Teknologföreningen building to remain in its original use, complementary building to take place around it
The Swedish-speaking student association’s Teknologföreningen building, which is located in Otaniemi, will remain in its original use in the new amendment proposal to the local detailed plan. The original part of the building is protected in the plan. The block of flats to be built around it will have student housing units. Taking the natural and cultural-historical values of the area into account in the plan is important.
The Teknologföreningen (TF) building is located in Otaniemi, Espoo, in the culturally-historically interesting traditional Otaniemi campus area. The planning has aimed to take into account the location of the building in the RKY area (a nationally significant built cultural environment).
The original part of the building, the Urdsgjallar building, is protected in the plan, and it remains in its original use by the association. The kitchen extension, completed in the 1990s, will be demolished. The new building will include student housing units. The new building will be located to the south and east of the current Urdsgjallar building, forming a building mass that embraces the original building, so that a sheltered and comfortable courtyard is formed between the new and the old building. A terrace courtyard has been planned for the space. The plans also include a second courtyard for recreation, which would be located along Otakaari.
The scale of the new building has been adapted to the blocks of flats at Otakaari 20 and Dipoli, the main building of the adjacent Aalto University. On the Dipoli side, the new building is two storeys high and rises to six storeys towards the Otakaari 20 block of flats.
Reconciliation of natural values and cultural-historically valuable environment
The planning area has two connections for the flying squirrel. They run along the boundaries of the plan area on both the north and east sides.
“It is important that the plan amendment takes the area's natural values and cultural-historically valuable environment into account and reconciles them with the complementary building. The plan proposal has already been available for public review, and based on the feedback received on it, the plan has now been amended so that the original part of the TF building will remain almost unchanged in its entirety,” says Architect Hanna Kiema from the City Planning Department.
In the participation and assessment scheme (OAS) phase, Teknologföreningen’s plan was part of the Otakaari plan amendment. The participation and assessment plan and the preparatory material for the plan were available for public review in early 2016. At the plan proposal stage, the plan was separated into its own plan entitled Teknologföreningen, and the amendment proposal to this detailed plan was made available for public review in late 2020. The plans have since been significantly modified, and the proposal is now being made available for public review again.
The City Planning Committee will discuss the amendment to the detailed plan at its meeting on 16 October 2024, after which the plan proposal will be made available for public review. The Urban Planning Department will announce when the plan will be made available with a detailed plan announcement on the detailed plan website and to nearby neighbours by letter.
Further information about the project
City Planning Committee agenda 16 October 2024/Case no. 5(external link, opens in a new window)