22/05/2020
In 1913, factory owner Achilles Kyriaco Christides contracted the construction of the Tupakkatehdas Fennia to***co factory building in Helsinki’s Kamppi district, in city block number 172. The building was designed by the architect office Valter Jung & Emil Fabritius. This seven-storey building with massive brick walls was one of the first in Helsinki to use concrete beams and concrete intermediate floors. The facades incorporate classicistic features. The to***co factory shut down in 1961, and the building was renovated and converted to offices in 1961–64 according to plans made by architects Antero Pernaja & N.-H. Sandell.
The building was one of the first tall stone buildings in the Hietalahti area, standing among humble wooden houses. The building surroundings have changed considerably during the more than one hundred years it has been there: the factory and warehouse area surrounding the Fennia to***co factory has become an urban environment dominated by offices and apartment buildings. The closest neighbouring villas, the so called “hundred-mark villas” (Sadan markan villat) of Ruoholahti have been demolished and their places taken by the Uusi Suomi printing press built in the 1950s and the busy Porkkalankatu bridge built in the early 1960s. The Helsinki harbour railroad, passing the building on the Western side, has since become a popular pedestrian route called Baana, which was opened for traffic in the summer of 2012.
The building has been used as a factory, an office building, a warehouse, and an apartment building. The wide-open manufacturing halls have facilitated the diverse uses of the property and the division of the floors according to need. Now the building is converted from an office building into a school building.
Have a sunny weekend and stay tuned for more news! 😊
Photos by Niklas Mäkelä
