Käpylä
Template:Subdivisions of Helsinki
Käpylä (Swedish: Kottby) is a neighbourhood of Helsinki with 7,600 inhabitants. Administratively speaking, Käpylä is a part of the Vanhakaupunki district.
It is located between Kumpula, Oulunkylä and Koskela. Käpylä has an end stop for the Helsinki tram network. Additionally, the Olympic Village built for the 1952 Summer Olympics and another village for the cancelled 1940 Summer Olympics are located in Käpylä. Park Hotel, located in Käpylä, became known for being the shooting location of a popular Finnish satirical TV show Hyvät herrat. The lyceum situated in Käpylä has a specific orientation towards students with an interest in the natural sciences.
The tram lines 1 and 1A as well as the Tuusulanväylä bus lines travel to Käpylä. The I- N- and T-trains of the Helsinki commuter rail system stop at Käpylä railway station.
There are smaller regions inside Käpylä, Puu-Käpylä (wood-Käpylä) and Taivaskallio.
Puu-Käpylä [‘wood Käpylä’] is well-known as the earliest example in Finland of the Garden City Movement. The suburb of wooden buildings, designed by Martti Vallikangas, was built between 1920 to 1925. Puu-Käpylä was a model workers’ housing area, built at a time when there was a bad housing problem for workers in the city. The construction follows the typical Finnish vernacular method: square-log construction then faced in weatherboarding. However, the whole process was partly industrialized, and the area is regarded as the first prefabricated housing area in Finland. The mostly 2-storey semi-detached timber houses are arranged around sheltered courtyards, where originally the tenants’ vegetable gardens were sited. The colours vary slightly from one house to another, but with a dominance of traditional red ochre. The area is still mostly occupied by working-class families though it has also been a popular residential area for professional types, especially architects – and it also has become a favourite tourist attraction.
Välikangas, together with architect Hilding Ekelund, also participated in the design of the Olympic Village situated in Käpylä.
Käpylä was incorporated into the city of Helsinki in 1906.
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