Protection | Demolition of an old brick wall surprised Helsinki’s Katajanokka: “Terrifying!”

Old Contrary to previous expectations, the wall structure inherited from the 19th century has been completely demolished in Helsinki’s Katajanokka.

The city of Helsinki started the basic repair of the wall structure this summer. The renovation area is surrounded by a protective fence, the information sign of which only talks about repairing the joints of brick walls and broken bricks.

The vice president of the Katajanokka club Tuula Palaste noticed in September from the window of his own apartment that there was nothing left of the wall.

“This is absolutely outrageous! The club has tried to nurture the wall because people like it a lot and it has been popular with parkour enthusiasts. Instead, we will get a fake wall,” Palaste commented.

A brick wall was part of a dock building built at the end of the 19th century, the lower parts of the walls of which were used in the 1980s in the design of Merikasarminpuisto. The park was completed in 1986.

“The designer of the rose garden went to draw a kneeling line on the brick wall, which was followed during the demolition work,” Palaste says.

A concrete cover was made on top of the wall for protection.

The residents’ association has been in close cooperation with Suomenlinna’s nursing board experts for the renovation of the old brick structure. According to Palaste, the city has been forwarded all the information about the conservation repair method, the contact information of the contractor used by the management board and his estimate of the costs.

“We have been told that the city must use contract contractors for this kind of work,” Palaste says.

The residents’ association has tried in vain to have the wall structure protected either by the site plan or by virtue of the Building Protection Act.

The park wall is a reminder of a dock building built in the 19th century, which was demolished in the 1980s. Picture: Pekka Pakkala

The rose garden and planning the repair of the old wall has been a long process in which the city has used outside designers. The renovation of the wall was planned by the design and consulting company WSP.

The landscape architect office Näkkäm was responsible for the park design.

Head of the park and green area planning unit in Helsinki Katriina Arrakoski says that the starting point of the design was to repair the old structure. Despite numerous reports, the situation changed when the work started in the summer.

“When the work started, it became apparent that the interior parts of the brick structure had crumbled to pieces. Damaged bricks would not have been able to be replaced, because there was no surface inside to which they could have been attached.”

The wall will be rebuilt in such a way that reclaimed usable bricks are used on the outer surfaces.

In addition to the wall structure, the Merikasarminpuisto flower garden will also be renovated, new plants will be planted and a pergola will be built. After the wall is repaired, the park area will be renovated, estimated to be in a few years.

The old one the use of the brick walls of the shipyard building as a wall was conceived by the architects who won the Katajanokka site plan design competition Vilhelm Helander, Pekka Pakkala and Mikael Sundmanbased on whose vision it was built into its current form in the 1980s.

The city has assessed the condition of the wall structure in 2017 and again in 2023. In the condition examinations, corroded and loose bricks, cracks and loosening of mortar joints were observed.