Sea, sauna and design on the Baltic

Helsinki’s centre sits on a peninsula, and the sea is part of the street plan. Ferries and island boats share the South Harbour with the Market Square, where stalls sell salmon soup, fried vendace and summer berries. Behind it rises the centre that Carl Ludvig Engel designed in the early nineteenth century: Senate Square, the university and the white cathedral with its green domes, visible from far out in the Gulf of Finland.

Design here is something to use, not only to look at. The Design District spreads through Punavuori and the neighbouring quarters with studios, vintage shops and the Architecture & Design Museum, and Marimekko prints and Iittala glass turn up in ordinary cafés. Newer landmarks continue the habit: the Oodi central library, the underground galleries of Amos Rex, and the curved timber Kamppi Chapel on a shopping square.

Then there is the sauna. Public saunas such as Löyly and Allas Pool stand directly on the waterfront, so a session can end with a dip in Baltic water in any season. In June the nights never fully darken and the city moves outdoors, to Esplanadi park, the islands and the terraces. Winter is dark, snowy and quiet, and Helsinki is good at making it comfortable.