Lahti, Finland

LAHTI doesn't know if it's a Lake Region town or a Helsinki suburb, and it's perhaps this confusion that conspires to make the place so dull. Its entire growth took place in the twentieth century (mostly since Alvar Aalto opened several furniture factories, which kept him going between architectural commissions), and although it's now the major transport junction between the Lake Region and the south, it lacks any lake-area atmosphere, while local cultural life is diminished by the relative proximity of Helsinki. Lahti's one compensation is its status as a winter-sports centre of international renown: three enormous ski jumps hang over the town, and there's a feeling of biding time when summer grass, rather than winter snow, covers their slopes.