OSLO NORWAY

The roof of the Opera building is bright. It is this almost translucent white marble. The light reflects off the surfaces like winter sun on snow. That light combined with the steep roof slope brings to mind mischievous activities on the Opera’s winter rooftop. I personally think it would be perfect for a silver saucer sled. The guys in this video were thinking along the same lines.

Image courtesy of Oslo Waterfront Development Department

The master plan, for which the Opera building marked the first step, will change the Bjørvika industrial waterfront to a thriving commercial, residential and cultural area. The Opera quarter is one of five development areas that the City of Oslo has included in their Fjord City master plan. New work in Bjørvika, Aker brygge, Vippetangnen, Filipstad and Sydhavna will transform several kilometers  of coastline and hundreds of acres of waterfront on three separate bays to a thriving mixed use waterfront area tied together by a continuous pedestrian promenade and electric tram.

Opera Quarter (Bjørvika)

The Opera building’s design by Snøhetta has made this waterfront area extremely popular for visitors. It was constructed on a manmade island of beams on piles. The design introduces the broader public to the outdoor space, then lets their curiosity draw them inside to the performances. On any given day you will find the plaza area and the various levels of the roof busy with tourists. They come to experience the unique trek to the building rooftop that affords spectacular views of the Oslo fjord. It is just a few steps from the roof to the lobby where you can buy a ticket and see a performance.

The Opera has in itself proven to be an adequate magnet to the waterfront despite some significant obstacles between the city and the waterfront, namely the E18 motor way. Already the city has constructed a 675 meter long tunnel beneath the bay to divert the majority of traffic around the train station and the Opera quarter. The construction work is underway to demolish the elevated roadway and convert the four lane highway to a tree lined, boulevard with tram rails, bike paths and crosswalks. 

Many of the office buildings in the Bar Code development are already occupied. Residential buildings are under construction and more are on the way. By the time this quarter is completed, it will house 3,000 residents and provide offices for 10,000.

Bar code area in lower left

The "Bar Code" is an area developed around a concept that enables access to and from either end of the narrow building footprints. The resulting plan resembles its namesake. It encourages and enables day lighting and natural ventilation of office environments and, more importantly, the density and location of these buildings near the central station means that a majority of the people living and working in these buildings will take public transportation.

Oslo’s confidence is bursting and the drawing boards are full with new competition winning design schemes. Herreros Arquitectos won the The New Munch Museum competition with their scheme “Lambda”. 

Lund Hagem Arkitekter and Atelier Oslo took home the prize for their Daichmann Library design submittal “Diagonale” . Construction of these new projects, a new park at the mouth of the Alna river and hundreds of new residential units will complete the build out of that the Opera started. When 2030 rolls around the Opera Quarter will include 1 million square meters (10 million ft2) of new construction on 70 hectares (173 acres) of land! Bjørvika is a veritable playground of urban planning.

Aker brygge

For each exuberant and playful building in the Opera Quarter there is a corresponding bar, restaurant, condo building or museum on the eastern waterfront of the Pipervika - the Aker brygge area. At the head of the bay is the Radhus plassen town hall and plaza designed by Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson and built between 1931 and 1951. Having just come from Stockholm I saw a connection between the design of their city hall and Oslo’s. 

In a display of wealth and power the interior flooring is patterned marble and the walls are beautiful, colorful frescoes layered with socialist optimism and historical references. 

Construction will start next year on the Town Hall’s new neighbor, the National Museum.  The firm Kleihues + Schuwerk Gesellschaft von Architekten won a lengthy competition with their entry “forum artis”. From this image you can see that it rivals the massing and scale of the Town Hall while making the Nobel Museum look like a miniature from a Holiday train set.

The port history for this bay dates back 1,000 years. To make way for new shops and condos, all the shipping activities were moved from this area in the '80's and '90's. In the course of the last two decades the waterfront warehouse and industrial buildings have gradually turned over to offices, shopping malls and restaurants. 

New residential buildings cropped up and the docks were converted to ferry terminals and a pleasure craft marina. The construction on Pipervika continues waterward with Tjuvholmen, a new manmade island replete with 140,000 m2 (1.4 million ft2) of high end condos, below grade parking, a 2 acre park and a new museum designed by Renzo Piano. 

This point of the pier will mark the completion of the Aker brygge development in 2014. There are so many people walking through this area on a sunny day that it feels more like a Southern California boardwalk than a city well above 55 degrees latitude.  

Vippetangen, Sydhavna and Filipstad

Centered and perched above the two bays Pipervika and Bjørvika, the medieval fortress Akershus stands watch over the city waterfront. The point of this peninsula will be developed as Vippetangnen, the ferry and cruise ship terminal. And the building won’t stop there. To address the some 200,000 new inhabitants in Oslo by 2025, there is another mixed use development on the way. West of Aker Brygge lies Filipstad, where acres of existing port/industrial area are ripe with development potential. Here the city master plan suggests moving the shipping and storage functions to a new modern facility south of downtown in Sydhavna to make room for more residential and commercial development. When completed, Sydhavna will be the largest and most modern shipping port in Norway. With the exception of cruise ships and ferry terminals, Sydhavna will be the only shipping port in Oslo. If this sounds familiar, then I thank you, because you’ve been reading my posts about Stockholm and Helsinki. For images of the waterfront and Oslo information go to this site.

Sustainabiity

In their Guide to a Green Capital, Oslo has pledged to reduce climate gas emissions (CO2, N2O nitrus oxide, CH4 methane) to 50% of 1990 levels by the year 2030. The chart below shows that they their emissions have actually gone up by 15% in the past 25 years. As a course correction they have set their sights on making the Fjord City project net zero energy and are targeting these specific areas to combat their emissions:

• Production of electricity from hydropower plants and development of district heating based on waste
• Economic aid to finance projects that increase energy efficiency
• The development of electric, rail based public transport
• A toll road system to finance the improvement of main arteries, to reduce traffic on local streets and to develop the public transport system
• Tax on the use of studded tires
• The prevention of urban sprawl by concentration of city development within the current city borders, close to nodes in the public transport network and identified local centres
• Programmes for reuse of waste, construction material and extraction of energy from waste

GOTHENBURG SWEDEN

The smaller and friendly cousin to Stockholm on the west coast of Sweden has industrial roots in shipping, fishing and textiles. Since the mid-1990s the sound of pile drivers has echoed from across the water to downtown Gothenburg as new offices and residential buildings cropped up along the north banks of the Göta Älv river in a development called Norra Älvstranden. More than 600 acres of industrial property along a five-kilometer stretch between the Älvsborgsbron Bridge and the Göta Älvbron Bridge on the island of Hisingen have undergone a major transformation. 

New offices and apartment units are lined up in tidy rows of colorful buildings along the river like the shipping containers that once sat there. Construction has progressed from central Sannegårdshamnen south to Eriksburg and north to Lindholmen comprising some 6,000 new residential units and over 200,000 ft2 of office space. By the time it is completed in 2025 it will house 13,000 people, provide offices for 40,000 and have 13,000 students. These are impressive figures for any city. When you consider that the population of Gothenburg is approximately 500,000 people, they are staggering. 

The public boats ferry passengers to and from the Lilla Bommen port at Central Station three times an hour throughout the day keeping commute times minimal. Critical mass has triggered another wave of development brining grocery stores, community centers and more businesses, as if to fulfill the promise: build it and they will come.

 RIVER CITY

The City recognizes they have a winner on their hands, so have plans to develop sites further east, further west and on the south side of the river. Norra Älvstranden together with these new developments will form River City. Gothenburg sought assistance from outside to help envision a new plan for the city. To do this they used a unique process. Rather than initiating a worldwide competition and selecting a single winning scheme, this spring, Gothenburg invited design teams to a workshop where they would have an opportunity to present and discuss master plan concepts. From around 100 applications received, they chose 10 teams from all over the world to present on June 11^th. 

Then the teams shared and exchanged ideas in a series of brainstorming sessions and workshops throughout the week. The presentations and discussions are on YouTube and the material from these presentations is on display in central Gothenburg next to the Ferris wheel. In the summer of 2012 the city will make a decision on the River City vision. It remains to be seen what this process will yield. Now that Gothenburg is armed with ideas from 10 teams, the question is: can the city planners hit the target?

LINDHOLMEN

Businesses and schools, located primarily in the growing Lindholmen Science Park, take advantage of a short jump across the bridge to downtown. The initial wave of businesses slowly filled out the existing industrial warehouse buildings in the area. These are widely spaced buildings with vast seas of asphalt between them. The injection of parking planters and tree lined paths to main entrances are modest improvements. 

The east side of the marina remains an inhospitable space to pedestrians. Crossing the marina bridge to the west, the Science Park is a cluster of new office buildings adjacent to the Lindholmen campus of Chalmers IT University. 

The hub of this school and business complex is the “Kuggen (The Cog)” building by WingårdhsArchitects. The design goal for heating energy use is 60 KwH/m2 per year, a high bar for an office building rivaling the targeted average heating energy use for the Royal Seaport development. Bold form and unconventional planning are the byproduct of a thoughtful energy conscious concept. The colorful terra cotta panels are symbolic of the energy and vibrancy of ideas this building is designed to incubate. 

The bridge connections to the school and office building enforce this idea. Inside are flexible work environments to foster innovation and collaboration between the university and businesses. Triangular windows maximize views and daylight while minimizing open area and heat loss. Solar panels on the roof generate a percentage of the buildings power needs. The halo of steel rails around the top floor of the building is the guide for a kinetic billboard-sized, multi-colored brise soleil that tracks the sun throughout the day. This building is a carnival of design ideas - an architect’s fantasy realized.

Developments in River City are guided by the national building codes for energy. The Hamnhuset apartment buildings in the Sannegårdshamnen area have gone well beyond this requirement by building to the Passivhus standard. At 115 units, it is Sweden's largest passive house.  The apartments are heated not by radiators but by household appliances and the occupants’ own body heat. The ground-breaking design uses just a quarter of the energy of conventional housing and generates 70% lower carbon dioxide emissions compared with a standard block of flats. This CNN video will tell you more about passive house design.

PASSIVEHUS CENTRUM

Passivhus Centrum is a Swedish sponsored organization responsible for educating designers and contractors in the building industry about the details, technology and methods required to build a passive house. The center is an educational resource to the industry; a showroom for Swedish manufactured heat exchangers and refrigerators; a gallery for full size mockup wall sections, slab insulation details and building materials; and classroom environments for instruction.

In 2010 the building code advisory of the EU directed that, effective 2020, new residential buildings shall achieve a “near zero energy” standard of 15 kwH/m2 per year (avoiding the use of the trademark “Passivhus” term.) The only known way to achieve this standard is through passive house techniques like those Hans Eek is teaching at the center.

The techniques are not technically difficult to understand, nor are they expensive additions to the bottom line construction cost. Reports on the Lindas and Sannegårdshamnen projects in Gothenburg indicate that the additional 4-5% construction costs are offset within a 5-10 year period by the reduced energy costs. Based on figures for the retrofit of a 1970’s housing project in Alsingsos, the technique is cost effective on existing buildings, too.

The biggest challenges in implementing these requirements are keeping the building materials dry and maintaining the quality of construction required to achieve the strict air infiltration requirements. By making the requirements clear from the outset and providing instructional material to assist designers and builders through the process, Sweden has managed to overcome these challenges.

I left my meeting with Hans Eek at the Swedish Passivhus Centrum inspired to extol the virtues of passive house design like an evangelical preacher. Sealing and insulating the building better can make a house 10 times more efficient than current standards. No other single product or system approach comes close to this kind of savings. Implementing passive house strategies in new housing projects should be a no-brainer.

DRAGON TATOOS, NOODLE BOWLS AND THE GASOMETER

Walking through the narrow streets of Gamla Stan at night brings to mind movies of cold war espionage woven in with a steamy affair between international spies. Along Götgatan or Folkungatan in Södermalm you are more likely to find eclectic shops and restaurants sporting tattooed and pierced likenesses of Lisbeth Salander. The differences between the two areas highlight the physical disconnection between the two areas. 
Stockholm hopes to better knit the character of these two areas with their SLUSSEN design competition.Between Old Town (Gamla stan), and Södermalm to the south lies a dreadful concrete noodle bowl of traffic arterial roads, train tracks, a boat locks and a city bus terminal. Somewhere in this rats nest a pedestrian is to navigate a path across the river between these popular destinations. The competition attracted big names in design; the likes of Jean Nouvel, Norman Foster, BIG and - Sweden's own - Carl Nyrén and Wingårdhs. Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote a tight editorial for the NY Times about the competition entries. He was surely disappointed to learn that Stockholm recently selected Norman Foster's team as the winning entry. 

Here is the link to images of the other entries and worldarchitecture.com's decidedly softer editorial by comparison. The traffic revisions at Slussen together with a revised underground bypass motor way around the city center (currently under construction) will prevent the city center from suffering a traffic embolism in the coming decades. 
This competition is one of three major projects Stockholm has planned with their Vision 2030 document. This is their counter offensive to an even greater challenge of six digit population growth. Population today is 840,000 people. By 2030 it is projected they will have one million inhabitants.A cornerstone of their solution to housing this new population growth is the Stockholm Royal Seaport. Here the city aims to improve on their sustainable design success in Hamarby Sjöstad and build a zero carbon development by 2030 with homes for 10,000 and offices for 30,000. 

STOCKHOLM ROYAL SEAPORT – 

Herzog & de Meuron designed the Oscar properties site using the existing masonry gasometer structures and replacing one of the three with a 47 story cylindrical residential tower. 

Plans by AIX Architects working with the City of Stockholm suggest the gasometer can be reused and converted to a public theater.

Two projects were designed by Wingårdhs, the SKB and Folkhem residential buildings. Master planning for the development was completed by the City Planning Administration.
Plans for a development in this area of the city go back to City Master Plans from 100 years ago. The1999 Master Plan initiated formal planning for the shipping and ferry ports in the northeast part of Stockholm. The detailed planning started in 2000 with Council approval of the plan in 2003 and an updated master plan in 2009. The first phase is under construction and includes 680 residential units and 10 developer/builder/design teams.

Construction phasing of Stockholm Royal Seaport around Hjorthagen

Spearheading the project are the City of Stockholm Planning and Development departments. Together with City Hall, The Stockholm Seaport Innovation and (a local university) the Royal Institute of Technology they make up the municipal development team. The city owns the 236 hectares (583 acres) of land and auctioned off the first set of parcels (numbers 1, 2 and 3 above) in 2010. Developers assembled construction and design teams and bought sites. The city invited successful bidders to a preliminary environmental brainstorming session. Building on a recommended environmental profile from the city, the teams generated ideas that formed an aggressive, but achievable, environmental profile that will be used as a project wide standard through the remainder of the project. 

There are currently 400 businesses and 2000 residents living on the site in the Hjorthagen and port areas. So there has been considerable community involvement in the design process via public comment periods over the past year. A key resolution of the Vision 2030 document places an emphasis on improving the business climate and building the “work city” program. Three significant changes to the port address this effort; 1] moving the primary shipping terminal to Nynäshamn (south of the city), 2] upgrading the existing cruise and ferry terminals and 3] phasing out the oil port in the southern pier of the development, Loudden. These changes use the most successful and vibrant port activities that support commercial development. Moving shipping operations creates both an opportunity to upgrade port infrastructure and to make valuable commercial property available for for development.
Based partially on the ambitious sustainability goals set for the project, in 2009 the Royal Seaport site was designated as one of 18 projects worldwide to be supported by the Climate Positive Development Program a joint initiative between the Clinton Climate Initiative and the US Green Building Council. 

This profile sets an energy consumption target of 55 KwH per m2 per year or about 50% of the current Swedish average rate of consumption. Three environmental targets form the project directive:

• By 2020 CO2 emissions less than 1.5 tonnes/person. Swedish avg is 4.5 tonnes/person.
• Adapt to future climate change.
• By 2030 Seaport will be fossil fuel free. This compares to a 2050 target for all of Stockholm to be fossil fuel free.

Focus areas to achieve these targets include energy, transportation, lifestyle, eco-cycle and climate adaptation. Current designs include a bio-fuel fired combined power/heating plant, an energy smart grid, vacuum tube waste collection services, bio-fueled public transportation and a cadre of low carbon, low energy building solutions. Couple these with the port, roadway and Tvarbanan (metro light rail) upgrades planned for the area and it is clear that Stockholm is serious about meeting these targets. The site is already easily accessible from the city center and it is surrounded on two sides by nature reserves of several hundred acres. This is an area where people will want to live. 

The Royal Seaport information is compiled from data on the project web site and a meeting with Daniel Carlson-Mård, the city of Stockholm Development Administration Project Officer. 

TRADITIONAL FINNISH WOOD WORKING IN TURKU

Before I leave the topic of Finland to jump into Sweden, the city of Turku has a noteworthy development. It's not new, quite the opposite. It's the few remaining wooden houses that survived the Turku fire of 1827. The Luostarinmäki open air museum is a village with buildings dating back to the 18th century. They are beautifully maintained and represent excellent examples of traditional Finnish wood working techniques.
The interiors of the structures are furnished with furniture and tools of the era. Traditional craft workers dressed in period clothing demonstrate the wood working, weaving and shoe making techniques from the structures that were originally built for this purpose. This building made housewares - Turku's early version of 'Crate and Barrel'.

Most of the buildings are open to visitors but they discouraged pictures in the shop areas. From room to room and building to building the structures have various construction techniques. Some where stacked log structure is exposed and visible, but most with a vertical clap board siding.

The living spaces had a smooth wall surface, sometimes papered. In the case of this bedroom builders used newspaper. There was scant information at the museum about the techniques used, so I have to infer that this was either for ease of cleaning or to better reflect light. Spaces are small and ceilings are low, but there is an attention to daylight with large window openings and shallow room widths.

Very few of the houses are painted. This one must have been a more wealthy resident. The other buildings are clad in wood that is coated with tar as a preservative.

Water was a precious commodity in a house with no internal plumbing. Techniques we call 'sustainable' today were standard practice on these buildings. The grass roof would have helped insulate the buildings in winter and summer and the rain barrel water would have been used for cooking and cleaning.

The only 2-story structure in the village was a boarding house for weary travelers.

HELSINKI PART III

This title is more than just a tally of the number of Helsinki postings on this page. It's what's just arrived and is on the way for Helsinki. It's like Rocky III where the champ has been knocked down by his opponent and he's looking for that "Eye of the Tiger" competitive edge. Only in this series, Helsinki's opponent is not the powerful Russian (that was Rocky IV) or even Clubber Lang (it's hard to imagine Sweden as Mr. T). This time the competition is global and harbors all over the world are competing for the shipping business that drives growth in their city. 

Public access to the waterfront plays as much a part in the Helsinki waterfront planning as does the need for a cutting edge shipping terminal. I'm seeing a clear pattern across the European continent of shipping terminals turning over to mixed use waterfront developments as drivers of economic change. Helsinki has taken the opportunity with two harbors, Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari, to bring the city to the water. With the Jätkäsaari development, Helsinki seeks to build a thriving new business and residential area that produces zero carbon. 

Inland, too, Helsinki is making solid planning decisions that build its cultural capital. The Planning and construction in and around the Finnish Parliament building covers a period of nearly 80 years. The area includes a new Music Center by the Finnish firm LPR and Kiasma, the museum of contemporary art designed by Stephen Holl. From what I can gather, the concept for a public park between them did not exist until recent years. It was part of neither Saarinen's nor Ehrenstrom's master plans. It opened to the public this summer and certain areas are still under construction. 

view of Park from top of the Parliament Building steps.

Parliament building from Kiasma

The designers (if you know who they are please chime in) had fun exploring the concept of the “square” in three dimensions. To take advantage of an existing grade separation, the square terraces down from the music center to meet Kasari. At the base of the terrace a new tunnel beneath Mannerheiminti will allow pedestrians to flow from the train station to museums, the church in the rock and Finlandia Music Hall without crossing this major thoroughfare. It's a smart bit of planning that expands the possibilities for this area as a cultural center for Helsinki. Here you will find a good article about planning underway throughout the city.


Helsinki's waterfront is an organism that grows, moves and changes over time. This overlay shows how the shoreline profile has changed in the last century. Plans for Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari are the latest in a long series of changes to this vibrant connection to the sea.

Map showing shoreline in 1902 with overlay of current shoreline (source)

I can see Burgess Meredith urging on the City of Helsinki with these words: "The population of the Helsinki region will grow from 1,3 million to 2 million within the next 50 years. The amount of required new building is so great that it enables developing the region's overall structure in a way which strengthens the region's position and competitiveness as one of the Baltic Sea region's leading cultural and technological centers and an appealing residential and business location." YOU CAN DO IT ROCK! 
The words are actually from the City Planning site (except that last part). In 2006-2007 the City of Helsinki launched the master planning competition Greater Helsinki Vision 2050 seeking assistance in preparing for the anticipated population growth. From the 86 entries they selected WSP Finland's entry "Emerald". Their master plan formed the basis for the planning at Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari.

Kalasatama

Work has started to add 15,000 new residences and 8,000 new offices in the abandoned shipping and fishing harbor in Kalasatama (Fish Harbor.)

The existing Helsinki Energy power plant is located on the harbor peninsula directly west of Kalasatama. It will continue to produce power from the 6-story high mound of coal on site and will provide the power for the new development. Since recently completing a comprehensive network of tunnels and pipe distribution for a regional district heating system they have a new revenue source and can boast one of the highest efficiency ratings possible for this type of plant. Helsinki Energy has also announced that they - working with Nokia, Siemens and others - will provide a smart grid on the site. What this actually means remains to be seen. Technology will further boost power efficiency but it has less impact on CO2. The carbon emissions for the site are not world class.

The same can be side for the design caliber of the proposed buildings. The City of Helsinki Planning department is structured to provide master planning for all new city development areas. Unfortunately, and apparently because of this, innovative building designs and integrated design thinking is lacking from the plan for this area. The metro system already serves the area and bus route revisions are in the works. The vacuum tube waste collection company, Envac, has recently announced that their system was selected for the site, which helps the site’s overall carbon emissions. So, sustainability is a part of the discussion, but not the primary driving factor for the development. The site’s access to waterfront and the city coupled with the fact that views of central Helsinki from the harbor are spectacular, will help overcome the design and sustainable shortcomings and make the development a success.

Existing gas works buildings on the western part of the site are leased out to artists, musicians and architects. These bold first occupants of the harbor provide a test bed for the connectivity and functionality of the site as a viable commercial area. One question resonates with projects of this magnitude and timeline: what do you do with the site until the project’s scheduled completion in 2030? The city, on this point, has hit on a winning idea.

Arriving at the site (which is convenient due to the public transportation connections) both signage and painted path lines on the pavement direct visitors and indicate your distance to the waterfront. The path makes a 2.5 Km loop around the ongoing construction activities. Along the path you have both views to the city over the water and an 8 ft high, kilometer long, colorful mural of publicly supported graffiti.

The wall encloses staged construction material and debris. The likelihood that this wall would be a target for such activities must have spurred on the idea that the city should turn it into a public amenity. By furnishing the site with appropriate waste and storage containers while encouraging independently scheduled and funded summer activities, Helsinki made public access to the water possible well ahead of scheduled construction completion. Aritists (of the graffiti variety for one), musicians, DJ's and random event planners rent the containers to store their wares between shows. The one condition of the use of the site and containers was that events had to be open to everyone. The frequency of events and attendance numbers this summer, with help from social media, brought about public awareness to the site's development while opening up a new public playground.

Jätkäsaari

In 2008 The City of Helsinki and Sitra (the Finnish Innovation Fund) combined forces to address the city planning challenges ahead of them. As part of the solution, they jointly hosted an international design competition called 'Low2No' to seek innovative zero carbon solutions for one block of the Jätkäsaari harbor development. Formerly a shipping port, the shipping companies and their containers have all moved to Vuossari harbor east of Helsinki. The 100 acre site will include housing for 16,000 new residents and offices for 6,000 new jobs and construction will be finished by 2024. Plans include tram connections, ferry and cruise terminal ports, public waterfront access, a library, school, day care center, community center and a church. For the development of the Jätkäsaari harbor, Helsinki is raising the stakes on carbon emissions, design and sustainability. 

The winning entry by the team of Sauerbruch Hutton, Arup and Experientia based their strategy on a holistic view of the development that encompasses not just the buildings, climate, transportation and utilities, but also the team, the users and the life-cycle use of its buildings. 

Using the inherent energies of a community and extracting it from the waste of one component and converting it to the energy needed by another. The project team is currently developing the design. Further information about the process can be found on the low2no blog. 

While I was in Helsinki, Sitra had a release party for their book "Recipes for Systemic Change". The book is available in PDF form from the Helsinki Design Lab web site. Inside, there is a case study with detailed analysis of the challenges Finland is facing in reaching carbon neutrality. The information has relevance beyond the nation's borders and is full of interesting data.


If these two developments can stay on schedule, they will keep Helsinki in the international fighting ring.