Old residential building, Tampere, Finland

Visited by skkye 30.9.2012. Somebody had broken the door and made it easy for us to walk in. Unfortunately we were able to go just to the upper floor because the door to the downstairs was locked.

This building was built in 1910s. Originally it was planned to be apartment for two families, so the architect Birger Federley designed two floors to be identical with each other. Later the house was expanded and modified to meet the requirements of better housing and premises.

The house was quite empty and it made it feel huge. Windows were large and afternoon light came beautifully in. I think that the place was in a pretty good condition although it must have been unoccupied over ten years now. The magpie in the photo is real and alive, the poor thing had got stuck in one of the rooms and just kept flying over and over again towards to the closed window. We opened the window (there was a sign "emergency exit") and the bird flew away. Karma points for us! There was also a big strongbox and I was a bit disappointed that we couldn't open it.

Office block (part 2), Madrid, Spain

I loved the well painted graffitis there, and the views from the rooftop over Madrid were amazing. Definitely the best of my so-called urbex career! The second place goes to the match factory's rooftop in Tampere. One thing that I'm curious about was those antennas on the roof. Why would somebody put antennas on the house that isn't even completed? Interesting. But I have to admit that I didn't even go to the highest point of the roof. There were scary ladders and I could see the ground from them, eww...

And the second thing is, where have our readers and their comments disappeared? You seem to like Finnish places better than these from abroad, or am I wrong?

Office block (part 1), Madrid, Spain

Visited by jonahi 8.8.2012. Full of graffitis and empty or broken beer bottles, this ten-storey block building in the heart of Madrid was a popular photography spot for local young people, and I noticed it and the folks standing on the rooftop from far away. The building was clearly unfinished (something to do with this economy crisis?) but it looked like it was meant to be an office building but never got that far, so there wasn't so much to see inside. This place reminded me a lot about the Tacheles art centres house in Berlin, only without the other art apart from graffitis.
(I apologize for the clumsy photo editing, but I was testing my new editor on these...)