JAKOMÄEN SYDÄN

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Year: 2017–2021

Status: Competition. 1st prize. Built.

Program: School, daycare, youth house, sport facilities

Client: City of Helsinki

Area: 10 990 m2

In collaboration with Auer & Sandås Architects ltd.

Jakomäen Sydän (Heart of Jakomäki) is a multipurpose educational building, located in Jakomäki, Helsinki. The building serves to integrate several public services, namely, the school, the daycare, the youth house and the corresponding sport facilities under one roof. The spaces also serve the local community after school hours. The compact two-storey building volume is designed to enhance social interactions among different users and user groups and creates situations for encounters while providing ample space. The building is designed to support the newest Finnish national curriculum which necessitates a series of educational spaces of varying scales and types as well as collaborative spaces between study areas of different subjects.

The exterior architecture draws from the building’s suburban context, both from the landscape and the architecture. The low and horizontal building volume connects with the openness of the surrounding landscape and works as a backdrop to the verticality of the pine trees. While the light brickwork draws from the existing buildings in the area, the enhanced porous texture of the facade lends the building a unique archaic character . The repetitive and harmonic rhythm of fenestration emphasizes the three portals and visually lead to the red brick clad main entrance yards.

The design of the building is based on an invited architecture competition held in 2017.