Our entry for the conceptual design competition for the Rae municipal office was entitled ‘Risttee’ or ‘Crossroads’. It turned out to be quite a complicated task, particularly in terms of dividing up the space. Although we came up with a three-storey building with a very clear main layout, our design proved too complex for the jury.
The concept was informed by a desire to take account of and preserve existing pedestrian trajectories. Openness (including to the local community) was emphasised on the 1st floor, with glass being used to reflect this. Another intention of the concept was to link the plaza space at the northern end of the site to a new space as its southern end, which was to be formed by the municipal office. The contact area as a whole and the pedestrian and plaza feel were ‘concentrated’ within the building.
The main idea with the facade was to design the structure as a composition of rectangular forms, creating an intersecting space between the existing pedestrian pathways and the outdoor area on the 1st floor. Viewed from the main road, the building would have produced a memorable silhouette that was in balance with and yet stood in contrast to the adjacent health centre and impressive new state school designed for the area.
The facades were to have comprised aluminium panels against a glass and aluminium wall surface. To make the building as people-friendly as possible, its interior was planned to make extensive use of timber, especially in its atrium, which was to rise through all three floors. The building’s load-bearing structure would have been a hybrid solution: predominantly reinforced concrete posts and beams, but with solid timber used in parts of the atrium and main foyer that were not cantilevered. The open main stairwell was to have been constructed from cross-laminated timber – something we are continuing to use in Sirkel & Mall in our timber architecture designs.
Many thanks to Archimatika for being so great to work with!
