Metropolis of minarets, 2012

print this

By Tommi Nieminen
     
      Helsinki, which was recently elected as the World Design Capital for 2012, could definitely do with a couple of striking minarets, the kind of tall tower-like structures customarily found attached to mosques, with a crescent moon decorating the top.
      The unyielding people of Switzerland just went and prohibited - out of their Alpine blindness to great design - the building of such adornments.
     
So why Helsinki, then?
      Well, let us examine the skylines of Teheran, Jakarta, or Cairo.
      In the daytime each of these cities is more or less a grey, uninteresting, uninspiring sea of blocks of flats.
      At night, however, the skyline blossoms into the splendour of the shimmering minarets.
     
Helsinki would be able to keep the costs moderate - by 2012 the city will have to revamp some of its most desolate areas in any case.
      One gobsmackingly tall minaret could be slapped bang in the middle of the Itä-Pasila concrete cube. Another one could decorate the drab Merihaka district, while the less-than-edifying Kontula, Jätkänsaari, and Tattarisuo districts could all get minarets of their own to brighten things up.
      The design tourists could then be taken to the tower of the Olympic Stadium to admire the night-time Helsinki skyline, glowing boldly in Islamic green.
     
That would be a jaw-dropping design move from a Christian capital.
      And all the style gurus of the world - surely this is a dead-cert bet - would in unison sing the praises of our dear metropolis by saying how the solution was “both stylish and unprejudiced”.
      It's an idea whose time has come.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.12.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki wins title of World Design Capital 2012 (26.11.2009)
  Finland´s only proper mosque is in Järvenpää (1.12.2009)

TOMMI NIEMINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
tommi.nieminen@hs.fi