Finland based Futudesign has been announced as the winner of a competition which invited firms to repurpose part of the Helsinki Central Railway Station. The design, which will transform the station’s underutilized eastern wing into a hotel, both reinterprets and modernizes Eliel Saarinen's original architectural intent.
At the time of the train station’s completion in 1914, Saarinen’s designs were referencing the stylistic transformation he was experiencing at this particular moment in his career- from a national romantic zeitgeist to that of one being influenced by the Arts & Crafts style and the Vienna Secession movement. This new extension is a continuation and reinterpretation of the courtyard’s formal logic.
By pushing back the façade, the two ends of the original building will be exposed, providing a clear separation for the hotel intervention and the train station. The hotel will fill in the space between the two existing buildings and create a new courtyard space with a curved facade as a result. The exterior materials will also pay homage to Saarinen’s design by creating a “subtle dialogue between the old and the new."
The lower level, designed with tall arched windows which reference Saarinen’s original station, will contain a variety of public spaces for train station passengers to quickly grab a cup of coffee or work in a quiet space.
Each hotel room will take on its own distinctive form which is connected through a large central corridor that runs through the building and allows for views into the courtyard and a large atrium at the center allows for natural light to filter through the building.
The project is expected to be completed in 2020.
Architects
Location
Kaivokatu 1, 00100 Helsinki, FinlandLead Architects
Auvo Lindroos, Teemu Seppänen, Iikka Airas, Aleksi Niemeläinen, Veikka Entelä, Patrick Perämäki, Fanni Suvila, Tiina TeräsStructural Engineer
Jukka Ala-Ojala, Topi Valtonen, Wise Group Finland OyArea
4200.0 m2Project Year
2017Photographs
Architects
News via: Futudesign.
