Walking around in Tapiola was a peculiar experience for me. As against the experiences of those of you who know this city for a long time, mine was more like being an alien. Of course, it is always very interesting to look around in a foreign city where one has never been before. However there is something extraordinary in Tapiola that made this alien-feeling even stronger for me. I think the peculiarity of the city is the sensation of time that is created by the special architectural atmosphere. The presence of the sixties is so conspicuous through architecture that I had to ask the question: Is this just a foreign city or am I also in a foreign time (back to the future)?

This experience first of all made me think about ideas about future from the past. This very broad topic with which a lot of artists already have been concerned with raises questions on different levels. Such as the question of discrepancies between plans, previous ideas and their materialization, realization, questions of ideology and viability, questions of theory and practice. But it can raise questions on a more personal level. For example, what could had been my parents imagination of their future child? What could had been my grandfathers idea of our family in the 21^th century? Or simply what is our picture of future like as compared to those from the past?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evandagan/4798569602/sizes/o/in/photostream/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9eAiy0IGBI

Secondly, restricting the topic more to Tapiola and its architecture from the '60s, questions in terms of ideological urban planning comes up.( http://books.google.fi/books?id=uIE3yXbrBu0C&pg=PA128&dq=theory+ideological+urban+planning&hl=hu&sa=X&ei=dCl0T4_EGaWB4gTSvdWkDg&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=theory%20ideological%20urban%20planning&f=false ) In what form does it exist today? Is the “modernistic optimism” still existent that is so present in Tapiola's architecture?

Also it would be interesting to see Tapiola's architecture as compared to some other countries architecture from the same time period. (Especially compering to social realistic architecture might give a new erspective. For example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duna%C3%BAjv%C3%A1ros )