Maamerkki (

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

for "landmark") is a

high-rise building A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction ...

on Kauppakartanonkatu street near the Lyypekinaukio square in

Itäkeskus Itäkeskus (, literal translation ''East center'') is a '' quarter'' in the neighbourhood of Vartiokylä (as of the 1980s) in Helsinki, Finland. The district's main attraction is the largest covered-in shopping mall in the Nordic countries, Itis ...

in the

Vartiokylä Vartiokylä () is a Subdivisions of Helsinki, neighbourhood in the East Helsinki area of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Its name is derived from the ruins of an eleventh-century fortress on the Linnanvuori hill in Vartioharju, one of Vartiokyl ...

district of

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 ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. The building is 82 metres high and has 19 floors and has a viewing terrace at the top. The building was completed in 1987 and was designed by architect Erkki Kairamo. The building currently has over 50 apartments and several businesses. Maamerkki is currently the sixth highest high-rise building in Finland and the third highest in Helsinki (after

Majakka Majakka (; ) is a high-rise building in Kalasatama, Helsinki, Finland. The tower is tall, making it the tallest building in Finland. It is divided into 35 floors, and contains 283 residences. The 5th floor has a garden open to the public. The ...

Kalasatama Kalasatama (; ; literally translated "fish port") is a neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland. The area is officially part of the Sörnäinen district; and like Sörnäinen, Kalasatama is located a little more than one kilometre north fro ...

and Cirrus in

Vuosaari Vuosaari () is a Subdivisions of Helsinki#Neighbourhoods, neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland. It is located by the sea in East Helsinki and with its area of is geographically the largest district in the city. It also has two Helsi ...

). In spring 2014, the building was renamed Helmitorni ("pearl tower").

Architecture

The 82-metre-high glassed staircase is one of the most distinctive marks of the facade of the building. Together with the glass beacon on top of the tower, they have formed a large-scale

suprematist Suprematism () is an early 20th-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstract art based upon "the supremacy of p ...

cross. The staircase reaching for the skies emphasises the height of the building. To achieve this, the air conditioning channels leading up to the roof were placed outside the structure of the building. With these architectural solutions, the shape of the building is quite slender. The construction company

Haka Haka (, ; singular ''haka'', in both Māori language, Māori and New Zealand English) are a variety of ceremonial dances in Māori culture. A performance art, hakas are often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the f ...

held an architectural competition in 1977 to build the building. The competition was won by the architecture bureau Gullichsen, Kairamo, Voimala Arkkitehdit Ky with their suggestion ''Valomerkki'' ("light signal"). From its completion up to 2006 it was the tallest building in Helsinki, a "spike" standing out from the Helsinki skyline. The glassed staircase outside the building is lit during the dark. The structure of the building was cast in place from concrete and the facade is made of

cement clinker 200px, Typical clinker nodules 200px, Hot clinker Cement clinker is a solid material produced in the manufacture of portland cement as an intermediary product. Clinker occurs as lumps or nodules, usually to in diameter. It is produced by sinter ...

. The owner of the building sought permission in autumn 2013 to convert floors 4 through 17 of the building into apartments.Itäkeskuksen Maamerkki pääosin asuntokäyttöön
''

Helsingin Uutiset ''Helsingin Uutiset'' () is a free newspaper that has been published in Helsinki, Finland since the early 2020 as six different local editions twice a week, on Wednesdays and weekends. The newspaper has a total of 350 thousand readers.

'' 7 October 2013. Accessed on 3 May 2014.

Gallery

File:Maamerkki Itäkeskus (cropped).jpg, Maamerkki seen from the intersection of

Itäväylä Itäväylä (the Eastern Highway, Swedish: Österleden) is a motorway-like road in the Greater Helsinki area of Finland, mainly in the Helsinki conurbation. It is part of the Finnish regional road 170 (, ). The road begins in Kalasatama, Sörn ...

and

Ring I Ring I (pronounced "ring one", , ) is the busiest road in Finland, carrying up to 113,000 vehicles per day. It is the innermost of the three beltways in the Helsinki capital region, numbered as regional route 101 and runs from the easternmo ...

File:Maamerkki from below.jpg, Maamerkki seen from Lyypekinaukio File:Itäkeskuksen maamerkki (2).jpg, Maamerkki seen from Kauppakartanonkatu File:Itäkeskus maamerkki inside.jpg, The lobby at the ground floor of Maamerkki

References

External links

* {{coord, 60, 12, 30.3, N, 25, 04, 58.2, E, region:FI, display=title Residential buildings in Helsinki