Anssi Lassila is joining as a panelist in the Place NOW – Regionalism in the 2020s seminar in Oulu tomorrow. The seminar focuses on examining regionalism in architecture from a contemporary viewpoint. The event is organized by the jeesjeesgood collective and it takes place at the Kulttuuritalo Valve. The seminar is free and open to all.
Place NOW – Regionalism in the 2020s
Seminar and discussion
Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 16:00 – 19:00
Kulttuuritalo Valve
Hallituskatu 7
90100 Oulu
In the seminar on Saturday, there will be three short lectures presenting three different points of view on regionalism today followed by a panel discussion. Anni Vartola, Senior Lecturer at the Aalto University will give a talk under the title “Dialects instead of an Esperanto of Architecture – Perspectives on Cultural Engagement”. Anna-Maija Ylimaula, Professor Emerita will discuss the legacy of the Oulu School under the title “The Oulu School Lives On”. Finally, Virve Väisänen of LUO Architects will provide reflections on regionalism today under the topic “Regionalism in the 2020s”
The three presentations will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Anni Vartola. Anja-Kaisa Ylimommo, Lauri Louekari and Anssi Lassila will join the presenters in the panel.
The seminar will be complemented by an excursion of select architecture sites in Oulu on Sunday, January 26, 2020 starting at 10:00 and lasting until 13:00. The excursion will include a tour of the Oulunsalo Council House guided by Kari Niskasaari and Jouko Leskinen and a visit to the Pitkäkangas School guided by Martti Karsikas and Hanna-Maija Tervo.
For registration and for more information see here.
Anssi Lassila, Director and Founder of OOPEAA, has been appointed Professor of Practice, Contemporary Architecture at the Oulu School of Architecture. He will assume his position on February 1, 2020. The position was filled by invitation and the appointment is for a five-year term.
Established in 1959, the Oulu School of Architecture is the northernmost school of architecture in the world, and one of three schools of architecture in Finland. The school has a particular focus on addressing and researching sustainability in the Northern climate and on developing new ways of building with wood. It is also the alma mater of Anssi Lassila, and it is with great enthusiasm that he takes on the new role as professor at the school. As Professor of Practice in Contemporary Architecture he will be in charge of the teaching unit dedicated to contemporary architecture. He will be responsible for teaching the 4th and 5th year students in the Master’s degree program in architecture.
The University of Oulu is an international science university with a community of 13 000 students and 2900 employees. Founded in 1958, it is today one of the biggest and the most multidisciplinary universities in Finland. The university consists of eight faculties and many specialized research units.
The Oulu School of Architecture provides architectural education on the highest academic level, from a BA level degree program to a two-year master’s degree program and a Ph.D. program in architecture. With its 300 domestic and international degree students, the school is a vital and dynamic unit within one of Finland’s largest universities. The Oulu School of Architecture has four teaching units: History of Architecture and Restoration studies, Contemporary Architecture, Urban Design and Planning, and Building Performance and Construction.
The study program is design-oriented and the courses are taught by professionals with wide range of expertise in the field of architecture and urban design. Professors of the school are internationally recognized architects actively involved in the profession and in the architectural debate both in Finland and internationally. Studies are carried out both individually and in multicultural teams in an international working environment. The surrounding Nordic nature, climate and light circumstances offer a living laboratory for experiments in 1:1 scale. Varying courses and additional study options give possibilities to integrate student competitions or workshops in the student’s individual study plan. The degree awarded is an architect’s professional degree, providing the right to practice the architect’s profession in Finland and the European Union according to the national laws and decrees.
For more information on the Oulu School of Architecture, see here
The Japanese Construction Company Obayashi is joining as an international partner in Life Cycle Visualizer project initiated by OOPEAA. It is a research and development project for creating an early assessment tool for evaluating the impact of material and structural choices on the sustainability of a building. The aim is to provide a tool that can be used in the early stages of concept design in order to help to guide the design process. The collaboration with Obayashi will provide a Japanese perspective to the project. This will complement the European perspective to sustainable building provided by OOPEAA. The partnership with Obayashi also brings a valuable contribution to the project by offering a constructor’s insight to the building process.
The Life Cycle Visualizer tool is about visualizing and making transparent basic information regarding a building project. The intention is not to create a tool for providing a full life cycle analysis. Instead, the goal is to create a web-based tool to be used in the early stages of the design process prior to having made decisions that at a later stage will make it possible to perform a proper life cycle analysis. The tool makes it possible for designers, clients and all parties involved in the early decision-making process of a building project to better comprehend the impact of alternative material and structural choices on the sustainability of the project, and to communicate about it in an easily understandable, visual manner.
Obayashi Corporation is one of five major Japanese construction companies. Its headquarters are in Minato, Tokyo and it is one of the Nikkei 225 corporations. Established in 1892 in Osaka,the company operates in Japan and 13 other countries, especially Southeast Asia and Australia, as well as the United States and Europe. Major landmarks built by Obayashi in Japan include KyotoStation Building, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) Center as well as TOKYO SKYTREE, a broadcasting and observation tower that was the world’s tallest structure at the time of its completion in 2012 with a height of 634 meters.Obayashi has 86subsidiaries and 26 affiliated companies in Japan, Europe, The Middle East Asia, Australia and North America. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The research and development project for creating the Life Cycle Visualizer tools is supported by a grant awarded by the Ministry of Environment, Finland. The grant is part of the Growth and Development from Wood Program.
For more information about the Life Cycle Visualizer project, see here.
For more information about Obayashi, see here.
For more information about the Growth and Development from Wood Program, see here
We have updated our home page to share our thinking behind some of our most recent research projects. There is an ongoing focus on research and development at OOPEAA. It is a great a tool for creating innovative solutions and developing new ways of thinking. We are interested in exploring the potential for finding optimal solutions that support both the social and ecological aspects of sustainability while simultaneously being economically efficient in a long-term perspective.
You can find more about our research projects here.
A TOOL FOR EVALUATING SUSTAINABILITY
In recent years, our interest in finding ways to optimize the use of material and create solutions that are architectonically and technically sustainable has led to our involvement in research projects with a focus on sustainability. Most recently, we have initiated a research and development project for a web based evaluation tool to assess the impact of the material and structural choices on the ecological sustainability of a building project that could be used already in the early stages of concept design in order to help to guide the design process. The working name for the tool is Life Cycle Visualizer. The research and development project for creating the Life Cycle Visualizer tool is realized under the leadership of OOPEAA as an international collaboration. It is carried out with the support of a grant awarded by the Ministry of Environment, Finland. The grant is part of the Growth and Development from Wood Program.
More information on the Life Cycle Visualizer, a tool for evaluating sustainability can be found here.
Modular Timber Construction
At OOPEAA there is also an ongoing focus on exploring the potential of modularity and the application of mass timber as a sustainable solution to the needs of urban housing and public buildings. Since the fire regulations were changed in Finland in 2011 to allow for multi-story wooden construction, OOPEAA has been involved in developing new modular construction systems making use of timber. Working with wood and mass timber to explore its potential for developing ecologically and socially sustainable solutions to the contemporary needs of urban housing and public buildings is a key focus in the work of the office. We are also interested in developing new systems of flexibly customizable modularity.
The Puukuokka Block by OOPEAA is an illustration of the potential of a system of volumetric modules made of CLT in creating multi-story apartment buildings with a fully wooden frame and structure. The Global Concept for the Allas Sea Pool Family developed by OOPEAA is an example of applying the modular principle in a scalable concept with the capacity for flexible adaptation for sites in different parts of the world. Koota is a new wooden housing block to be built in Porvoo, a small historical city with a significant heritage of wooden buildings from the 19th century. It explores the potential of new methods of timber construction in providing a contemporary addition to the tradition of wooden housing. It creates a new solution for urban living in a way that is both ecologically and socially sustainable and promotes a sense of community amongst the residents.
For more information on our work on exploring the potential of modular timber construction, see here.
Urban Vision and Toolbox
Today, shopping centers with retail services clustered in locations outside of the city center present a challenge to the traditional understanding of the livelihood of cities as places of commerce. However, cities as urban places are really about much more than about just shopping and retail services. People need services, cafes, restaurants, offices and places of work, and above all, they need places that support social interaction, places where to meet friends, skateboard, play ball, do barbeque, and just simply to live in the everyday.
The Vision and Toolbox for the Future Seinäjoki City Center was published in the form of a book in November 2019. It provides a framework for developing the city as a socially sustainable, active and green place with a human scale. An Urban Toolbox of architectural tools specifically designed for developing the city as a well-balanced urban place is a key element of the Vision for the Future City. It provides a wide-ranging palette of tools for architectural interventions of various scales to be applied in various combinations depending on the context and the desired effect. The goal is to create a city that provides an accessible and inclusive urban place for people to live and work in and offers a richly layered and well-balanced environment for future growth.
The Vision has been deliberately formulated to serve as an inspiration rather than as a set of guidelines and instructions. It presents a library of possible alternative ways of doing things and illustrates the potential of interventions of various scales to support the city in its future growth in a way that makes it a place in which people feel good to live and work in. It aspires to inspire people to make their city the best possible place it can be.
While the vision was created to address the needs of the Seinäjoki City Center, the sixth fastest growing city in Finland, the Urban Toolbox offers a set of tools that can be applied to other cities as well. It is the result of a two-year research process of urban analysis and conceptual development realized by OOPEAA in collaboration with Gehl as an expert on matters of the social dynamics of urban public space. It was commissioned by the City of Seinäjoki. A series of three workshops gave also the citizens of Seinäjoki an opportunity to actively engage in the process.
For more information about the Urban Vision and Toolbox, see here.
The project for the New Tikkurila Church and the adjoining Bethania Housing is entering into a new phase as the construction for the housing begins. The ground-breaking for the part of the block providing affordable housing commissioned by the Vantaa Parishes was celebrated today.
The Tikkurila Bethania Housing offers a combination of student housing and apartments for affordable housing. The total number of apartments in the block will be 224 apartments, of which 162 will be for students commissioned by HOAS and 62 will be built by the Vantaa Parish. There will also be a generous array of shared spaces for the residents to use together as well as commercial spaces on the ground floor level.
The construction of the Tikkurila Bethania Housing is slated to be completed in the spring of 2021 for the new residents to move in. With the inauguration of the church planned for the Christmas time in 2020, the entire block comprising the housing and the church will be complete in the spring of 2021. The church building will offer a wide palette of services for people in the Tikkurila community. It will also provide a variety of as spaces for gathering and spending time together ranging from a cafe open to all to meeting spaces to be booked for small scale events. The main church hall will also provides a flexibly adjustable event space with a capacity to seat an audience of a maximum of 500 people.
The Bethania Housing is jointly commissioned by the Vantaa Parishes and by HOAS, the Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region. The New Tikkurila Church is commissioned by the Vantaa Parishes.
For more information on the Tikkurila Bethania Housing and the New Tikkurila Church, see here
The newly published book Vision and Toolbox for the Future Seinäjoki City Center provides a framework for developing the city as a socially sustainable, active and green urban place with a human scale. It is the result of a two-year research process of urban analysis and conceptual development realized by OOPEAA in collaboration with the City of Seinäjoki as the commissioning client and Gehl as an expert on matters of the social dynamics of urban public space. A series of three workshops gave also the citizens of Seinäjoki an opportunity to actively engage in the process.
You can download the book in English here
You can download the book in Finnish here
The book presents an urban toolbox of architectural tools and strategies for developing our future cities in ways that builds on the current structure of the city, draws from the historical layers of its heritage and adds a contemporary element to it. The goal is to create a socially sustainable city that provides a richly layered and well-balanced environment for future growth. The Vision and Toolbox offers a set of three strategies for interventions focused on activating the city by providing services to its citizens, on creating a coherent urban structure, and on making the city green. While the vision was created to address the needs of the Seinäjoki City Center, the Urban Toolbox offers a set of tools that can be applied to other cities as well.
The urban toolbox contains four sets of urban tools that address different aspects of the city: Urban Form, Urban Surface, Urban Green, and Urban Service. The toolset for Urban Surface focuses on interventions on the surface level of the urban structure in order to offer ways of creating an easy to navigate and pleasant experience of the city. The toolset for Urban Green offers a wide range of ways of introducing an element of green to the city center in order to create a healthy environment. The toolset for Urban Service provides ways of offering a wide range of services to the citizens in order to support well-being and a sense of community to strengthen social sustainability. The toolset for Urban Form focuses on interventions on the level of the built structure in order to create a sense of human scale in the city. These can be achieved by densifying the city structure, adding variation to the design of facades and roof geometry, applying different entrance typologies, and making use of street furniture to activate the street scape. The tools can be combined in multiple ways to create interventions of varying intensity and scale, from light and easy to implement ones to ones that demand more time and planning to execute.
Three case studies provide examples of how the urban tools can be deployed. They also identify potential areas for concentrated design interventions. These case studies are located in areas that also have the potential to connect pockets of dense urban development, activity, and historic importance. Case Study One focuses on the diversity of functions in the urban space. Case Study Two looks at the potential for activiating the city’s historical identity. Case Study Three highlights the possibilities for engaging the street as an active part of the urban social space of the city. Looking at the city with a focus on interventions that can be created with the help of the tools, the vision for future development stays intimately linked with the urban needs of the city and the well-being of its people.
For more information on the Vision for the Future Seinäjoki City Center project, see here
The Vision and Toolbox for the Future Seinäjoki City Center will be presented in the book launch event at the Apila Library in Seinäjoki on November 2019.
The Vision and Toolbox for the Future Seinäjoki City Center provides a framework for developing the city as a socially sustainable, active and green city with a human scale. The Vision is accompanied by an Urban Toolbox that offers a wide-ranging palette of different kinds of interventions specifically designed to help support the city to develop in its desired direction. The goal is to create a city that provides an accessible and inclusive urban place for people to live and work in and offers a richly layered and well-balanced environment for future growth.
Book launch
Vision and Toolbox for the Future Seinäjoki City Center
November 18, 2019 at 14:00
Apila Library, Jaaksi Auditorium
Alvar Aallon katu 14
Seinäjoki
The Vision for the Future Seinäjoki City Center has been commissioned by the City of Seinäjoki, Department of Land-Use Planning and Urban Design and created by OOPEAA Office for Peripheral Architecture in collaboration with Gehl People. OOPEAA has served as the project leader providing the architectural perspective and approach to the vision and the urban toolbox. Gehl has served as an expert consulting on matters of the social dynamics of urban public space. The Green Strategy developed by VSU Landscape Architects in 2018 has served as a valuable reference in the process of preparing the Vision and Toolbox for the Future Seinäjoki City Center.
The process of preparing the Vision for the Future Seinäjoki City Center included also a set of workshops engaging representatives of the city, experts, as well as upper school students and citizens of Seinäjoki.
We warmly thank all our collaborators for their contribution to the process! Welcome to join us in the event launching the book and presenting the Vision and Toolbox for the Future Seinäjoki City Center!
Anssi Lassila will be delivering a keynote lecture at the Aichi Wood Architecture Meeting 2019 in Nagoya, Japan. The annual Aichi Wood Architecture Meeting is an opportunity for the young professionals and students in Japan to learn about wood architecture. It also provides and important platform for building wider networks in the wood building industry in Japan as well as internationally.
Anssi Lassila
The Potential of Wood as a Sustainable Construction Material
Aichi Wood Architecture Meeting
Date: 9th November 13:30 – 17:00
Venue: Sugiyama Jogakuen University, Hoshigaoka campus
Address: 17-3 Hoshigaoka Motomachi, Chikusa Ward, Nagoya, Aichi 464-0802, Japan
In his lecture Anssi Lassila will share how his knowledge and many years of experience in working with wood continues to nurture his design philosophy and inspire his practice of architecture. The lecture is followed by a discussion between Anssi Lassila and Atsushi Yagi, the director of the NPO Team Timberize whose work focuses on metropolitan timber architecture and on exploring the potential of new methods for timber building.
The event is organized byKiai nokai, a group focused on matters of the future of wood architecture in Japan. This year, the event takes a comparative perspective under the theme the Future Wood Architecture in Finland and Japan.
For more information about the event in Japanese, see here
Timber! Symposium on Design Excellence in Timber and Wood brings together an international cohort of architects and engineers whose work demonstrates excellence in design and innovation specifically in wood. The symposium is composed lectures, workshops and panel discussions.
The symposium takes place at University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and it is hosted by the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design together with the U.S. Forest Service. All sessions are open to the public. Registration is free, but important, space is limited. For more information see here.
Anssi Lassila, OOPEAA
The Potential of Modularity: The Case of Puukuokka
Session 1 on Friday, October 4, 2019 at 2:10 pm
Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design
120 Vol Walker Hall
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
The individual presentations by 15 invited internationally recognized architects and engineers are focused on presenting case studies in design excellence in timber and wood. They will be complemented by panel discussions each day, andthe event will conclude in a public roundtable discussion on Sunday, October 6, 2019.
In his talk, Anssi Lassila will focus on the Puukuokka Block as an example and discuss the potential of a system of volumetric modules made of CLT in creating multi-story apartment buildings with a fully wooden frame and structure. In addition to Anssi Lassila of OOPEAA, the featured speakers are Andrea Leers of Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Mikkel Bøgh of Effekt, John Patkau of Patkau Architects, Sebastian Irarrazaval of Sebastian Irarrazaval Arquitecto, Tanya Luthi of Entuitive, Andrew Waugh of Waugh Thistleton Architects, Alan Organschi of Gray, Thomas Robinson of LEVER Architecture, Jeremy Smith of Irving Smith Architects, Kelly Harrison of HTS Structural Engineers, and Aaron Dorf of Snøhetta.
The Timber! summit seeks to elevate the use of wood in outstanding designs by both practitioners and students, and to promote an advanced understanding of wood and mass timber to the general public. The three-day event features 15 internationally recognized architects and engineers whose designs in wood best illustrate the beauty and potential of wood in general and of mass timber specifically. By gathering these prominent designers and focusing on their expertise and experience, the symposium seeks to elevate the perception of mass timber in the design community and advance its use overall.
Anssi Lassila will be presenting a talk at the Laurentian Architecture Lecture Series at the McEwen School of Architecture on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 5:30 pm. The lecture is free and open to all.
Architecture in Wood
A lecture by Anssi Lassila, OOPEAA
October 1, 2019 at 5:30 pm
McEwen School of Architecture
85 Elm St
P3C 1T3 Greater Sudbury, Ontario
In his lecture, Anssi Lassila will address the versatile potential of wood in architecture through a presentation of select projects by OOPEAA including the Kuokkala Church, the Puukuokka Housing Block, the Suvela Chapel, and the Lonna Sauna.
The Laurentian Architecture Lecture Series was first initiated in 2018, and it presents lectures by architects from around the world. The previous editions of the series have included such architects as, for example, Gabrielle Nadeau of BIG, Michael Sorensen of Henning Larsen Architects, and Kevin O’Brian of Kevin O’Brian Architects from Brisbane, Australia.
The lecture is presented by presented by TREMCO in collaboration with the Northern Ontario Society of Architects.
Please also note that this lecture qualifies for two (2) Ontario Association of Architects Continuing Education Structured Learning Hours.
For more information on the lecture see here
The McEwen School of Architecture, also referred to as l’École d’architecture McEwen, opened in September 2013, in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, is the first new school of architecture to open in Canada in 45 years. The curriculum is focused on building with wood and on the diverse cultures of the north. Francophone, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit student experience is central to the unique tri-cultural mandate of the program. Design studio focuses on design-build exercises with local communities and the program follows the co-op model of education, with work-terms in local industries as well as architecture offices. The standard focus on western traditions is tempered by the study of Aboriginal traditions, ceremony, and knowledge. Through Elders and Knowledge Carriers in residence, Indigenous faculty members, French design studio instruction, and local community-design and design-build exercises each year, students are exposed to an array of methods, knowledge, and experience that is uniquely ‘Northern’ and regional.
For more information on the McEwen School of Architecture, see here
