Helsinki

How can the site contribute to the adaptable city?

The Laakso-Aurora area has offered healthcare services for the citizens of Helsinki for already 100 years. However, the implementation and procedures of the services have changed over time. The central challenge of the area is to utilise the historical hospital buildings for new needs, such as preventative healthcare, outpatient care and various rehabilitation and residential services. 
In the next few years several buildings will be due for renovation. New innovative and flexible social and healthcare service buildings should be placed throughout the whole area in order to respond to the evolving needs of acute medical care, rehabilitation and psychiatric services as well as new residential and multi-storey residential buildings. 

City strategy

The central strategy of the City of Helsinki is to develop an environmentally and economically sustainable, vibrant and barrier-free urban structure. There are many important boundary conditions – some even partly contradictory – in the competition area regarding the cityscape, traffic, green areas and building conservation, and to which the City hopes the competitors will take a creative approach. 
The Helsinki metropolitan area will over the next few decades become considerably more compact. The City’s objective is to be innovative regarding the densification of the urban structure and to develop multi-storey housing. The City sees the boundary conditions set by the building history of the area as an asset and resource.

Site definition

The competition area is situated within the urban core, approximately 2,5 kilometres from the city centre of Helsinki. On the west side of the competition area is Mannerheimintie road, one of the city’s marin traffic arteries. On the east side is the main Helsinki railway line. The south border of the area is demarcated by the busy Nordenskiöldinkatu street and in the north begins the extensive Central Park, an urban forest, which is an important permanent recreational area for the city’s citizens. South from the site is a sports park built for the 1952 Olympic Games.
Between the hospital areas is the entrance to the Central Park, a lower area containing a children’s road safety park, and an equestrian arena dating from the Olympic Games with a recently renewed spectator seating.

Adaptability: main elements to take into account

The Laakso-Aurora area is a cultural environment considered of national importance and a large part of the present buildings are building-historically valuable. It is the wish of the City that the present operations of the social and healthcare services will be preserved and developed in the area. 
Renovation and new construction often require expensive temporary solutions or even constructing new temporary facilities. It is hoped that the competitors will consider how the existing facilities could be utilised for temporary use. Other solutions could be considered for temporary facilities such as multi-use modules which could be used several times for different functions.
The planned housing will be placed at the edge of a park, yet fairly close to the city centre. New building types and apartments for a compact residential area are aimed for through the development of multi-storey housing. The challenge is to combine the best individualized features of single-family housing with the ease and compactness of multi-storey housing. 
The nature values and all kinds of outdoor activities are important for Helsinki residents. The vicinity of the Central Park offers enormous potential in fulfilling these. At the same time, the role of the Central Park as a separating and uniting element for different areas becomes important in the competition.