Viinatunneli
Helsinki Design Week also includes Open House Helsinki which opens up buildings and spaces around the city that are not usually open to the public. I went to visit the viinatunneli in Ruoholahti.
The Viinatunneli or Winetunnel was built in 1978 under an Alko factory and linked to it’s central warehouse. It was fully automated in that the alcohol from the factory would travel underground directly to the warehouse on a track in groups of 8 pallets.
Viinatunneli is in the Ruoholahti area of the city which was originally developed as the Western port and industrial area for Helsinki . The coal fired power station Salmisaari B is still there for the moment. The Alko factory moved when the whole of Ruoholahti was developed as a new housing area in the early 90’s and the tunnel fell out of use in 1993.
Viinatunneli is at 600m long and 25m below sea level pretty big and could have held up to 80 million bottles of wine, it was never in the running for biggest wine cellar in the world but still pretty impressive and another part of the multi tentacled Helsinki Underground.
⚲ location: 60°09’48.4”N 24°54’35.7”E