you dont have to be irish to enjoy this site – but it helps.

some of the stuff in the new google earth version 4 beta makes my brain hurt. go get it now!

as i mentioned in passing yesterday, there is an exhibition on in the finnish architecture museum at the moment thats called “kaupunki tilassa” (city and space). it takes the city of helsinki as the background and five proposals for different areas of the city are highlighted (as you can see in the image above the five proposals are seen to float above the rest of the city – you can see the future waiting to descend on the present. an amazingly simple idea and it just blew me away when i saw it this morning. i spent 20minutes taking pictures so i need to go back and see the actual proposals. best 3,50€ i spent in ages.

here are some photos: 2006.09.17 kaupunki tilassa

i just love stuff like this:

laajasalon yhdistämiseksi helsingin kantakaupunkiin suunnitellaan nyt sillan ja tunnelin yhdistelmää. uuden suunnitelman mukaan 350 metriä pitkä läppäsilta yhdistäisi ensin katajanokan hylkysaareen. sieltä yhteys jatkuisi meren alla kilometrin pituisessa tunnelissa laajasaloon. sillalla ja tunnelissa menisivät kevyenliikenteen väylä sekä raitiovaunu. helsingin sanomat

basically a proposed underwater tunnel that will be used for trams aswell as light traffic (i.e. bikes and pedestrians). ive never been to laajasalo (actually id never heard of it).

just looking around the helsinki city planners (kaupunkisuunnitteluvirasto) website i see that they have an exhibition just opened that shows the following:

kaupunkisuunnitteluvirasto esittelee tulevaisuuden helsinkiä viiden alueen kautta: jätkäsaari, keski-pasila, sörnäistenranta-hermanninranta, kruunuvuorenranta ja kuninkaantammi. taustana on nyky-helsinki. (my translation: the city planners office presents future plans for five helsinki districts: jätkäsaari, central pasila, sörnäistenranta-hermanninranta, kruunuvuorenranta and kuninkaantammi. with present day helsinki as background) pdf link to more info (in finnish)

display is on 13.9 – 5.11 in the suomen rakennustaiteen museos small exhibtion hall on kasarminkatu 24. something to do tomorrow!

(as an aside to all this there is a huge tunnel being built under helsinki at the moment – this pdf shows when the plans will be on display in the ksv building on museokatu (link in finnish). it basically says there will be a discussion on it on two dates: 26.9 in the ksv building on museokatu and also on the 3.10 in the kaisaniemi school – with the display continuing in the ksv building until the 13.10. lots of stuff to check out!)

perhaps my favourite single sticker in helsinki. there are lots of these waving man/apua pictures all over the city and they are pretty cool but ive always been distraced by the “let me love” stickers. i should write a bit more about all this