Käpylä (; ) is a

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

with 7,600 inhabitants. Administratively speaking, Käpylä is a part of the

Vanhakaupunki Vanhakaupunki (; ) is a neighbourhood of the city of Helsinki, Finland, to the north of Toukola. It is also the name of a district of the city, which contains the neighbourhood and its surroundings. The name (meaning "old town") comes from the fa ...

district. It is located between

Kumpula Kumpula () is a verdant neighbourhood in Helsinki, bordered by Eastern Pasila to the west, Vallila to the south, Käpylä and Koskela to the north and Toukola and Arabianranta to the east. As of January 1, 2003, Kumpula had approximately 3,6 ...

Oulunkylä Oulunkylä (, also known as ''Ogeli'') is a suburb and a neighbourhood of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It is located north from the center of the city. It has been inhabited since the 13th century. Earlier an independent municipality, it ...

and Koskela. Käpylä has a terminus for route-1 of the

Helsinki tram Trams in Helsinki form part of the Public transport in Helsinki, public transport system organised by Helsinki Regional Transport Authority and operated by Metropolitan Area Transport Ltd (, ) in Finland's capital city of Helsinki. The trams are ...

network. Additionally, the Olympic Village built for the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

and another village for the cancelled

1940 Summer Olympics The 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad, was a planned international multi-sport event scheduled to have been held from 21 September to 6 October 1940, in Tokyo City, Japan, and later rescheduled for 20 July t ...

are located in Käpylä. The Park Hotel, located in Käpylä, became known for being the shooting location of the popular Finnish satirical TV series '' Hyvät herrat''. One of the two lyceum schools situated in Käpylä has a specific orientation towards students with an interest in the natural sciences. Tram lines 1 and 1T as well as buses heading along the

Tuusulanväylä The Finnish national road 45 (; ) is the 2nd class main route between the major cities of Helsinki and Hyvinkää in southern Finland. It runs from Käpylä in Helsinki to the Hyrylä in Tuusula as a motorway called ''Tuusula Highway'' (, ),

freeway bus lines travel to Käpylä. The K, T, I and P trains of the

Helsinki commuter rail Helsinki commuter rail (, ) is a commuter rail system serving the Helsinki metropolitan area. The system is managed by the Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL) and operations are contracted out to VR Group, VR at least until 2031. The sys ...

system stop at

Käpylä railway station Käpylä (Finnish language, Finnish) or Kottby (Swedish language, Swedish) is a railway station in the Käpylä district of Helsinki, Finland. It is located between the stations of Pasila railway station, Pasila and Oulunkylä railway station, Oul ...

. There are smaller regions inside Käpylä, Puu-Käpylä (''wood-Käpylä'') and Taivaskallio.

Puu-Käpylä

Puu-Käpylä ��wood Käpylä’(Swedish ‘Trä-Kottby’) is well known as the earliest example in Finland of the

Garden City Movement The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with Green belt, greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, i ...

. The suburb of wooden buildings, planned by

Akseli Toivonen Akseli Vilho Toivonen (6 April 1887 Hamina – 10 January 1954) was a Finnish architect. He graduated from Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; ; , HUT in international usage) was a technical university in ...

and designed by

Martti Välikangas Martti Välikangas (born Martti Buddén, August 1, 1893, County of Kuopio – May 9, 1973, Helsinki) was a Finnish architect renowned for the design of so-called "Puu-Käpylä" ood-Käpylä the Garden City housing area in Käpylä near Helsi ...

, was built between 1920 and 1925 and designed in the so-called

Nordic Classicism Nordic Classicism was a Architectural style, style of architecture that briefly blossomed in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) between 1910 and 1930. The style was also known as Swedish Grace architecture in Sweden. Until ...

style prevalent throughout the Nordic countries at the time. 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

in 1906.

Sports

Football club

Käpylän Pallo Käpylän Pallo, commonly referred to as KäPa for short, is a football (soccer) club from the Käpylä district of Helsinki. The club currently plays in the Ykkösliiga, the new second tier of the Finnish league system. Their home arena is Max ...

plays in

Ykkösliiga ''Ykkösliiga'' (English language, English: ''"League One"''; ) is the second highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga), managed by the Football Association of Finland. The teams in Ykkösliiga also play a pre-s ...

, the second tier of football in Finland. The city was part of the

road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes recreational, racing, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, road cyclists are generally expected to obey the same laws a ...

event for the

. Amateur football club Käpylä Maanantai play their home matches in Käpylä.

References

1952 Summer Olympics official report.
p. 554.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kapyla Venues of the 1952 Summer Olympics Neighbourhoods of Helsinki

Garden suburbs A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

Olympic cycling venues