Espoo Things to Do

As it was set into the natural environment of the woods, it’s not hard to find green elements in Tapiola. In fact, according to the original plan, each appartment and each window was to open towards the landscape elements.
The parks of Tapiola have functional characteristics where pedestrian and bicycle paths lead us to the children’s and sports playgrounds, walking and jogging paths as well as more calm park interiors with benches offering place to rest, enjoy the environmnet and nice views.
If modernist towns and neighbourhoods were often regarded as dormitories, it is not the case in Tapiola since it has a very lively urban living rooms offering possibilities of interaction with nature, recreation and social interactions.

As we enter Tapiola from the highway connecting it with Helsinki, the first point is a big roundabout set into the vast colorful arrangement of the Leimuniitty Park. It was the first landscape element to be built in Tapiola (1959-61) and is consisted of meandring stripes made of various types of plants, varying in colours and height.
The purpose of this flower arrangement was as to say to the drivers: “Look out, now that you’ve got off the highway you’re entering into a residential area, your paths will soon cross with the pedestrian paths and it’s time to slow down and enjoy in the natural environment of this Garden City”.

The oldest Shopping Centre of Tapiola was planned at the basis of the Central Tower. It was built in 1961 by Aarne Ervi around the central courtyard in the form of an open horse-shoe, surrounded by two-storey buildings with shops on the ground and offices on the upper floor. Several groups of birtch trees were preserved, making also a small green oasis at the centre, where a fountain with a small pond was also built. The shopping centre shows one of the basic principles of the planning of Tapiola, characterised by the strict separation of the pedestrian and vehicle traffic.
The horseshoe opens towards the east, marking the beginning/end of the Tapionraitti, one of the long pedestrian routes of Tapiola that connects the centre with the residential areas.

According to the original plan of Aarne Ervi a theatre was supposed to be built close to the Central Tower at the western side of the Central Basin. The programme was modified in 1980s and in the 1989 the Espoo Cultural Centre designed by Arto Sipinen was opened. It follows the basic design principles of the original plan and fits well into the surrounding modernist architecture of the 1960s.
The Cultural Centre houses Public library, galleries, Tapiola concert hall and several smaller halls. The façade is made of the white concrete grilles, with smaller volumes free standing on elegant columns.
One of the terraces of the Centre opens towards the Central Basin. An open-air theatre and a water fountain are located here making a transition towards the calm water surface.

The center of Tapiola is created around the Central Basin (Keskusallas), that is surrounded by masterpieces of modenist architecture: the Central tower that accentuates the center of the new town and lower buildings of the hotel and indoor swimming pool. The cultural centre was built later and closed this area of purist white architecture, that remains one of the best examples of modernist urban compositions.

The composition of the Central Basin is the result of the architectural competition held in 1954 won by Aarne Ervi.

The three-storey low volume of the Tapiola Garden Hotel was also drawn in an original competition entry for the area around the Central Basin. The hotel defines its southern façade, with the entrance from the other side and rooms with balconies opening towards the central area, the swimming pool and the woods in the distance.
The ground floor of the hotel has restaurants and cafes, connected with the terraces overlooking the Central Basin. The purist architecture of the hotel is also a valuable element of this beautiful modernist composition.

The northern side of the Central Basin is occupied by the pool complex consisting of the outdoor and indoor swimming pools designed by Aarne Ervi in 1965. The indoor pool is situated in a low building with large windows, offering nice views to the Central Basin. The light comes inside not only through the windows but also through the dome situated right above the swimming pool.
On the eastern side of the pool building there’s a small outdoor pool and a round children’s pool that, once covered, can be transformed into the stage of the open amphitheatre set on the ground, also opening towards the Central Basin.
The complex is beautifully set in the midst of the birch-tree woods closing the area on the North.

The Central Tower (Keskustorni) was designed in 1961 by the famous Finnish architect Aarne Ervi according to his previous winning project for the area of the Central Basin. The tower is an important structural element of the urban composition of Tapiola, situated between the lively shopping centre and the Keskusallas (The Central Basin), marking the urban centre by its verticality.
The tower is vertically divided into three parts: the lower one with the base on free-standing columns, 11 floors of the office space and finally the free shape on top of the tower also known as “the butterfly” that originally housed the restaurant, its characteristic illumination once being the characteristic feature of Tapiola and one of the first things one would notice in the middle of the forest while arriving from Helsinki.