MATERIALS AND FORM REFLECTING HISTORY

The city spaces of the new Arabia high-rise city block form a multifaceted series of squares and openings, which are tied together with coherent but varying forms and materials. Geometric shapes of the earth tile pavement repeat the brick layering of the site’s existing historic facades. Both the large form language of the planting beds and the ornamentation of the pavement reflect the area’s history as the power centre for Finnish ceramic design.

PEDESTRIANS’ CITY BLOCK

The city block opens up to the pedestrian as an interesting and diverse spatial ensemble. Walking is the main form of traffic through the block, which manifests itself in the transparency and opening of the entrances and ground floor elevations into the street space. The pedestrian character is also reflected in the warm hue and human scale form of the surface materials.

As the area combines and mixes public, commercial and private, residential qualities, the use of materials, spatial elements and vegetation creates separations between the private and public sectors.