Kontula Shopping Centre Competition

The Kontula shopping centre had served as the commercial heart of this eastern Helsinki district for decades, but aging infrastructure requiring significant renovation created urgency for reimagining its future. This urgency was amplified by the city's plans to add substantial new housing to the area, increasing demand on this central community facility. The competition brief challenged participants to develop proposals that would either replace the current centre entirely or creatively reuse the existing structure to better serve its multicultural community while addressing contemporary challenges around commerce, social connection, and urban sustainability. Key questions emerged: how could the centre be redeveloped in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner, how could substantial new residential development be integrated into the site, and—most importantly—how could it strengthen its position as a genuine community anchor in Kontula's social fabric.

We approached the Kontula shopping centre renewal by first examining what already exists: identifying the uses and actors currently planting seeds for a flourishing future. This asset-based approach was reflected in our proposal name 'Pioneria,' which celebrated the pioneering spirit already present in the place. Together with AOR Architects, we examined the centre holistically. Rather than designating specific spaces for culture, we acknowledged the entire shopping centre as a cultural catalyst and sought to honor the many actors already showing the way forward. We envisioned Kontula as a destination that certain people would actively choose: those wanting to make an impact in their environment and seeking places that allow for creativity and community building. Our proposal addressed fundamental quality-of-life concerns, examining topics like safety perception and child-friendliness while developing strategies for strengthening these essential aspects of neighbourhood life. This comprehensive approach drew from our years of community engagement through Lähiöfest and other neighbourhood-focused initiatives, providing deep local knowledge that informed our design vision. To complement this existing community knowledge, we drew from our international case library, as COVID-19 restrictions prevented direct interaction with new stakeholders during the competition period. Among our references were transformation experiences from Bijlmer in Amsterdam and several suburban renewal projects in Sweden, which provided valuable insights into successful community-centered development approaches. We contributed to the entry with writings that examined these learnings in the context of Kontula. Kontula was built as a utopia of its own time, and we set as one of the goals for our entry what an updated utopia of Kontula's future might look like. Our design philosophy emphasized that strengthening the connection between physical infrastructure and social infrastructure was essential