Oulujoki River Delta

The Oulujoki River Delta is an iconic and unique part of Oulu. The delta reaches from Toppila, all the way to Tuira. Many areas and services located around the delta will be renewed in the coming years. The delta’s purposeful development offers canoeists, boat-owners, and all people who hear the call of the water, more opportunities to enjoy the coast of Oulu.  

Modern villa life amidst urban nature 

The Housing Fair was organized in Oulu on July 18 – August 17, 2025. The unique Fair venue was located in the delta: close to the city services and the sea in Nallikari.  

The Fair venue, the new Boulevard and the Hartaanselänranta Beach are connected by the unique pedestrian bridge. The development of the new neighborhood of Hartaanselänranta is guided by the city of Oulu’s carbon-neutrality goals – in fact, the buildings of the Housing Fair are pilot examples of climate-friendly construction. The area showcases northern Finnish competence, and the houses were mostly built through local expertise.  

Hartaanselänranta will be the living oasis of Oulu’s urban culture. The area’s historical layers, connected with modern architecture, make the area a fresh venue for experiences and events – also during the European Capital of Culture year 2026. 

Finnish sauna culture, the best in Europe 

The floating wood-burning sauna Kesän sauna will be accompanied by another year-round public sauna in Tuira. The current changing room building will be replaced by the sauna building, a café, and excellent facilities for ice swimmers.

The communal sauna project came about due to the wishes of the citizens, and it will bring joy to all sauna enthusiasts – apart from floating saunas, there haven’t been any public saunas in Oulu for 35 years! 

The sauna’s location along the Oulujoki River is unique, and it forms a magnificent view together with the park and the river. The sauna’s architecture combines modernity and tradition in an exciting way: the largest logs used in construction originate from the 1800s, the time when log floating was an active practice.  

The sauna project is headed by the Oulun Rantasaunaseura (in Finnish) which has promoted and protected Finnish sauna culture for twenty years in Oulu. The association is run by a group of sauna-loving citizens of Oulu. 

Art and architecture come together in Toppilansalmi 

Toppilansalmi has been one of the city’s spearhead development projects for years. The core of the continued development is the unique silo designed by Alvar Aalto, which will serve as the site for a concentration of art and services, combining digitalization and reality. The old storage silo of woodchips will transform into a research centre.  

The AALTOSIILO Digitization Centre focuses on digital recording, processing and visualization. Its goal is to promote the preservation of architecture and the environment. Operations in the Centre will focus on documenting architecture in Finland and the Arctic Circle. 

The first digitization training and research centre owned by the Factum Foundation, which owns the silo, is located in the Valley of Kings in Egypt, and it focuses on documenting the graves of pharaohs.