Monitoimipuutalo (literally in Finnish "multifunction wooden building") is a new communitycentre located at the intersection of three neighbourhoods, just a few kilometres north ofHelsinki's city centre.North of the community centre lays the park of Toukulan rantapuisto and Arabianranta,consisting of mainly a university campus and housing blocks developed in the noughties.South of it, a semi-abandoned industrial area stretches for about 1,5 km till the newneighbourhood of Kalasatama and the eponymous metro station.On the eastern side, beyond the arterial road Hermannin rantatie, lays Hermanni housing area,developed mainly during the 50' and 60'.

The chosen location defines the entrance to the existing park and will be a corner stone of thearea's future development, given the fact that the semi-abandoned area on the south isplanned to become a new neighbourhood, connecting over the years the already thrivingneighbourhoods of Arabianranta and Kalasatama. Therefore, a multipurpose timber structure isperfectly suited to adapt to the present and future needs of the area while hosting a widerange of uses to serve the local community.

Monitoimipuuutalo takes a clue from the typical XIX century (or older) apartment block, where itssection expresses a great functional, social, and economic diversity. Then Modernism broughtsegregation of functions, with optimisation of structures as a priority. The proposal takes thebest of both schemes, maximising variety and efficiency in an apparent oxymoron.

S M L XL

XIX CENTURYmix of functions butinflexible structure

XX CENTURYsegregation of functions but

optimisation of structures

XIX CENTURYmix of functions and

optimisation of structures

HousingOffice

CommercialLeisure

ARABIACOMMUNITY CENTRE

MONITOIMIPUUTALO

Helsinki, Finland

1 km

500 m

View of the community centre from the park Toukulan rantapuisto. In the background the existing student housing Majstranden.