OOPEAA wins competition for a new church in Tikkurila

OOPEAA wins with Lujatalo the alliance completion for the new church in Tikkurila

OOPEAA’s proposal, Church in the City was selected as winner in the competition for a new church in Tikkurila. The church will be built by Lujatalo in alliance with OOPEAA through a collaborative design process in which the architect and the builder develop the project together in a close relationship with the client. Also the competition entry was developed in collaboration between the architect and the builder, and the collaborative process was considered as a factor in the competition evaluation.

Located in the eastern half of the metropolitan area of Helsinki, Tikkurila is the administrative and commercial hub of Vantaa and it has about 220 000 inhabitants. The goal for the Church in the City project is to create a church building that serves the community in its many needs in multiple ways as well as offers office and meeting spaces for social services and parishioners in Tikkurila.

The new church firmly takes its place in a centrally located block in the center of Tikkurila. It is both bold and subtle in its character with the main church hall rising tall and completing the block in a well-balanced dialogue with the surrounding buildings. With a strong presence in the streetscape, it forms an identifying landmark for the neighborhood. In the interiors, the atmosphere is cozy and relaxed and the scale of the building takes the personal experience of people as its starting point.

While the building offers work spaces that support contemporary work styles, it also serves as a meeting place for people in their everyday activities as well as for special occasions. The church hall will seat an audience of 500 in its maximum capacity, with the possibility to divide the space in various ways to accommodate multiple simultaneous activities according to need. There will be workspace for up to 143 people in the building with several meeting spaces of various sizes and levels of openness or privacy to accommodate the people of the neighborhood with a café, a yard to serve as a gathering space in the summer months, and a shop area.

The church is integrated in a block that will also contain an adjoining apartment building that offers social housing and student housing. The Bethania Housing is included as an option to be built concurrently with the church as the project progresses. It will be composed of 185 units in a total of 11 700 layer square meters.

The church is commissioned by the Vantaa Parishes and it is slated to be ready in 2020. The Bethania Housing will be commissioned by the Vantaa Parishes and by HOAS, the Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region.

For more information on the New Tikkurila Church, see here.