Otaniemi is Us!
Design for Aalto University Central Campus, Helsinki
While much of the existing Aalto University campus is covered with nature, there is no active participation between it and the users.
Otaniemi is Us! is a response to the site’s current landscape and conditions by bringing nature from it’s own proximity into the centre. The planes of Laajalahti Bay and that of the existing site come together and overlap, and where they meet, a central square starts to grow, propagating programs from its perimeter towards the existing adjacent buildings.
The project creates an agora: a place where students, teachers, scientists and the public can come together with a common purpose to engage with and learn from one another. The space becomes a playground where people can discover and participate in examples of coexistence between urban life and nature, a laboratory where they see a new kind of campus imagined and constructed.
Otaniemi is Us!
Location
Otaniemi, Helsinki, FI
Area
52,000 m2
Year
2012
Client
Aalto University Properties Ltd
Team
Eva Pfannes, Sylvain Hartenberg, Phillip MacDougall, Augustin Roy-Verger, Mara Kanthak, Maria Chiou, Thomas Pearce, Andrew Tang
Collaborators
Shilesh Hariharan (sustainable consultant)
Status
Competition
Notes
Honourable Mention
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