NOW for Architecture and Urbanism

MOUNTAIN

office — Sat, 12 May 2012 23:33:53 +0000

13.5.2012
Landwork at Sauna site.

HILLS

office — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:54:40 +0000

12.5.2012
A visit to the Suurpelto Hills site… and had a light lunch in the living room of House 1 enjoying the super-wide (4:1?) vista. Open spaces alternate with more intimate and compressed spaces, here, a corridor on the lower level.

KIUAS

office — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:14:52 +0000

8.5.2012
Went to Kotka to meet with REFRAK, experts in all things fire-resistant and high temperature. Aarno showed us around their factory, and we had an intense kiuas design meeting. Here are some of the precision cast ceramic elements for the core of the stove …hot!

HANDS

office — Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:26 +0000

7.5.2012
Ornamo Centennial exhibition in Helsinki Kunsthalle in the works.

NY

office — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:57:09 +0000

26.4.2012
I was in New York for the opening of Newly Drawn – Emerging Finnish Architects at AIA Centre for Architecture and a roundtable session with NY architects on setting up your own practice: Philipp von Dalwig from Manifold Architecture Studio, Taryn Christoff and Martin Finio from Christoff:Finio Architecture and David Benjamin from The Living plus Marc Clemenceau Bailly from Gage-Clemenceau Architects. I also had a lecture as part of the Architecture League series at Cooper Union and talked about Elias Lönnrot, Tom of Finland, Hotel Torni, Kulttuurisauna and the metropolis as a site for utopia.

NYC / Empire State (1931), HEL / Hotel Torni (1931) and MOS / Stalinskie Vysotki (1947-1952)

LAKESIDE VISIT

office — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:05:50 +0000

30.3.2012
We went to visit the Lakeside house with some friends who took really nice photos of the place. This is Justin inspecting the freshly repainted white floor and the spring ice expanse beyond the pines:

We also picked some trees from the woods that will become the pillars for the colonnade of the Sauna, but more about that later…

THE HELSINKI HOUSING FAIR 2020

office — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:10:25 +0000

27.3.2012

“Stadin Asuntomessut 2020″ is an exhibition we developed with the Helsinki Urban Planning Department. It is an imaginary housing fair, set in the upcoming neighbourhoods of Helsinki, investigating the possibilities of the apartment from the point of view of an individual’s needs and dreams. After interviewing 8 people, we designed tailored apartments for them, and built the future homes in 1:12 scale…

DRAFTING A NORDIC BUILT DNA

office — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:32:21 +0000

4.2.2012
Last week in Copenhagen I took part in a 30-hour strategic Nordic Built-session together with 60 professionals and leaders of the nordic building and real estate industry. Through policy work, common projects and collaboration, the program continues until 2014, aiming to accelerate Nordic competitive concepts for a sustainable built environment. Our team worked on urban living experiences, drafting an ambition, actions and a proposal of Future Zones to pilot and showcase best practices and nordic collaboration in each country.

HANDS THAT DRAW THE FUTURE

office — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:19:01 +0000

21.1.2012
I am curating an exhibion called Tulevan Perinne that opens June 15th at Taidehalli for the centennial of Ornamo, the Finnish Association of Designers.

A HOUSE, AN ATELIER

office — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:00:24 +0000

17.1.2012
We submitted the permit set for a house with a painter’s atelier in Myllypuro, construction will start later this spring.

THE CITY GAME

office — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:04:14 +0000

17.1.2012
Together with Martti Kalliala and Hedwig Heinsmann we made a proposal called “The City Game” for the Sibbesborg sustainable city competition and were awarded a Honorable Mention. See our proposal here.

WHAT!

office — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 23:50:19 +0000

ON-SITE DIALOGUE

office — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:25:46 +0000

15.12.2011
Earlier this autumn, together with Nene, we went to the site of Kulttuurisauna with filmmaker Antti Seppänen to record some thoughts and ideas on the upcoming building.

MANIFESTOS & NATIONAL PROJECTS

office — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:32:14 +0000

15.12.2011
I had a performance at the opening ceremony of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Architecture and Urbanism Biennale. It was nice, as the organisers (City of Shenzhen) had built an impressive skyline behind the stage during the last years. The setting infused the texts with some added flavour, as “Masterplans don’t work, this city is never finished” echoed from the skyscrapers under construction…

(photo by Hanne Granberg)

Also Solution Finland: The Welfare Game was presented at the biennale exhibition. Both the book and the wall graphics here are designed by the enigmatic Zak Kyes. The word in the equation eclipsed by the exhibition visitor is “people”, so it accidentally almost makes sense…

MISSION

office — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:32:50 +0000

NOW for Architecture and Urbanism is a Helsinki-based practice founded and run by Tuomas Toivonen.

We have moved to Hakaniemi!
Our new address is:
Sörnäisten Rantatie 8 LH2
FIN – 00530 Helsinki

Here’s what’s happening:

KULTTUURISAUNA

office — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:30:23 +0000

2.11.2011
Together with Nene Tsuboi, we are designing and constructing a new public sauna that we will run ourselves in Hakaniemenranta waterfront, Helsinki. You can follow this project at kulttuurisauna.fi. The sauna will open in autumn 2012.

DELTAMARIN HQ

office — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:45:53 +0000

2.11.2011
A triangular, 4500 m2 headquarters office building for Deltamarin, a naval architecture and engineering firm in Turku. The open floorplan allows for interconnected teamwork and constant proximity of the surrounding nature. Each of the facades is perforated with openings of different scale, to enhance daylight conditions and create shade from direct sunlight. In the center, a triangular courtyard with a collection of volumes that house the vertical connections and support spaces. The scheme was designed in collaboration with architect Petri Herrala.

SOLUTION FINLAND: THE WELFARE GAME

office — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 19:18:08 +0000

28.10.2011
Finally off to the printers!
“To be published in December 2011 the title Solution Finland: The Welfare Game by architect Martti Kalliala with writer and curator Jenna Sutela and architect Tuomas Toivonen, addresses the Nordic country’s numerous predicaments. The three authors propose eight and a half solutions to their native country’s quandaries, ranging from the practical (rescuing ailing public space through climatization and the introduction of the Winter Garden City), to the absurd (dividing the country into two interlocking sub-nations: City and Wilderness) and the earnest, if far-reaching (the repurposing of the country to host the world’s nuclear waste). Solution Finland elucidates the northern country’s modern history as a nation under construction, proposing that its identity remain a malleable myth, in which designing a more tenable future is the conduit for crucial adaptation.”

GLOBAL WORKPLACE

office — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:10:49 +0000

1.11.2011
A workplace concept for a global company designed in collaboration with Lauri Johansson. The office floor as urbanism, a terrain of different spaces and moods suitable for different kinds of work. Policy recommendations for office locations, layouts, furnishings, materials, lighting, work culture…

renderings by Studio Lumart

HILLS CONSTRUCTION

office — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 14:38:40 +0000

2.11.2011
Suurpelto Hills comprises of 17 atrium houses tailor-designed and built for their inhabitants, who finance the construction of their own homes. Phase I site work has begun, and the first houses will be completed in spring ’12.

Suurpelto Hills rakennusvaihe I on alkanut. Rakennusvaiheen II rakennuspaikkojen myynti on käynnissä. Lisätietoja projektista:
suurpeltohills( )nowoffice.org, Marko Morelius (044-757-7575, klo 18:00-20:00) tai Samu Ilmarinen (0400-446-346).