MFA Friday Clip: Finnish Architecture – Review 2020: New Aalto University campus buildings

MFA Friday Clip series presents videos of the latest biennial review projects. This week's theme: New Aalto University campus buildings by Verstas Architects

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NEW AALTO UNIVERSITY CAMPUS BUILDINGS Espoo, Finland, 2019
Verstas Architects

With the new university buildings on the Otaniemi campus, Verstas Architects has resolved an unusually complex situation. They had to fit the buildings to the library and former main building by Alvar and Elissa Aalto, on one side, and a new metro station by ALA Architects on the other. Additionally, they had to create an overall structure that could integrate the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, the School of Business, and a shopping centre into one building volume.

The architects have paid homage to the red brick used by the Aaltos. In its variation between patterned glass and brick, the new building complex distances itself from the modernist dogma, by alternately placing the “heavy” brick above the “light” glass. The clever plan is another historical reference.

While the detailing of the meeting of the volumes is, perhaps, not completely resolved, it is the spaces in between that create the strongest spatial impact. Spanning all five levels these skylit atriums form busy collective spaces and three-dimensional “theatres”, where one can watch students and teachers entering and leaving the adjacent labs and studios. The lower levels of the atriums also contain several public functions, which are cleverly varied between the different departments and schools. The utter difference between the whimsical and creative vibe of the Department of Architecture and the almost corporate, golden finish of the School of Business, is a playful testament to the versatility of the layout concept. All in all, the project has a labyrinthine flow, in the best meaning of the word, and the detailing and finishing are at a high level.

Text: Martin Braathen / Jury 2020

Video: Jonni Roos, Raimo Uunila
Camera: Raimo Uunila, Atte Henriksson
Editing: Raimo Uunila, Camilla Siren
Editor: Jonni Roos
Production: Uuden Avaaja, Grape Prodictions
Subtitles: Museum of Finnish Architecture
Translation: Translatinki Oy

The Finnish Architecture. Biennial Review 2020 exhibition is open until February 28, 2021 in Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki.