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Maps| THE CITY OF OULU The first documented mention of a Swedish trading town of Owla dates from 1370. In 1590, Per Bagge started to build a castle on the Oulunsaari island, where there had already been defensive works. Finished in 1590, the castle became the administrative centre of Northern Ostrobothnia. King Charles of Sweden established the town of Oulu in 1605 "on the mainland, on the opposite site of the castle, to a place where a new church has recently been built". The town was situated on the area between the Merikoski rapids and the present day Kaupunginoja brook. Governor of Finland, Duke Per Brahe ordered a regularization to be executed in Oulu. Claes Claesson mapped the town in 1649. The central area was the present day Pokkitörmä and Franzén Park quarters. The streets were orthogonally replanned in 1649-51 by Claesson. New extended town plan was drawn after the great fire in 1705, and successive plans in 1763 by Hackzell and in 1786 by Henrik Holmblom. Oulu was granted the trade rights in 1765. After the great fire in 1822, Czar Alexander of Russia ordered Johan Albrecht Ehrenström to renew the town plan. Ehrenström's and Carl Ludvig Engel's perfect geometrically regular plan was confirmed by the Czar in 1825. Additions to this plan were made in 1882 and 1886, improving the security against fires. Sittesque urban planning and design ideas were taken into account in the 1907 plan by Aleksander Brandt and Victor Sucksdorff (with Bertel Jung acting as a consultant) for the central and Heinäpää areas, and in the 1914 plan by Bertel Jung for the town district of Tuira. In 1924, a plan for Raksila was prepared, and in 1943-45, and Martti Heikura and Niilo Mattila drew those of Karjasilta in several phases during the 1940's and early 50's. The landscape of the river delta was significantly modified in 1944-49 after the winning competition entry by Alvar Aalto for the new Koskikeskus area. After the war, Otto-Iivari Meurman and Aarne Ervi were commissioned to make a renewal plan for the central areas destroyed in the war, as well as a long-term master plan for the whole city of Oulu. Completed in 1952, the master plan followed the functionalist analysis and principles and, for example, outlined the new neighbourhoods further away from the city centre. During the 1960´s-70's, plans were made according to the structuralist compact-town planning ideas. A competition for the rearrangement of the central area around the Market square and Rantakatu was won in 1962 by Marjatta and Martti Jaatinen with a controversial open-city proposal, according to which the theater, library and hotel have been realized. The present day situation follows the results of the Meritulli town planning competition arranged in 1992. Also results of competitions, the university campus of Linnanmaa by Kari Virta follows the structuralist town planning ideas, resulting in perhaps the most significant example of structuralist architecture in Finland, while the Myllytulli area, from 1983-86, is an example of post modernist contextualist approach. In 1999, a competition for the Toppilansalmi area presented the latest ideas and development in urban planning and design. Mikko Mannberg Bibliography: Meurman, Otto-Iivari: Oulun asemakaavallisen kehityksen vaiheita, Arkkitehti 3/72, Helsinki: Suomen Arkkitehtiliitto, 1972, pp. 22-28Niskala, Kaarina; Okkonen, Ilpo. Oulun graadi, 350 vuotta asemakaavoitusta, Oulu: Studio Ilpo Okkonen, 2002  |