The City of Vaasa is situated along the Baltic Sea in Western Finland. It counts about 57.000 inhabitants. Until 1998 a military barracks area had been used by Finish Forces.
Already in the first town plan from 1856 for a new Vaasa, architect C. A. Setterberg made an area reservation in the middle of the town for the Orthodox Church and the barracks. In the 1860’s a three-storey brick barracks building was built in the new barracks area and was used as quarters of among others Russian soldiers stationed in Vaasa. The most important building period in the area began when the national sniper battalions in accordance with the military service act from 1878 were founded in the Grand Duchy of Finland. They were eight altogether and they were situated in the capital of each province. The sniper barracks are mainly single-storey and pavilion-like wooden buildings in classical style. The area is still characterized by the sniper barracks, which are forming the best preserved complex in Finland from this period. The barracks area in Vaasa as a whole also describes an almost 150 years lasting military historical activity in the city. The barracks area and its different buildings and building phases are at the same time reflecting the most important stages of the Finnish nation’s efforts to gain independence, but also the common citizen’s local conditions in military service. In 1998 the military activity was closed down in the Vaasa barracks area and the culture-historically valuable buildings lost their original use. Nowadays the whole area and all the houses are used in different ways. As told above the area is situated in the middle of the town and is therefore an important area and plays an important role for the development and the future image of Vaasa.
The main objective is to have a new detail plan for the area approved in the end of 2005. During the planning process we would like to discuss and also solve the future uses of the military barracks area in Vaasa.
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