Floating dreams

Floating dreams is an ongoing photographic documentary project about private shipowners in Helsinki region.

Helsinki is an old seaport built on a cape and group of islands. The urban development trend has been to build vertically and to convert old ports into new residential areas. The new residential areas are therefore named after the old ports. At the same time Helsinki has started to market itself as a coastal city.   

 
 
 

The city has been planning houseboat marinas since 1970’s but the implementation has halted. The bureaucracy and regulations complicate living in vessels, this is allowed only in few rare cases. Zoning plans have named these floating homes as the next step to extend the city, but the plans often lack the means how to make this happen. Futuristic concept photos of high tech marinas are feeding the optimism of the media but shipowners know better.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Kipparlahti was suggested as an area for houseboats in a 2005 study commissioned by the city of Helsinki. In 2019 there is a plan to rent this area for a houseboat marina but it relies on a few shipowners to foot the bill.

My project is about the negligence of Finnish coastal culture and private shipowners by the city of Helsinki.

 
 

 
 

If you are interested of this project, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m currently looking for ships and owners to photograph.