Oulu - Modern Residential District

A bridge from Oulu leads north on to the island of Toivoniemi, on which is a modern residential district built in the 1940s to the design of Alvar Aalto. To the east of this is a hydroelectric station powered by the Merikoski, the last of the rapids on the Oulujoki. The power station (by Aarne Ervi, 1949-57) is one of the finest examples of Finnish industrial architecture of the postwar period.