Hervanta
Encyclopedia
Tampere
Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...
in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, located next to Hallila
Hallila
Hallila is a suburb in Tampere, Finland. Hallila is located between Korkinmäki and Hervanta near Highway 9. Approximately 4,000 people live in Hallila.In Hallila there is a grocery store, a pizzeria, a hairdresser, and a pub...
some 10 km south of the city centre.
Home to a population of over 26,000, Hervanta is best known for its prefabricated blocks of flats. The total number of apartments is about 11,000. Nearly a fifth of the inhabitants (some 4,500 people) are students, many of them enrolled at the Tampere University of Technology (TUT) or the Police College. The largest student housing complex is Mikontalo
Mikontalo
Mikontalo is a large student housing complex in Hervanta, Tampere, Finland. Its exact address is Insinöörinkatu 60, 33720 Tampere, Finland.With affordable rents, easy availability and location near Tampere University of Technology, it is popular dwelling for first year students and exchange...
, in fact nearly 3% of people in Hervanta reside there. Almost 8% of Hervanta's population is composed of foreigners from 75 different nationalities.
Hervanta currently covers an area of 13.8 km² and is continuing to grow. It was selected as Finland's top suburb in a survey conducted by the Helsingin Sanomat
Helsingin Sanomat
Helsingin Sanomat is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. In 2008, its daily circulation was 412,421 on weekdays and 468,505 on Sundays...
newspaper and published on 17 August 2003.
The complex of commercial buildings in the town center of Hervanta was designed by the Finnish architect Reima Pietilä.
Technology
Hervanta is sometimes called the Silicon ValleySilicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
of Finland, because of the high concentration of high tech companies in the area and the presence of the Tampere University of Technology. As well as the University, Hervanta is also home to the Hermia science centre and the VTT office complex. The world's first-ever GSM phone call was made in Hervanta in 1991, when Radiolinja
Radiolinja
Radiolinja was a Finnish GSM operator founded on September 19, 1988. On March 27, 1991, the world's first GSM phone call was made on Radiolinja's network...
started building its GSM network. Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
and many other companies have offices in Hervanta.
Recreation
On the north edge of Hervanta at Lukonmäki there's a downhill skiing centre with two skiing runs and one lift. Ski centre also includes a small ski jump tower that is clearly visible when entering Hervanta from the north along Hervannan valtaväylä road.On the west side of Hervanta is located lake Suolijärvi
Suolijärvi
Suolijärvi is a small lake in Tampere, Finland. It is situated west of the suburb Hervanta. It has a small beach where people can sunbathe or swim during the summer. There are also two trails which bound the lake....
that has a small beach for sunbathing and swimming. Around the lake goes two trails. The innernmost and smaller trail goes around the lake near the shore while the outermost one makes a longer route keeping a fair distance to the lake. The longer route is linked to the trail network stretching around Tampere. The trails are used for jogging
Jogging
Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running.-Definition:...
and cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
(during winter).
Hervanta has numerous small sport fields that are generally used for soccer and finnish baseball. During winter some of the fields are frozen for ice-skating and ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
.
Hervanta also has a kind of a central park called Ahvenispuisto around lake Ahvenisjärvi. In southern part of Hervanta there is another big park called Näyttelijänpuisto. Näyttelijänpuisto has a disc golf
Disc golf
Disc golf is a disc game in which individual players throw a flying disc into a basket or at a target. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association, "The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc." Of the more than 3000...
track and a noteworthy hill that is used for tobogganing in winter. In addition to the two mentioned parks there are numerous smaller parks.