A TRANSFORMATIVE PATTERN FOR VANTAA (FINLAND)
Aviapolis Urban Blocks. A living airport city.
by Marco Baccarelli, Beatrice Galimberti, and Martina Orsini with Elena Cattaneo and Virginia Sellari
international competition – Ex Aequo Winner
2017
Aviapolis condenses many scale shifting and heterogeneity of urban elements, acting as a centrality of a high scale system. Its identity is comparable to a mosaic composed of multiple peculiarities and dimensions and can in no way be considered an employees suburb gravitating on the inner city. Being an infrastructural focal node, it interacts both at supranational and local scales. This, combined with its special localization, strengthens the potentialities of also becoming an ecologically, culturally and economically fulcrum. Indeed, Aviapolis is also engaged with a complex and overlapped urban and metropolitan system, where meaningful frames are intertwined, giving rise to a multitude of relationships and evolution opportunities. The combination between large and high impact buildings and infrastructures with low density and rarefied settlements, so as with widespread green environmental system, make this area an inspiring urban background within which to experiment new spatial relationships and connections.
The area has been then reimagined through clusters of different sizes and building typologies relying on an extensive and open urbanized continuous soil. At the same time, the green grounds are contained within the clusters as permeable environmental hearts. Commercial activities, public and collective spaces, facilities at double ground level are located on the external edges of the clusters. This makes of each cluster an intensive activity ring reverberating its liveliness on the vast and continuous soil, to keep it vibrant and urban. At the same time, the clusters protect intimate parks in which can be placed collective indoor gardens, and other facilities addressed to citizens. A portion of these can be reserved to cluster inhabitants, to trigger local forms of sociality and sharing like indoor veg gardens, study and game spaces for the young, gyms, etc.
The public soil on which clusters are located is conceived as a wide urbanized substrate where streets, outdoor or indoor parking, pedestrian paths, playgrounds, tree rows, squares, small pavilions local services and other collective components are merged in a uniform surface ruled by a dimensional grid module regulating the compositional grammar of every element, so as its spatial distribution, in a configuration going beyond the traditional division into streets and blocks. It is crossed by a green corridor that follows the canal outline and in continuity with existing large scale ecological systems.
The requested Atomi building has been subdivided and placed in three strategic points of the area, so to become a pervasive collective device. In the two facing elements along the canal within the park are placed the primary school 7-12 and the upper-grade school 13-15. The third element is situated in the Rälssipuisto Park surrounded by a grove and comprehends the daycare centre 1-6 years and its enclosed garden, plus the youth and library facilities for neighbours.
The parking system is organized through three typologies. Automated car spaces vertically inserted in the buildings are provided for residents. For offices and commercial functions have been planned two multi-stores parking buildings and six robotic towers, plus parking lots close to collective spaces.
Further information on: www.vantaa.fi