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Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Nordic Architecture Finland
rently employs 75 people in two offices located in Helsinki and Turku. Judging by productivity, the company offices are busy as beehives. Despite having won over 40 competitions for contracts and over a dozen prestigious prizes, such as the European Steel Design Award, the Finnish Wood Award, Environmental Construction Project of the Year, and Façade of the Year, this is not a company resting on its laurels. Much of that is down to the passion and work ethic of its founder and managing director, Pekka Helin. Describing his profession as a lifestyle more than a job, Helin’s path became clear to him early on. As a young boy of five, he spent time playing with small boards of wood in a grit pit. “It was a perfect, hilly environment to add buildings and roads to,” he laughs. Helin himself has twice been the recipient of the State Award for Architecture, the most prestigious personal recognition in the industry. The value of wood The use of authentic materials is a core value for Helin & Co. “Wood is used very prominently in our projects, particularly in combination with steel and glass,” explains Helin. “It is an essential feature of Finnish architecture – our history of living in fairly austere conditions has taught us to understand natural materials. The pure aesthetic that defines Finnish architecture today harks back to our heritage of living on nature’s terms,” he adds. With wood as a style characteristic, it is perhaps no surprise that Helin & Co are
ABOVE AND BELOW: Helin & Co boast an impressive portfolio, encompassing the UPM Headquarters located near the south harbour of Helsinki.
the creators of the tallest wooden office building in Europe. Wood was also utilised to the full in the recent creation of UPM’s new headquarters. Suitably for this forest industry giant, Helin & Co devised some ground-breaking architectural features using UPM’s own plywood materials. The building was recently awarded platinum status in the LEED (Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design) certification programme. Cityscaping the future The largest project currently occupying Helin & Co is the Kalasatama city centre in Helsinki. In a different age, the area was home to a bustling harbour where ships from all over the world would anchor and trade. The newly resurrected Kalasatama is a cityscape bursting with life. Helin & Co are the architects behind Helsinki’s very first skyscrapers to be built
here: six residential towers, one office tower and one hotel tower, some reaching as high as 132 metres, will change the skyline forever. At the foot of the towers will be built the biggest shopping and event centre in central Helsinki. The architecture project, dubbed REDI, will take shape on the shores of Kalasatama over the next ten years, with the whole project estimated for completion by 2022. With glass, wood and gleaming façades, Helin & Co are planning the kind of urban living that holds true to its values of natural materials and a pure Nordic aesthetic. For this firm, the sky is clearly the limit.
For more information, please visit: www.helinco.fi
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