Harris-Kjisik Architects

19/02/2025

1st prize in Kurikka town hall competition

In our competition entry 'Arcadia', the new Kurikka town hall forms a new public building for the city of Kurikka which consists of the towns of Kurikka, Jalasjärvi and Jurva, as well as many smaller villages, located in western Finland.

The form and materials of the building are discrete but elegant in order that the Kurikka church (built in 1847) will remain as the most important landmark of the Kurikka town centre. The deep wooden facades create a relief in which the different window openings reflect the nature of the functions and spaces inside. A monumental arcade of brick surrounding the building offers shelter from the rain, marking the entrances and forming permeable boundaries for the exterior yards of surrounding the building.

The higher part of the building houses the city offices under one roof in spaces flexible and adjustable also for the future needs. The lower part of the building, located more centrally, contains the public spaces of the building open and accessible to all the citizens and visitors, including the main lobby ('the citizen's living room'), a cafe, city services, as well as meeting rooms and the council chamber.

The public main lobby of the building offers views towards the Kurikka church. The events held in the adjacent market square can also extend inside the main lobby. The heart of the lobby is a monumental stair that can be used as an auditorium as well. In connection with the surrounding arcade of the building a small bell tower is attached, emphasizing the public nature of the building.

The deep facades of the building give protection from weather conditions and passively help to control the lighting and temperature conditions of the building together with the foliage of the surrounding greenery. Acoustic wooden panelings improve interior acoustics

With these (and many other) means our entry 'Arcadia' incorporates the functional needs of today into a uniform whole, which we would like to see form a modern interpretation of the long tradition of the wooden building in the Ostrobothnia region of western Finland.

08/11/2024

Harris-Kjisikin ja Reino Koivulan työyhteenliittymän ehdotus "Puutarhat" sai ensimmäisen palkinnon Helsingin Malmin uuden sairaalan arkkitehtuurikutsukilpailussa

Malmin uuden sairaalan suunnittelusta järjestetyssä arkkitehtuurikutsukilpailussa ehdotuksemme ”Puutarhat” sai ensimmäisen palkinnon. Ajatus luontosairaalasta on toiminut suunnittelun lähtökohtana ja rakennuksen sydämenä sykkii vehreä korttelipiha. Kuntoutus on rakennuksessa läsnä kaikkialla – ei vain pelkästään sille varatuissa tiloissa.

Malmin uusi sairaala liittyy ympäröivään kaupunkimiljööseen tiili-puujulkisivujen, rakennusta ympäröivän runsaan puuston ja korkealuokkaisten sisääntuloaukioiden avulla. Uudisrakennuksesta muodostuu uusi julkinen rakennus kehittyvän Malmin ytimeen.

Uudisrakennuksen tilat, niiden väliset aulat ja kulkureitit sekä pihojen kasvillisuus on suunniteltu inhimillisiksi ja tervehdyttäviksi. Luonnonvaloa ja -materiaaleja on hyödynnetty uusimman tutkimustiedon mukaisesti.

Sairaala tulee sisältämään noin 450 perusterveydenhuollon sairaansijaa ja sen laajuus on noin 63 000 brm2.

26/09/2024

This week, Joseph Mulcahy from Harris-Kjisik is presenting his take on how to design a sustainable hospital at the 2024 EuHPN workshop organized by European Health Property Network.

The conference deals with making choices for investment in Healthcare infrastructure - a complex topic with the countries accross Europe facing similar challenges. There is the need to improve sustainability, social value and the quality of the health systems, while simultaneously tackling with the climate crisis, aging populations and budget pressures.

The conference has many interesting presentations and the programme can be found here:
https://www.euhpn.eu/upcoming-workshops

19/06/2024

Preliminary surveys of Helsinki school buildings

Demolish or repair? The City of Helsinki has this question to contemplate when deciding what to do with schools and day-care centres that have reached the age when renovation becomes a necessity. Most of these buildings were built from the 1950s to the 1980s, and they no longer serve the contemporary functional requirements, nor do they always sufficiently respond to the health and safety standards related to issues such as internal air quality and accessibility. On the other hand, the emissions resulting from demolition and newbuild are usually larger than those of renovation and demolition also almost always signifies a loss of both valuable cultural heritage as well as historical urban layers.

Harris-Kjisik have analysed these aspects in our assignment, finished in at the end of 2023, which included five schools or day-care centres built during the aforementioned period. For the first time a document was prepared that included all the basic information of the existing buildings, as well as a comprehensive historical, functional and technical summary. The present state of the detailed urban plan, as well as the needs related to possible temporary solutions during the building process were also analysed. Preliminary plans and time tables were prepared in each case basically for three alternative approaches: renovation only, renovation including a new extension, and demolition with newbuild.

Judging criteria were created in order to facilitate the pros and cons of the different approaches in each case:
- Functional needs
- The physical condition of the building
- Environmental factors
- Costs
- Building and cultural heritage
- Town planning considerations
- Risks

The analysis clearly showed that the choice maybe feel quite clear if you only look at one aspect, for instance the bad condition of the existing building. When additional criteria is involved, the choice is no longer so obvious. Repair and renovation becomes, in a clear majority of cases, the best alternative.

Contemporary functional requirements should naturally be in the forefront but the solutions should aim at being adaptable and future proof. Today’s functional requirements could be outdated as soon as in ten years and that is a very small part of a building´s lifespan.

12/06/2024

Hämeenlinna new central hospital ("Assi hospital") construction is ongoing.

Our office is fully involved in the Assi hospital design process and the construction on the site is proceeding on schedule! The construction started in 2021 and will be finished next year and the hospital will be in use in 2026.
Assi hospital is realized as an alliance contracting model, in which the parties are jointly responsible of the design and construction. The the parties of this alliance are Kanta-Häme well being services county, Skanska, Sweco Finland, and the Integrated joint venture of architects: AW2 architects, Harris Kjisik Architects and Sweco Finland.
The hospital website can be found here:
https://ahvenistonsairaala.fi/en/

30/05/2024

The Tikkurila Knowledge Campus project in Vantaa is progressing

The Campus which will be built in the Jokiniemi area of Tikkurila is a concentration of buildings serving lifelong learning in the fields of education and health, as well as enterprise and innovation. The urban concept created by our office in 2022 has this spring been strengthened by a visualisation in the shape of a ”virtual walk” which can be joined through this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKWjzhT2ebg

21/05/2024

Make 2.0 mentioned in the Helsinki City Architectural Programme

The City of Helsinki is in the process of preparing an architectural programme Helsinki Builds a Good Life, which will start a discussion on the meaning of architecture for the development of the city and work as a tool to enhance the quality of the debate.

Our office has created the Make 2.0 concept for a wooden apartment block which appears in the Helsinki City Architectural Programme. This concept has been developed in order to facilitate the design and construction processes in the production of wooden apartment blocks while at the same time providing delicate infill within the existing urban grain, together with the aim of increasing the share of wooden buildings in the city environment.

A link to the Helsinki city press release (in Finnish):
https://www.sttinfo.fi/tiedote/70142244/helsingin-arkkitehtuuriohjelman-luonnos-julkistettiin-etenee-seuraavaksi-paatoksentekoon?publisherId=60577852&lang=fi

19/12/2023

30/10/2023

Harris-Kjisik Architects wins a purchase prize in the Kaarina centre open architectural competition!

The competition task was to improve the attractiveness and liveability of the Kaarina city centre by improving the public spaces, bringin in new housing and services and generating a more pedestrian friendly urban environment.

According to the jury, our entry Luodot contains a wealth of ideas, architectural themes and varied typological alternatives and fusing them into a coherent urban stucture.

For more information (in Finnish), see: https://www.safa.fi/kilpailu/kaarinan-keskusta/

05/09/2023

Terwa Tower Sensitivity Study is now on our webpage!
The purpose of the sensitivity study was to investigate suitable infill building for Vänmanninsaari, a nationally valuable cultural environment where an existing library and a theater are located. Three alternatives were studied for the site, including an assessment of impacts. The alternatives try to interpret the ideas and urban features of Marjatta and Martti Jaatinen's winning competition entry for the area in 1962, whilst also considering the changed urban environment.
As a conclusion of the report, we found that considering the cityscape, it is possible to add new buildings on Vänmanninsaari to complement the existing buildings. However, the new additions must form a harmonious entity, which embodies the same visual tranquility and human scale as the pre-existing cultural facilities. The functions of the new buildings should further strengthen the public character of the island. Activities of private nature, or activities that restrict free moving and use in all parts of the island, should not be allowed. The role of the island must be studied as a significant end of the main axis when approached from the city center, but also as the center of a series of spaces that form the coastline of the surrounding islands and the mainland.
As a final note, we think that nothing should be planned for Oulu's market area and its immediate vicinity without a one- or two-stage open architectural competition, in which decisions are based only on architectural quality. To quote Vitruvius, “firmness, commodity and delight”. Economic "realities" change from year to year, high-class architecture and urban planning, on the other hand, do not.
https://h-k.fi/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Terwa-Tower-herkkyystarkastelut.pdf?fbclid=IwAR25BxiW_9GYW3QDZbkE5McVtfRM4sn-7enYWI_XxSm1sqA22ZefhTsAT-A

06/07/2023

We wish you a wonderful summer, enjoy the holiday season! ☀️

22/06/2023

The Bridge Hospital (Siltasairaala) is being presented in the international Time Space Existence 2023 exhibition in Venice

The Bridge Hospital project (Siltasairaala) designed by the Finnish-French consortium Team Integrated has been chosen to the Time Space Existence exhibition in Venice. The innovative Finnish hospital hospital architecture is being presented in Palazzo Bembo through photographs and rendered images.

The state-of-the-art Bridge Hospital enhances the Helsinki Meilahti hospital campus's connection with the surrounding city structure, frames a central 'entrance square' to the hospital campus, and on the other hand forms the edge of the hospital campus towards the Seurasaarenselkä bay and surrounding landscape. Natural light and art were important aspects in the interior healing spaces of the hospital. A street connection was provided through the hospital, hence the name 'Bridge Hospital'.

The consortium Team Integrated was responsible for the design of the hospital, following their success in an international invitational competition in 2015. Their prize-winning entry was based on the original urban design solution made by Harris-Kjisik Architects, who were also one of the offices forming the Team integrated. The other offices were AW2 Architects - part of AINS Group, B&M Architects and Brunet Saunier Architecture from France.

The Time Space Existence exhibition is organised by European Cultural Centre Italy, together with OpenSpace Venice ETS organization. The exhibition features completed and ongoing projects, innovative proposals, and utopian dreams of architectural expressions. The exhibition is being held simultaneously with the Venice Architectural Biennale and is open from May 20 until November 26, 2023.

See more information below:

https://www.archinfo.fi/tapahtumat/time-space-existence-2023-siltasairaalan-nayttely-venetsiassa

https://timespaceexistence.com/

Time Space Existence 2023: Siltasairaalan näyttely Venetsiassa