Offices

"FINIS"

The charm of Töölönlahti street blocks is in its completing the immediate urban fabric without stealing all the attention. This urban row also shelters the park from discomfort and noise of nearby railroads, and stands as a principle spine to support existing buildings and future public developments. Block 2018 culminates the row, subsequently characterising the entire block.

The proposal is a continuation of the dualistic nature of Block 2018: a new natural terminus that gracefully complements the cityscape. Consisting of one office and two residential developments, the proposal interacts with Finlandia Hall and the adjacent park through the situation of a café pavilion.

From the office development’s pivotal south-east corner, the whole site is anchored to the urban fabric. The façade continues along the tracked perimeter northwards, eventually curving gently inwards. This subtle gesture again highlights its terminus character and also serves to direct flow towards the park.

The offices’ northern end curves inversely to partially envelop the six-storey apartment pavilion that loosely mimics the office’s edge. These unique city villas will be the most desirable apartments in Helsinki.

To the west of the office building is the other apartment pavilion that diagonally faces an entrance from the square at the end of Alvar Alto street.

The housing pavilion in the south-west corner is connected to the offices by an expansive brise-soleil along the south façade. These shading elements transform into balcony rails along the fronts of apartments. The opposite facing of the linear south façade is a curvaceous and asymmetrical park of the city.

Hartwall Arena is the largest sports stadium and entertainment complex in Helsinki. The infrastructure of the arena is dimensioned to meet the peak demand during large public events. This happens 2-5 times per year in events such as major ice hockey matches and rock shows. For the remaining time the vast potential of the arena remains unused. The unused infrastructure could supply for another 50.000 square meters of new construction.

We propose a new building on site to take this potential into use. Peak attenuation systems help to overcome the large public happenings. Simultaneously the rough public space around the arena is upgraded from an empty asphalt field into an exciting landscape of action. Site conditions provide clear starting points making tall building the only sensible approach. The proposed tower is close to 120m tall consisting of apartments, offices, and a rooftop restaurant with a viewing deck. The podium contains a sports centre with various sports programs. The roof of the podium extends the current deck surface of the Leijona square providing for the public space in terms of green landscape and various sports uses like basketball and wall climbing.

The arena is separated from the surrounding city structure by two railways and massive road networks. They provide access for the stadium and the new project, and also cause the lack of neighbours who might potentially be disturbed by a tall building nearby. The project is a strong contribution to densification and diversification of the existing urban fabric of Helsinki. By building on the bad we can add quality, usability, visibility, connectivity and sustainability to the area and the whole city of Helsinki.

Helsinki is currently developing new sustainable methods for building the city. Primarily these projects aim at increasing density at the expense of urban sprawl. One question is how to make existing built areas denser, another where and how to build high. The Cloud City project is one possible answer. As its site, the project uses the large courtyard of the 1930’s Nokia cable factory block, Merikortteli. It aims at combining a single family house typology with central location and high rise views. This is achieved by using an office tower to elevate the residential building above the surrounding ridge line. The building is literally two different architectures piled on top of each other. These two identities are never present simultaneously so they can be completely optimized for their own use and conditions. Both sections have adopted a type of camouflage relating to their specific situations. The lower office section has a façade literally reflecting the surrounding brick walls, becoming a distorted reflection of its container. Its form and reflective facade direct additional light into the yard in the winter, while in the summer it provides shade against overheating. The apartments above are made up of one room sized units, creating a small scale, detached house feel. The private terraces and greenhouses give a sense of having your own garden. Each apartment has magnificent views to the sea and across central Helsinki. On the scale of the cityscape the pixelated shape, lined by reflective glass railings and conservatories, makes the building blend into the skyline. The courtyard will be built into a public garden, with the ground level containing public functions. The 9th floor will offer a public cafe with full views to the sea.

Laboratory spaces have a tightly preset list of technical attributes leading to unified outcome almost regardless of the architect. For flexibility, the offices and educational spaces in this project need to follow the same set of rules. The shared foyer space, instead, can become something more.

Researchers are known as introvert individuals, but the asymmetric 3d-shape of the foyers in this building encourage communication by providing multiple views, traffic routes and places.

In cityscape the form of the building is defined by the ambition to create outdoor spaces that would provide to the users of the building. Meanwhile the feel of these spaces relates to the changing surrounding conditions. The curved form of the window bands in the facade is defined by sun-exposure to avoid overheating and to correspond to the building's high energy criteria. The distinctive reflecting surface of the concrete facade is achieved by using recycled glass as the aggretate.