Ruoholahti

Ruoholahti (Finnish: [ˈruo̯hoˌlɑhti]; Swedish: Gräsviken; both meaning "Grass Bay") is a quarter in Helsinki, part of the Länsisatama neighbourhood and Kampinmalmi district.

In the 1940s there also developed a small industrial district whose most notable buildings were the cable factory (Kaapelitehdas) of Nokia (which later became a cultural centre when Nokia gave up cable manufacturing and moved on to telecommunications),[1] the headquarters of the Finnish government-owned alcohol enterprise Alko (transformed in 2002 into the Ruoholahti shopping centre), and the legendary Lepakko or Lepakkoluola (Bat cave), an old warehouse building used in 1967–1979 as emergency accommodation for homeless alcoholics and then, from 1979 to 1999 as an independent centre of youth culture from 1979 to 1999 (it was demolished to make way for an office building).

In the 1960s the Länsiväylä highway (part of the Finnish national road 51) was built through Ruoholahti to connect Helsinki to southern Espoo via Lauttasaari.

The most striking of the office buildings was the High Tech Centre (HTC), designed by architect Kai Wartiainen and completed in 2001.

Ruoholahti has its own school: Ruoholahden Ala-aste which is now facing a positive challenge to fulfil the needs of its expanding neighbourhood Jätkäsaari.