Every design for Imatra

At Imatrankoski the rapids that made the town famous run beside an Art Nouveau castle, Imatran Valtionhotelli, built as a hotel for visitors from the imperial capital of St Petersburg. Across the way, the pedestrian street and the shopping centre Koskentori fill up with the everyday business of a border town, and the River Vuoksi slides on through the middle of it all.

Growing up here means growing up with the border close by. Svetogorsk, once the Finnish Enso, lies just across it, and for years Russian shoppers were a familiar sight on the streets. Locals know the town by its nicknames, Imis and even Ibiza, and know that it has not one centre but three: Imatrankoski, Mansikkala and Vuoksenniska, held together by the river and the green belts Alvar Aalto left between them in his plan. Saturdays might mean pesäpallo with Imatran Pallo-Veikot at Ukonniemi, or ice hockey with Imatran Ketterä.

On the map the long sweep of the Vuoksi carries the town along with it, past the log-floaters of the Tukinuittajat statue and on towards Neitsytniemen Kartano.