This is what the new Katajanokan Laituri will look like.

Katajanokanlaituri

 

Blending into the urban landscape

Katajanokanlaituri

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Varma, Stora Enso and the city of Helsinki announce an architectural competition for timber business premises to be constructed in Katajanokka. In addition to Stora Enso’s headquarters, the building is to house a hotel and other premises.
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Internationally acclaimed architect firms with expertise in wood construction from Finland, the other Nordic countries and Japan were invited to participate in the architectural competition. There are six participants in all.
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The city of Helsinki published the public participation and impact assessment scheme.
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The entries participating in the architectural competition were published on 25 May, after which the jury begun evaluating them.
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The winner of the architectural competition was announced on the 24th of June 2020.
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Construction work began in the fall of 2021
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The building will be completed in 2024.

New flagship of Finnish architecture to be built at South Harbour, Helsinki

Katajanokan Laituri is a building that will house the head office of Stora Enso and a hotel, and serve as a meeting place for city dwellers and service providers in one of Helsinki’s finest locations. The business property will become a masterpiece of Finnish wood construction.

Follow the completion of the Katajanokan Laituri

Pictures are updated every day at 12 noon.

New flagship of Finnish architecture to be built at South Harbour, Helsinki

Katajanokan Laituri is a building that will house, among other things, the head office of Stora Enso and a hotel. The new masterpiece of wood construction will be built in the heart of Helsinki.

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2019/11 – Varma, Stora Enso and the city of Helsinki announce an architectural competition for timber business premises to be constructed in Katajanokka. In addition to Stora Enso’s headquarters, the building is to house a hotel and other premises.
2
2020/2 – Internationally acclaimed architect firms with expertise in wood construction from Finland, the other Nordic countries and Japan were invited to participate in the architectural competition. There are six participants in all.
3
2020/6 – The winner of the architectural competition was announced on the 24th of June 2020.
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2020/5 – The entries participating in the architectural competition were published on 25 May, after which the jury begun evaluating them.
5
2020/4 – The city of Helsinki published the public participation and impact assessment scheme.
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2021 – Construction work began in the fall of 2021.
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2024 – The building will be completed in 2024.

Spring was selected as the winner of the architecture competition

Drawing inspiration from the forest, Spring wins architectural competition for Katajanokan Laituri. Spring has been designed by Anttinen Oiva Arkkitehdit Oy.

Spring was selected as the winner of the architecture competition

Drawing inspiration from the forest, Spring wins architectural competition for Katajanokan Laituri. Spring has been designed by Anttinen Oiva Arkkitehdit Oy.

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According to the jury, Spring is a beautiful, balanced design, which continues the line of light-coloured town houses stretching from Esplanadi to Katajanokka, using the methods of modern architecture. It also blends in well with the block structure of Katajanokka and the façades lining the seashore. The rounded corners of the building connect it to the shapes of the adjacent customs storehouse and hotel, which are also repeated in other locations in Katajanokka’s national romantic and Art Nouveau architecture.

In its selection, the jury emphasised the versatile uses of the building from the point of view of city residents. According to the design, a small urban park will be set up at the Market Square end of the building, and the shore side will have a terrace area for cafés and restaurants.

In accordance with the jury’s criteria, the goal of the architectural competition was to find a solution that combines the requirements relating to urban framework with landscape, functional, aesthetic, technical and economic demands in a balanced way.

– The winning design meets the targets set for the competition well. Its architectural solutions form a high-quality, natural whole that is well suited for a central seaside location, says the Chairman of the jury, Ilkka Tomperi, Investment Director, Head of Real Estate at Varma. 

Open space for city residents to enjoy

Katajanokan Laituri is located in a central place by the sea at Helsinki’s Katajanokka. The building, situated in a nationally significant cultural environment, will house public spaces and thereby also serve city residents and tourists enjoying the maritime location. 

The building has approximately 16,000 square metres of rentable space. In addition to the head office of Stora Enso and a hotel, it will include office premises for companies and service providers.

Open space for city residents to enjoy

Katajanokan Laituri is located in a central place by the sea at Helsinki’s Katajanokka. The building, situated in a nationally significant cultural environment, will house public spaces and thereby also serve city residents and tourists enjoying the maritime location. 

The building has approximately 16,000 square metres of rentable space. In addition to the head office of Stora Enso and a hotel, it will include office premises for companies and service providers.

Carbon-neutral construction

Katajanokan Laituri will be a building that blends into its urban landscape and represents progressive environmental values and climate goals.

Carbon-neutral construction

Katajanokan Laituri will be a building that blends into its urban landscape and represents progressive environmental values and climate goals.

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Stora Enso is the main tenant of the new office premises, and the company’s massive wood elements will be used in its construction. From the environmental point of view, sustainably grown, renewable wood has many advantages as construction material.

One of the most ambitious goals of the Katajanokan Laituri project is to build a carbon-neutral office building which uses energy solely from renewable sources. For this to be possible, each party participating in the project must commit to this goal from the very start.

A LEED Platinum environmental certificate, which takes a wide range of sustainability aspects into consideration, will be applied for the building.

From wood pier to centre of passenger traffic

Katajanokanlaituri 4 is centrally located in Helsinki’s South Harbour. The area has a history spanning hundreds of years as a busy junction of harbour operations and passenger traffic.

From wood pier to centre of passenger traffic

Katajanokanlaituri 4 is centrally located in Helsinki’s South Harbour. The area has a history spanning hundreds of years as a busy junction of harbour operations and passenger traffic.

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The first wooden boats appeared on the shallow shore, then called Kaupunginlahti, already in the 17th century. The shore was mainly used by residents of the coast and archipelago. Around the 1750s, the bay was already a more established loading area, but its real significance for harbour operations strengthened only when Helsinki was proclaimed the capital of Finland in 1812. That was when the filling of the shores of the bay began, and these filling grounds became the site of, for instance, the Helsinki Market Square.

At the end of the century, piers and grand storehouses were already built on the Katajanokka side of the bay. South Harbour took its current form in the early 1900s, when it got railway tracks and its first crane.

Busy freight traffic boomed for decades, but change is inevitable. A new era began in the early 1960s, when the car ferry traffic between Finland and Sweden picked up steam. Soon passenger traffic was concentrated in South Harbour and some of the freight traffic was transferred to Sörnäinen. Freight traffic at Katajanokka ceased completely at the beginning of the 1980s.

It was replaced by, among other things, Viking Line’s first car ferries. Their piers were located right in front of the Presidential Palace, until a new passenger terminal was completed in Katajanokka in 1977. Wood piers and cranes had given way to the golden age of ferry traffic and luxury cruise ships for good.

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The first wooden boats appeared on the shallow shore, then called Kaupunginlahti, already in the 17th century. The shore was mainly used by residents of the coast and archipelago. Around the 1750s, the bay was already a more established loading area, but its real significance for harbour operations strengthened only when Helsinki was proclaimed the capital of Finland in 1812. That was when the filling of the shores of the bay began, and these filling grounds became the site of, for instance, the Helsinki Market Square.

At the end of the century, piers and grand storehouses were already built on the Katajanokka side of the bay. South Harbour took its current form in the early 1900s, when it got railway tracks and its first crane.

Busy freight traffic boomed for decades, but change is inevitable. A new era began in the early 1960s, when the car ferry traffic between Finland and Sweden picked up steam. Soon passenger traffic was concentrated in South Harbour and some of the freight traffic was transferred to Sörnäinen. Freight traffic at Katajanokka ceased completely at the beginning of the 1980s.

It was replaced by, among other things, Viking Line’s first car ferries. Their piers were located right in front of the Presidential Palace, until a new passenger terminal was completed in Katajanokka in 1977. Wood piers and cranes had given way to the golden age of ferry traffic and luxury cruise ships for good.

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