Subway Stations in Keilaniemi and Otaniemi

The Helsinki Metro will be extended to the west by the year 2014. As the new Länsimetro -line reaches onto the side of the neighbouring city of Espoo, this extension will turn the subway system into a high quality metropolitan device. The line includes eight new stations and four different architects. Two of the stations, the ones in specifi c high profi le locations of Otaniemi and Keilaniemi, are being designed by ALA in collaboration with Arkkitehtitoimisto Esa Piironen Oy.

Both stations will be state-of-the-art subway stations with modern automatic systems and generous use of space. All stations in the line extension will follow the same technical and spatial requirements. However, the brief calls for unique architectures for the stations. These have to be answered to by understanding - and interpreting - the context.

In Otaniemi the architectural challenge is to respond to the world famous campus of the Technical University, designed in the 1960s by the renowned architect Alvar Aalto. The conservation rush of the late 20th century in Finland has made a bold addition to a 1950s classic design an impossibility. Blending in with Aaltos touch of humanity without failing to express vitality and optimism, which is inherent his work as well as all academic work carried out in the university, is the architectural goal of this project.

The other ALA designed station in Keilaniemi is contextually the other side of the same coin. Keilaniemi is the hyper-modern Y2K -home of multinational companies, such as the mobile giant Nokia, and Kone, the worldwide operating elevator company. This environment calls for architecture that can relate to the fast world of the business elite. But how to introduce a touch of humanity and Finnishness to the stage?