OTANIEMI CAMPUS + Analysis

ALVAR AALTO’S - CLUSTER CAMPUS (OTANIEMI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY)

Vivienne.S.George Oscar Reyes

11017783 10976241

The Otaniemi Institute of Technology, was designed by Finish Architect, Alvar Aalto. Aalto was comissioned to build this project during the 1950’s after it was decided to move the institution out of the City of Helsinki and onto land bought by the University at Otaniemi. At the time, Otaniemi was a rural municipality, however with Aalto’s university maniestation, the town manifested itself to the status of a city.

The Campus, has been designed in two distinct phases. Aalto’s ‘CLUSTERING’ design and the creation of additional buildings as the need for more resources and greater student capacity was required. The main focus within Aalto’s campus is to analyse, the notion of a CLUSTER BASED CAMPUS. Aalto’s Campus, can be classified as a ‘CLUSTER’ based institution, due to the internal organisation of each building, on circulation within each ‘cluster’ block and it’s woder cluster campus. Programs were distributed within each building to create a ‘clustering’ effect as well as the wider Urban Fabric. The strong emphasis placed on circulation of students and staff, as well as the accessibility points within the building amplifying Aalto’s clustering manipulations.

This action of MANIPULATION can also be noted within the larger scale of the campus and the scattered affect of programs within the vicinity. It must be noted that during the university’s physical manifestation, the popularity of vehicular transportation had arisen, thus playing a strong role in how buildings were distributed upon site and ultimately the campus’s scattered distribution within the area.

Campus Program Breakdown Scale 1:10000

OTANIEMI

HELSINKI

Alvar Aalto University

Alvar Aalto Campus Scale 1:10000

Aalto vs. Non- Aalto Scale 1:10000 Aalto Non- Aalto

Chronology of Campus Scale 1:10000

Nature Reserves

Park

Wood

Sports Pitch

Sports

Forest

Common and Meadow

Oceans and Lakes

Landscape of Campus Scale 1:10000 Ferry Line

Primary Road Secondary Road Trunk Road

Chronology of City /Campus Scale 1:10000 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1990

Campus Program Breakdown Scale 1:10000 -Dept. of Mathemathics and Systems -Dept. of Applied Physics -Language Centre -Strategic Support for Research and Education -Dept. of Civil and Environmental Eng. -Dept. of Real State, Planning and Geoinformatics -Dept. of Communications and Networking -Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Automation -Dept. of Micro- and Nanosciences -Dept. of Applied Mechanics -Dept. of Energy Technology -Dept. of Engineering Design -Campus and Facility Services -Dept. of Biotechnology and Chemical Technology -Dept. of Material Science and Eng. -Dept. of Civil Eng. -Dpet of Forest Products Technology -Library -Shopping Centre

-Concgress Centre -Aalto PRO -Aalto University Management -Alumni Relations -Communications Marketing and Events -Corporate Relations -Finance -International Relations -Dept. of Architecture -Dept. of Art -Dept. of Computer Science and Eng. -Dept. Information and Computer Sc. -Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Automation -Dept. of Media Technology

Chronology of Campus Scale 1:10000 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1990

Time of construction Scale 1:10000 Gymansium (1949 - 52) Lecture Hall (1955 - 64) Library (1964 - 69) Apartment Building (1961 - 64) Power Plant (1962 - 63) Water Tower (1968 - 71) Dormitory / Student Hotel (1962 - 66) Dormitory / Student Hotel (1962 - 66)

Views and Context

Exploded Axonometric: Building 1 Cluster Breakdown

Administration Department Geography Department General Studies Department Power Plant

Architecture Department Corridor / Circulation

Water Tower Multi-use

Student Housing

Gymnasium

Circulation01 // Interior Circualtion02 // Between buildings

C01 Circulation01 /Administration C03 C02

Circualtion03 // Amphitheatre - Plaza

Geography / Geodesy

Administration/ Amphitheatre

Circulation02 / Studios

General Studies

Architecture

Based on our observations, the clustering of program were not haphazard placements, but were deliberate maneourvers creatd by aalto as a way of informing the campuses boundary without the necessity of additional physical based elements, such as walls or gates, other than those suggested by its buildings. It has been designed to seemlessly feed into the campus as one entity.

Aalto’s intentions of deliberately clustering certain faculties was to get a cross polination of individuals to occur throughout the campus. Green spaces were used as a means of encouraging the inhabitant of such interactions.

Further observations made about Aalto’s campus, extends beyond the clustering of form. The Campus also signifies the institutions role in the development of a city.

Otaniemi was orginally a rural town, surrounded predominently by forest and woodland. With the development of the university, so to did the surrounding town grow to accommodate for the needs of the campus, and vise versa. Such an exchange between the university and town that eventually has manifested itself into the city it is today.

The city accommodates for the univeristy and the university aids in providing greater opportunities for business and income. Unlike the more traditional based university of Harvard and Yale, The Otaniemi Institute of Technology, was one of the first campuses in which its buildings seeped seemlessly into’s wider urban fabric.

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