Malmi Meadow Park weaves together high-value conserved and enhanced landscapes, structured recreation and civic facilities, and a new compact mixed-use urban district with generous public space.
COMPETITION SUBMISSION FOR THE CITY OF HELSINKI DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING
Malmi Meadow Park
Helsinki, Finland
Malmi Meadow Park is an alternative to the proposed urbanization plan for the Malmi Airport Grounds. Our two-part strategy prioritizes ecological conservation and enhancement practices alongside the redevelopment of 70-HA into a compact, mixed-use urban district. The origin of our approach is simple: it is far more environmentally sustainable to redevelop existing urban areas than it is to continue to expand into greenfield sites at the expense of extant and potential future biodiversity.
Malmi Meadow Park offers a unique vision that weaves together high value conserved and enhanced landscapes characterized by their rich biodiversity; structured recreation and civic facilities that serve local and regional populations; and a new compact mixed-use urban district offering generous spaces of public realm, a diversity of housing types, and a distinct urban form attractive to current and future residents of Helsinki.
AWARDS
2022 ASLA Illinois Merit Award
2022 AIA Philadelphia Merit Award
SERVICES
Urban Design Competition
Helsinki's Meadow Network
Helsinki aspires to be one of the world’s most sustainable and environmentally progressive capital cities. Malmi Meadow Park is an alternative proposal for the future use of the former Malmi Airport that prioritizes its existing critical meadow habitat and proposes an alternative mode of development surrounding this incredible landscape.
From Airport to Park
Malmi Meadow Park takes the emergent ecologies already present on the Malmi Airport airfield and elevates them through the ongoing deployment of a suite of conservation enhancements and experiments that utilize existing site materials—both botanic and anthropogenic—to create areas of novel habitat and augmented ecological function.
Approach
The site has become a significant piece of emergent ecology within the Helsinki Region and is an important ecological link along the Longinoja Stream and between the Green Fingers of Helsinki. Our approach is rooted in the following priorities: conservation, biodiversity, ecological connectivity, cultural heritage, landscape character, and diverse recreation opportunities.
Strategy
Through ecological conservation, experimentation, and unbuilding, we amplify the existing biodiversity and habitat value. The design deconstructs impermeable surfaces and derelict structures through a suite of simple yet transformative actions in order to unbuild the airfield into a unique mosaic of novel habitats and ecologies.
Strategy
Throughout the park the remnant concrete runways are selectively deconstructed and the material adapted and reused. Stacks, piles, walls, and fractures of the concrete embedded through the landscape create microclimates, divert water flow, provide habitat, and eventually produce calcareous meadows, a highly valuable habitat within the Helsinki region.
Project Organization
Circulation within the enhanced conservation areas is highly choreographed, offering the visiting public a range of landscape experiences and educational opportunities, while simultaneously protecting the areas of habitat being created and expanded. The entire district is configured so that it can function with or without the use of personal automobiles.
Redevelopment Priorities
The redevelopment of the Tattarisuo district is organized according to five principal concerns: 1) clear and efficient accessibility; 2) a phased development; 3) generous public realm amenities available at every phase of development; 4) a range of housing and commercial facilities; and 5) development with sustainability provisions at each phase of construction.
Civic + Cultural Hub
Our proposal retains the planned development areas—Nallenrinne and Lentoasemankorttelit—and anchors them to Malmi Meadow Park through a new civic and cultural hub organized around the historic airport terminal and hangar buildings.
Civic Facilities + Maker Spaces
The historic hangar building is reimagined to be a unique event space able to host performances, exhibitions, and other public programs. While the area adjacent to the hangar/terminal hosts a series of civic facilities including maker spaces, exhibition spaces, an aviation museum, an environmental education center, a restaurant and beer-garden, and more.
Civic + Recreation Core
The core features areas of structured recreation for both adjacent neighborhoods and regional audiences. Organized using the graphic and material language of airports—runway, taxiway, tarmac, etc.—these recreation areas include playgrounds, sports fields, a 1.5-km long multi-use promenade loop, hiking and ski trails, wetlands and wet meadows, and more.
Mixed-Use Development
Using the existing parcel structure of the Tattarisuo area as its organizational point of departure, our proposal reorients the automobile-dominated grid, introducing a robust public realm framework and prioritizing bike and pedestrian circulation.
Development
Phase One
Phase one connects the newly proposed tram station to a new signature park area on the west side, overlooking Malmi Field via a pedestrian promenade and generously planted east-west boulevards. To increase connectivity to the newly developed conservation areas, the anchor park is envisioned to be present from the beginning of the redevelopment process.
Tattarisuo District
Redevelopment
Phases two and three of the Tattarisuo redevelopment are organized along a north-south boulevard loop and are characterized by networks of active transportation corridors, generous courtyard spaces, and neighborhood-scale public amenities. Phase four of the Tattarisuo redevelopment lies to the north and is connected by a perimeter boulevard that wraps the entire district.
Malmi Meadow Park prioritizes ecological conservation and enhancement practices and transforms 70-HA into a compact, mixed-use urban district.
