City planning ain't easy. You need to understand all cultural and historical values of the city while - at the same time - you need to have new and contemporary ways of seeing things. Also the economical and environmental factors need to be taken into consideration, without forgetting that if people living in the city don't appreciate your plans... well, then you have failed. After all, it's people the city is built for.
There's a lot of discussion about so-called "wow-architecture". Of course city of Helsinki has decided to go with the flow. We have seen some wow-ish approaches recently, most known example must be Kiasma (Museum of Contemporary Art) designed by Steven Holl. (Kiasma "font" is actually written by Tiina from Werklig, but that's another story...). But is Kiasma really wow? In my opinion, it was rather wow, but now that they have clogged its surrounding with one huge office building, it has lost some of its original strenght.
When they'll finish the new Music Center, the wow will be most likely replaced by some kind of a bouillabaisse effect. Töölönlahti bay area is already a mix of national romantic style (National Museum), post-war modernism (Finlandia Hall), neo-classism/functionalism (Parliament House), late-90's office architecture (Sanomatalo mentioned before), topped with Kiasma's architecture and other styles. Well, maybe one more style doesn't really make a difference.
Now there is also a new peculiar cross-shaped hotel plan for Katajanokka dock (shown here). Previously they planned to build a design center for that spot (codename Armi), but that plan hit rock bottom already years ago. What a pity. However, in Kotka they have seen the potential of seaside and architecture/design. They built Maritime Centre Vellamo, which is awesome.
Some say that wow-architecture does not fit into Helsinki landscape. Maybe it doesn't, maybe it does. What is sure is that as long as buildings are being seen as individual projects instead of seeing them as a part of bigger entity (interaction between different buildings and/or building styles, use of space and location, interaction with everyday life and so on), results will be mediocre. That cross-shaped hotel-thingy for example will never be anything like Bilbao's Guggenheim, no matter how it would be presented to the public and media.
Speaking of Bilbao, there must be something weird going on in northern part of Iberian peninsula. First the Basques built Guggenheim and turned Bilbao into a bustling tourist attraction. Now the people of Galicia have gone cuckoo (which is great!). They are building "Galicia City of Culture", a 173-acre cultural center containing "six cultural buildings, including two museums one of which will be devoted to Galician history and the other an international art centre, the National Library, National Archives, a research centre for heritage and a performing arts centre." And it looks stunning (check the aerial photo or small-scale model!).
It's something totally new, something totally unique, and it interacts with the medieval town of Santiago de Compostela in a witty and interactive way. Galicia City of Culture is designed by Peter Eisenman (Eisenman Architects).
Book me flights to Santiago de Compostela for year 2012, please.
(Photo courtesy of Eisenman Architects)