just after i moved to helsinki a hole in the centre of the city appeared. i dont really have any memories of what was there before.

back in the summer of 2003 i showed a photo of the big hole in the ground. well the whole project is pretty much finished now – ahead of schedule and under budget i would imagine (the world is better if you just imagine that). the bus station / refurbished metro station have been open a few months and are pretty fantastic.

on thursday the upper levels (shopping and more food/ bar spaces) finally opens – i’ll be in work on thursday but im sure the rest of helsinki will be in there having a look around and spending their hard earned euros.

for the last few weeks ive been passing through it everynow and then and seeing the fitouts of some of the visible shops. ive wanted to take pictures when there was as few people there as possible. so the other night i was watching television until it was late – and i remembered and decided that there was no point in going to bed. so at 0500 i headed off to take some pictures. when i got to kamppi i saw that the second floor was all shut off (boo) so i had to take pics of the already opened areas. you can see some of the images here. some came out well i think. (when i passed through the building again on sunday i saw that i could see into the second floor – thats the image above).

kamppi aukea 2006.03.02 klo0900 : kampinkeskus.fi
there is a really cool webcam operating from the tower behind lasipalatsi. have a look there just before 0900 finnish time on thursday to see all of helsinki waiting.