Path to Nature
Typology
Urban Redevelopment, Housing
Location
Vikki, Helsinki, Finland
Date
Winter, 2023
Philosophy
Mediating the relationship
between nature reserve and
urban thorugh path and view
Designer
Jaeseo Choi
Sangheon Yi
Seungjae Jeon
Competition
Result
Saint-Gobain ASC 2024
National Stage, 2nd Prize
Viikki is located at the border of Viikki-Vanhankaupunginlahti. The site marks an end to an 8km long 'green finger' penetrating the greater Helsinki area. South-west of Viikki is Arboretum where more than 250 taxa of flora are beautifully showcased. Within the area are beautifully laid wooden paths into the nature reserve and occasional bird-watching towers.
Contest site is in the middle of three distinct features: current town center of Viikki, future development area, and Viikki Arboretum. This provides a unique opportunity to have a path from urban to nature laid on the site, along with the watchtowers viewing over the horizon.
Newly constructed housing building doubles as a sloped urban park. The way up the hill is placed in the converging point of the two paths from Viikki's urban centers. The building's gentle slope of stairs and green spaces makes the building a vertical expansion of the public space, providing a vantage point.
South of the new constructed housing building is a former administrative office of the Helsinki University. The building features gracefully sloped glazed facade. Celebrating this feature, demolition of the first floor slab of western side creates a double height communal space filled with light. The demolished area is compensated with the vertical extension of the building.
