined and purified into city gas, which was stored in gasholders before being distributed to the city’s residents.
After the founding phase, several buildings were built in Suvilahti, of which the control room and the steel gasholder remain. In the last decades of operation, the gas plant used oil as a raw material instead of coal. Electricity production in Suvilahti ended in 1976 and gas production in 1994.
Links
Get to know the site better and explore onward!
https://www.suvilahti.fi/en/info
Suvilahti on European Route of Industrial Hertiage -page:
ERIH page: —
Check also other energy production sites on ERIH: https://www.erih.net/i-want-to-go-there/themeroute/application-of-power/
