Annikinkatu, Tampere, Finland

Another Finnish posts which I concede is out of sequence with the French ones (this visit took place on 21 September 2016) for irrelevant technical reasons (I had to clear some space on my computer to download the pictures). These are of a block in Annikinkatu, Tampere which has many formal similarities to the Museum of Worker Housing, around two and a half kilometres west, the difference being these homes are lived in and apparently highly valued.

The story I gather is that while almost all of these block courts were demolished and replaced with high-rise in the 1960s-70s, this one block remained longer than all others (aside from the Worker Housing museum) and while the owners of adjoining apartments expected this building would be demolished for parkland, its retention became a cause celebre locally and the block valued by bohemians. The block maintains a cultural presence in Tampere today not least through a locally famous poetry festival. The pictures below give a good indication of what the site is like today.