Espoo Finland
Espoo Finland
The proposals for the new Espoo city centre demonstrate
ideas that will transform a physically fragmented city, where neighbourhoods are isolated by sporadic growth and an extensive and intrusive network of major roads. This is achieved through a planning strategy that employs the following principal ideas:
1. A revitalised and symbolic city centre, with a number of new physical connections to existing public buildings and outlying neighbourhoods. These pedestrian axes, arranged in a radial pattern, act as visual corridors that lead to the major public plaza enclosed by public buildings. It is these that break the orthogonal geometry of the existing buildings, with an informal and dynamic arrangement, connecting the city centre with the commercial development, by linking it with a new pedestrian bridge across the highway.
2. Integrating mixed-use public buildings that are strategically placed to activate and encourage these connections.
3. An extension to the existing parkland area, that utilises the radial geometry to locate new public buildings as pavilions
in the landscape.
ideas that will transform a physically fragmented city, where neighbourhoods are isolated by sporadic growth and an extensive and intrusive network of major roads. This is achieved through a planning strategy that employs the following principal ideas:
1. A revitalised and symbolic city centre, with a number of new physical connections to existing public buildings and outlying neighbourhoods. These pedestrian axes, arranged in a radial pattern, act as visual corridors that lead to the major public plaza enclosed by public buildings. It is these that break the orthogonal geometry of the existing buildings, with an informal and dynamic arrangement, connecting the city centre with the commercial development, by linking it with a new pedestrian bridge across the highway.
2. Integrating mixed-use public buildings that are strategically placed to activate and encourage these connections.
3. An extension to the existing parkland area, that utilises the radial geometry to locate new public buildings as pavilions
in the landscape.
This will be achieved by relocating the existing open parking areas to a series of underground garages. The overall strategy develops a harmonious relationship between built-form and the landscape, centred on the public plaza that adapts for seasonal use. The extended network of streets and paths encourage pedestrians and bikeriders to move around the city more freely.
The siting of new public buildings reinforces these physical and visual connections, whether from points of arrival, such as the railway station, or through visual connections across roads and the open landscape. It encourages mixed-use development, so that areas of the city remain active throughout the day and it provides a symbolic and recognisable series of public buildings that are open and freely accessible.
Location: Espoo, Finland Client: Municipality of Espoo
Size: 112,200 sqm
Planning Area: 190,000 sqm
The siting of new public buildings reinforces these physical and visual connections, whether from points of arrival, such as the railway station, or through visual connections across roads and the open landscape. It encourages mixed-use development, so that areas of the city remain active throughout the day and it provides a symbolic and recognisable series of public buildings that are open and freely accessible.
Location: Espoo, Finland Client: Municipality of Espoo
Size: 112,200 sqm
Planning Area: 190,000 sqm
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