HUB - Helsinki University Bulletin - Helsinki at ease

Helsinki at ease

In HUB, the science magazine of the University of Helsinki, researchers share their favourite places.

Share researcher´s favourite places!

“The best and worst thing about Helsinki is the sea,” says Juhana Lahti, Head of Research at the Museum of Finnish Architecture.

Ville Lukkarinen has focused his studies on the neoclassical downtown area of Helsinki. Still, old suburbs are equally close to his heart.

Old lime trees and rocks are the treasures of a city for an art historian – and a journey into the past. Researcher Julia Donner doesn’t mind spending days on end in the library.

Researcher Kirsi Saarikangas is fascinated not only by the functional architecture of the modern age but also the residents’ experience of the suburbs as places to live.

Peculiar to Finnish culture, interior architects tend to work both on public spheres — a typically masculine field of architecture — and on feminine home interiors, says art historian Susanna Aaltonen.

Aesthetics researcher Petteri Kummala appreciates the rough beauty of cities.

When approached by sea, the cityscape of Helsinki is dominated by red church towers in the east and white ones in the west. The former belong to Uspenski Cathedral, the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe, and the latter to Helsinki Cathedral. Postdoctoral Researcher Arto Kuorikoski has a few alternative sights to suggest.

Are Kaurismäki’s films simply fiction, or actual fragments of Finnish life? For Jari Sedergren, film researcher, the line between fiction and reality has become blurry, as his Helsinki oozes the same kind of ambiance which can be found in Finnish film.

Do you crave for meeting researchers at regular intervals?

Tips for city strollers, proven facts and stories about science. And it’s all for free. Flip or subscribe HUB, the international science magazine of the University of Helsinki.

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