Browsing by Author "Niskanen, Aíno"

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Loviisa - The grand history of a small town Development of the city Esplanade
(2010) Teerenhovi, Mikko
School of Engineering | Master's thesis
Loviisa is a remarkable little town in Finland. The recorded history of the area begins in the 13^th century, when it was an active fishing centre. The town's development changed considerably in the 18^th century when Sweden began fortifying the town against Russia. Although these plans were never fully completed, the small horse farm of Degerby evolved into the town of Loviisa. This work charts the development of the town from the I8^th century to the present by presenting the colourful history of Loviisa's town planning and its implementation in the town's structure. This work then focuses on Loviisa's main street, esplanade, design and structure, as well as its buildings. For the inventory of buildings I have utilised the classification system used by Finland's Ministry of the Environment and National Board of Antiquities in order to rank the importance of the buildings. This report was commissioned by the Loviisa Culture and Environment Association (Loviisan kulttuuri- ja yrnpäristöliike) in order to create an inventory of the built environment to be used as a basis for future town planning. Loviisa's Esplanade is an exceptional area in terms of building protection even within Finland and is already comprehensibly protected on the town planning level. The Ministry of the Environment has also defined the Esplanade as one of the most important cultural environments in Finland. A key question in this work is whether the Esplanade is considered important by the town's residents, and how significant is it in terms of the town's identity? In other words, the future of the town and its identity lie at the heart of this research. In the final section I assess the direction in which the town is moving in terms of population forecasts and surveys carried out by the Regional Council of Itä-Uusimaa, and what demands this creates on the future of the town centre. I believe that this report will offer the town's residents an opportunity to gain a better understanding of their living environment and its historical layers. In this way the future development of the town's environment can be better analysed by residents themselves. In the planning section I have selected a few topics on the basis of this research that I consider to be particularly important in the Esplanade area and thus essential in terms of the town's identity. The proposed plans are ideas by which to structure my findings.