Low2No Competition, Building Design in Finland, Winner, Finnish Project, News

Low2No Competition Helsinki

Helsinki Architecture Contest – design by Sauerbruch Hutton Architects in Finland

1 Oct 2009

Low2No Competition

Sauerbruch Hutton Helsinki Win for Sustainable City Block

Finnish Architecture Contest

Low2No Competition Organised by Sitra, Helsinki

Sauerbruch Hutton Architects was selected out of five short-listed teams (74 applicants) as the winner for the Low2No Competition for an energy- and innovation block in Jatkasaari, Helsinki.

images © sauerbruch hutton

The winning team includes: Sauerbruch Hutton with ARUP, Experientia, Galley Eco Capital. Their entry is entitled: c_life – City as living factory of ecology. In their proposal, the multinational team leveraged a particularly promising consumer/behavioural framework to empower citizens in meeting the goal of sustainability. In addition, the team presented an innovative funding model for developing Jatkasaari into the first carbon neutral district in Finland.

Project Description

Sauerbruch Hutton together with Arup, Experientia and Galley Eco Capital has won an international competition for the design of a prototypical block within Finland’s fi rst carbon neutral district that will be established on the peninsular of Jätkäsaari in Helsinki.

The competition was run by the Finnish innovation fund Sitra who commissioned 5 international teams from 74 applications. Their aim was to encourage decision-makers, developers, designers and contractors to seriously consider the effects of climate change. Sitra’s intention is that innovative strategies of the scheme will be replicated throughout the whole development. Further, it is anticipated that Sitra will relocate their own headquarters to the Low2No site.

Sauerbruch Hutton’s winning proposal ‘c_life – City as Living Factory of Ecology’ comprised specifi c recommendations for the Low2No block, as well as further initiatives for the immediate surroundings and for Helsinki as a whole. A crucial part of the team’s holistic and interdisciplinary approach is an architecture that reduces the buildings’ environmental impact together with the inhabitants’ footprints by passive and active strategies.

The use of renewable, low-carbon building materials, a high fl exibility of the structure to allow for future changes, a maximised use of daylight and natural ventilation, the provision of life-and-work typologies as well as that of pocket greenhouses and attractive communal gardens have all been integrated into an urban setting of short distances and mix of uses.

The Low2No site, together with some further lots that form the fi rst phase of the overall development, is due to be completed by 2012. The entire district of Jätkäsaari, some 100 hectares, will be constructed by 2023, whilst already by 2021 the area is expected to be carbon negative on a yearly basis.

News

In May this year Sauerbruch Hutton’s Museum Brandhorst was opened. After only two months the museum has already received more than 100.000 visitors. The building was shortlisted for the 2009 Lubetkin Prize.

Earlier this year, the Jessop West building for Sheffield University, the Municipal Savings Bank in Oberhausen, as well as the refurbishment and roof extension of Sauerbruch Hutton’s own offi ces in Berlin have been successfully fi nished.

Sauerbruch Hutton have recently won the first prize for the ecological refurbishment and extension of Munich Re offices in Munich, as well as the fi rst prize for a small church and parish hall in Cologne.

2010 will see the completion of the collaborative Türkentor project with artist Walter de Maria in Munich as well as projects in Milan, Frankfurt and Cologne. Projects under construction or on the drawing board include the St. Georges Centre in Geneva, the masterplan for Het Laar in Tilburg and the headquarters for the ADAC in Munic and two buildings in the Paris, one of which is within the area of the former Renault factory in Boulogne Billancourt.

Current and forthcoming exhibitions

until 4th October 2009
The Invention of the European Tower, Pavillon d’Arsenal, Paris
GSW headquarters Berlin is exhibited

until 15th October 2009
ADACH platform for Visual Arts in Venice
Sauerbruch Hutton designed the exhibition pavilion for Abu Dhabi on the 53rd Biennale di Venezia

5th – 22nd November 2009
Building For The 2000 Watt Society – The Current Situation,
Bauen für die 2000 Watt Gesellschaft – Der Stand der Dinge, EWZ-Unterwerk, Zurich.
The exhibition features the KfW Headquarters as a model for ‘Compacity as a Chance’

October 31st until 6th December 2009
Cidade para todos. City for All, São Paolo
Sauerbruch Hutton is exhibiting within the German contribution to São Paolo’s 8th International Architecture Biennial.

until 18th December 2009
Green Architecture for the Future, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark.
Sauerbruch Hutton is represented by their prize winning entry of a zero carbon office building for Langelinie in Copenhagen, as well as by the KfW Headquarters

Low2No Competition Helsinki design : sauerbruch hutton architects

Location: Helsinki, Finland, northeast Europe