The closure of the power plant finally opened up enormous possibilities for urban planning in the area.
Helsinki The Hanasaari power plant was shut down on Saturday. The production of electricity and heat by burning coal and wood pellets ended a year after only 50 years of operation. The power plant was completed in 1974.
What can we expect from the future of the power plant building and the surrounding area, the mayor of Helsinki’s urban environment Anni Sinnemäki (green)?
“The power plant building is an important part of Helsinki’s architectural heritage. We have an obligation to strive to preserve historical strata. I therefore consider it important that the possibilities of preserving part or parts of the building are carefully investigated,” Sinnemäki said on Sunday.
“I think the building is really great. It would be valuable if its parts or character can be preserved in the cityscape. A big issue is also the temporary use of the power plant. I hope that an interesting temporary activity would be found in the building.”
Read more: The operation of the fifty-year-old Hanasaari is now ending
Hanasaari power plants have played a big role in Helsinki’s industrial, and thus more broadly, cultural history. The move of industrial production away from the inner city of Helsinki has continued for decades, and it has created opportunities for other types of activities and mainly for housing.
You don’t have to look far from the surroundings of the Hanasaari power plant when you can see the views of the already completed and still under construction apartment buildings in Sompasaari, Verkkosaari and Hermanninranta. Popularly, the Sörnäinen sub-region is perhaps best known as Kalasatama.
The same development can be expected in Hanasaari as well. Last fall, Helsinki announced the area’s site plan participation and evaluation plan. There is a lot of residential construction in the observation photos, which is mostly located southwest of the power plant building near the current coal pile.
“zoning has already started in the Kasa area. However, everything is still very early. It must be remembered that the Hanasaari area as a whole is huge. And the condition of the soil is probably the worst in many ways,” Sinnemäki believes.
“Suitability as a residential area must be examined carefully.”
Self In the end, only the shells or part of them will probably remain standing from the current Hanasaari power plant building. Sinnemäki does not dare to guess the future use of the torso yet. Technical studies are just underway.
The operations of the Helsinki energy company (Helen) will remain in the area, the plans include, among other things, the construction of an energy block, which would be a kind of nerve center for Helsinki’s electricity and heat distribution.
“The energy block has just been zoned. It is a hub for energy, i.e. electricity and heat, where there will be some production as well as functions related to network management in the future,” says Sinnemäki.
As a whole, the future of the area is open but promising: “There is a lot of work to be done, which is good. The area of the power plant will not be open to people’s use right away, but when it becomes free, it will bring plenty of new opportunities and space for the planning of the entire area.”
Read more: An energy quarter is being negotiated in Helsinki’s Sörnäis
The picture of the Hanasaari power plant from 2020 shows how huge the area is when compared to the already built Sompasaari in the background [Kalasataman] to the apartment building area. The Suvilahti area is bounded to the left, north of the picture, and to the right, to the southwest, for example, the coal pile area as a whole.
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