Stakes Building and Senate Properties
Helsinki, Finland
Heikkinen - Komonen Architects

A new office building combines industrial architecture with modern transparency and flexibility

© Jussi Tiainen

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

Ripe for adaptive reuse, the handsome brick buildings along the former industrial blocks of Sörnäinen, Helsinki, are being converted for new functions. Senate Properties chose a former grain and root vegetable store as the location for its new head office. The new premises of STAKES were constructed concurrently.

A main goal for the project team was to introduce transparency, flexibility, and openness into the colossal industrial milieu. The organization of the building revolves around the warehouse structure. Sturdy, mushroom-shaped columns, sand-blasted to reveal the concrete surface, create a system of smaller spaces within the open volume of space. Enlarged windows ensure sufficient sunlight for the interior. Contrasting with the transparent elements of the project, the facades retain their solid appearance by covering the voids with brick-color aluminum screens.

Combining the old elements with new ones created another challenge. Elevations of the STAKES premises adapt to the architecture of the old warehouse. The walls are made of the original brickwork. The windows of the workspaces are paired and shielded with screens similar to those that were used in the refurbished part. The only added color in the building is leaf-green, used along the walls of an eight-story-high "canyon." The volume slices the building longitudinally—all of the building’s circulation, conference spaces, and break rooms are located between the concrete flanks of this void.

Formal name of Project:
Stakes Building and Senate Properties

Location:
Helsinki, Finland

Gross square footage:
310,000 sq ft

Total construction cost:
$50 million

Owner:
Senate Properties

Architect:
Heikkinen - Komonen Architects
Kristianinkatu 11-13
FIN - 00170 Helsinki
tel.+358 - 9 - 7510 2111
fax.+358 - 9 - 7510 2166
http://www.heikkinen-komonen.fi