Turku Finland

Sketching on Kakolanmäki Hill

The entry Green Monument Hill is a conceptual Urban Plan for the future development of Kakolanmäki Hill in Turku.
Green Monument Hill is made as a starting point for discussions that will ultimately give shape to the way Kakolanmäki Hill will be part of and fit in Turku city.
The tools used to present this proposal are sketches, visions and schemes. Pliable and interpretable to start, generate and stimulate new and inspired ways to creating the new while respecting and maintaining the existing.
The reverse side of this way of working is its non final and open ended result of possibilities. The advantage is the ease to use examples and explore more than the obvious. Kakolanmäki Hill as an outstanding area in town with fascinating landscape and building combinantions.

Urban Design Principles, Hill scale

Kakolanmäki Hill has a special position in Turku city. The Hill makes the natural landscape present in the cultivated city as a rough unsubjectable remainder. The ecological continuity should be improved and expanded into a wide ring around the hill. This enlarges the living and migration span of animals and plants within this small green enclave and improves it’s conections to ecological corridors in town. It also improves the continuity of the recreational parkscape.
To improve the monumentality of the important buildings less- or non-important should be demolished and a free grass zone created to emphasize the monuments. Free vista’s from the facades garantee the view to and from the buildings.
New buildings must minimize ground level impact and respect the landscape and monument quality. Kakolanmäki Hill remains a Green Monument Hill.

Urban Design Principles, city scale

Kakolanmäki is one of the seven hills of turku, meant to be left unbuild but colonized by Prison buildings. From a remainder of the original landscape of nature and freedom to a secluded area of confinement. Now a new freedom seizes the Hill. Kakolanmäki will become part of the town for the first time. The Hill has to be re-colonized but this time by the city while securing its historic compounds. The Green Monument Hill arises. The three stages of its existence should be treasured:
1) The green rocky hill, as recreational monument to the landscape.
2) The main prison buildings, as living monument of its more recent past.
3) The new buildings, as future monument to its new stage, respecting and espousing the existing.

The 3 layers of Kakolanmäki Hill

Green Munument Hill will be dominated by three layers:
A) The Landscape layer consisting of remnants of the original landscape, park elements that were part of the prison arrangement and new landscape elements. The new elements will be:
- The Hortus Botanicus with local plants, meant to monumentalize nature as well as the buildings.
- The level altitude walk around the Hill. (disabled acces !)
- Public gardens with various themes.
- The promenade that connects the hill with the busstation, parking and the west side of town.
- The Amphitheater for open air performance.
B) The Monument Buildings, a selection of important buildings.
C) The new buildings, in harmony with the Hill.

Parking

The demand for parking on Kakolanmäki Hill will expand. With approx. 50.000 m2 existing and 90.000 m2 new floor area the demand for parking will be aprox. 1.867 parking places in total. The strategy on parking: 3 large parking locations integrated in buildings, underground or underneath a public space.
- A) Malminkatu, built-in parking next to the busstation and undereath promenade. 575 p.p. for visitors and users of the tower-building.
- B) Kakolanmäki, underground parking as exterial ring around the underground offices. 1.300 p.p. for inhabitans, employees and visitors of the office centre.
- C) Kivilouhimon, parking underneath the amphitheater, 125 p.p. for visitors and inhabitants of the birds of freedom.

This counts up to 2.000 p.p. total new parking

Traffic

The meaning of Kakolanmäki Hill will dramaticly change with the intended use. The change from forbidden garden to living monuments park will intensify every kind of traffic. The pressure on the surroundings is eminent. To guide traffic a new strategy is needed:
1) creating main ports combined with parking and public transport. These main ports should be as much as possible connected to main roads, Pansiontie through Hansakatu and Linnankatu.
2) creating a inhabitants / employee only entry at Kakolankatu.
3) creating direct links to the main new office buildings through Annakatu, Arvinkatu and Korkeavuorenkatu.
All external vehicular traffic is blocked from Kakolanmäki Hill. The Hill will mainly be pedestrian area to create a quiet and child friendly environment.

Routing

The infrastructure on Kakolanmäki Hill is based upon the existing roads. 4 elements will be added for better access to various locations on the hill for both recreational and functional accessability. Pavements will be changed into materials used for lower speeds and pedestrians and with a more aesthetic appearance. The pavements will be designed to fit the rough landscape.
Parking on ground level is not permitted, vehicular traffic on Kakolanmäki Hill is solely for disabled and logistic use.
A loop wil be added on the west side to access the rock housing and to walk around the hortus. A link from the amphiteater to the center of the hill will be created. Linking roads to the underground offices and a level altitude walk- around for recreational purposes will be created too.

Public transport and access

Green Monument Hill will turn from a secluded to an open recreational area. Reasons to visit this area are: the park hill, the monuments, the museum, the hortus, the amphitheater and the gardens. The development of offices and housing require a good accessibility. Therefore it is important for people to reach the area easy and conveniently.
At the west side of the Malminkatu a bus station is situated. Because of the strategic location between town and harbour this station could be one of the main bus stations.
From the busstation a promenade is made towards the Hill. The promenade streches out as a classical garden in front of the previous prison for mentally ill. This accustoms easy access, also for disabled. Underneath the promenade the museum is situated as well a large amount of parking.
For pedestrians there are 8 entrances into the location

Buildings on the Hill

Kakolanmäki Hill was intended to be left unbuilt until the construction of the Prison in the second half of the 19th century. The scale of the buildings differ from the surrounding town, they are bigger or smaller and in a way leave the Hill present as landscape. An interesting balance was found between Hill and major buildings. Smaller sprawl buildings (and other objects) nested around the main buildings, blur this balance. Extended occupation of the hill is asked for. This third element in the balance should respect the existing and find its own state being different from the existing two elements.
- The first action is to strengthen the balance between landscape and Prison by taking down all buildings and objects that do not contrubute to this poise.
- The second is to find a defenition for the new buildings to create its own state different from the existing.

Building Stock

The present prison buildings, staff housing and other objects on Kakolanmäki Hill need to be screened on its qualities and on the contribution to a clear and strong monumental layer that represents the prison’s history. A winnowing is needed to strengthen this historic component.
The three main buildings will remain and be renovated. An area of 15 meters will be cleared to monumentalize the buildings. Free zones perpendicular to the facades will be left open to have free sight lines from and to the monuments. Only the smaller staff buildings with an high architectural quality or a extraordinary relation with the landscape will remain. The only other building that will remain is the heating plant as essential part of the Kakola building.
The existing landscape design and routing will be the base for future landscape design and the positioning of new buildings.

New Buildings

A new layer of buildings can be projected on Kakolanmäki Hill. The demanded 90.000 m2 new floor area will have an enormous impact on the appearance of the Hill. It adds almost twice the amound of existing buildings and will lead to at least three times the ground consumption of hill surface. If this amount is built on the hill every kind of balance will be disturbd and the green natural character largely disappears. A strategic approach is needed.
To reduce ground consumption by buildings:
1) Only build in the perimeter of the Hill.
2) Keep the hill surface free by building underground or elevated. The quest for locations and building shapes that keep the ground surface alife.
At the same time the new buildings must explore the landscape qualities and assimilate and sublimate them in harmony.

Program

Green Monument Hill has to be given back to the Turku community after years of being expelled from the location. Therefore we prefer smaller program units to prevent institutionalisation and / or exclusion of parts of the Kakolanmäki Hill or its buildings by single users.
The main program for old and new buildings will be Housing and offices. Program preservation is used in a way that former living areas (cell blocks) are turned into housing or hotel functions and former communal areas into public areas or offices. In this way the character of use is conservated in a way.
Shopping, retail or industries do not contribute to the recreational function of Kakolanmäki Hill.
Outdoor areas are public everywhere. Privatisation of areas is not wanted. Park and garden designs can extend the outdoor diversity in combination with outdoor galeries and art expositions.

New: Amphitheater

Promoting the outdoor recreation on Kakolanmäki Hill demands a location for large scale social events and theater. With its elevated position facing south the old quarry is ideal. On top of an underground parking garage two amphitheaters are created. On the Hill side seats crawl uphill. As backing the first flying “birds of freedom” housing is situated North.
The Amphitheaters, with the view over town and the Aurajoki river, are together with the promenade on the west side of Kakolanmäki Hill and the Serpetine park connections between Town and Hill. With their location on the edge of the competition area and with an attractive and public character they lure people into the area. From there on people can take multiple routes onto Kakolanmäki Hill.
Access to the parking garage is situated on Linnankatu. Extra attention is needed for pedestrians to connect the current greenland at Aurajoki with the amphitheater.

New: Birds of Freedom

Between the present Turku Prison and the Remand prison a slope goes uphill from the former quarry. On this slope the Birds of Freedom are situated. Small flying appartments flock towards the top of Kakolanmäki Hill, the dream of prisoners flying out of their restrictions.
The appartments fly between 4 and 6 meters over ground level and are shaped and situated in a way that sunlight reaches the ground surface most of the day. Because of the height also bigger vegetation can grow underneath the buildings and off hill sight lines are not blocked. Long staircases, with built in electronic disabled platforms, lead to the appartments. Each level has three “2 bedroom with living appartments” and each building has between three and five levels. Small storage spaces for each appartment are built in the three trunks of the building but are minimized to two or three bicycle shelters.

New:Underground offices & Parking

On the side of Kakolanmäki with the finest open rock and valuable trees an underground office centre will be created. It is, in a way, for constructing buildings the most unsuitable part of Kakolanmäki Hill but going underground this area can host a large amount of offices with a low impact on the surface. At the survace a suggestion is done to create a climax in the confrontation between landscape and the new buildings layer. These confrontations are essential for the character and seperate emphasis on each layer.
The office complex exists of four light shafts that are 20 meters in diameter. Underground there is a three story office with an open centre for combined services, display or exhabitions. The offices are connected through the parking garage that forms an outer ring around the offices. The parking rings go up and down and form one continuous space with short connections to the offices.

New:Rock Housing

The Rocky landscape of Kakolanmäki Hill is one of the most fascinating parts of the hill. These parts make the hill rough and streets fascinating natural. One can leave these areas alone but thay offer fascinating characteric opportunities too. Beautiful examples can be found in the fifties modern architects buildings in and around Los Angeles.
The proposed rock buildings are included in the rock, affecting the surface as little as possible. The only visuable building elements are the glass livingrooms that stand out the rocky hill.
Entrance tot the villa’s is from the top entry box. The living area consists of a livingroom with kitchen and dining. The level underneath contains two bedrooms and bathroom and technical instalations.
The rock hill housing are the exclusive and expensive smaller elements of the new layer and strongly search for the confrontation with the current landscape.

New: The Towers

To keep Kakolanmäki Hill in balance an overdevelopment in this stage would overkill the landscape element. The Malminkatu location allows high density building in combination with public transport conjunction and the development of a majestic gateway to Kakolanmäki Hill with parking and all kinds of provisions for disabled. The design proposes a promenade between town and hill that upgrades the meaning of the smallest of the three prison buildings. Inside the promenade a museum of (natural) history is enclosed. The small museum gives information about the history of the Turku landscape, its development though time, the Prison and the future history.
The tower buildings contain a busstation, parking, offices on the 1st and 2nd floor and housing in the towering slabs. Part of the houses and offices can be converted into housing for elderly with al kinds of services.

New: Hortus Botanicus

To extend the natural landscape layer from a representation of the rough landscape and the park landscape created during its prison years a garden landscape of public gardens can be added. For instance a Hortus Botanicus with historical and local plants that can contribute to the knowledge of the visitors and add something to monumentalize the Hill.
Other small scaled gardens can be created on the inner courts and other specific locations on the hill. Next to their recreational function the gardens make outdoor areas for the inhabitants. The gardens also have a function in housing smaller animals and insects in town like butterflies. The ecological corridor is enriched and the linkage between urban green areas is improved.
The new freedom on Kakolanmäki Hill will put pressure on plant and animal live. Improvements are needed to maintain their presence too.

New: Prison Housing

Renovation of the Prison buildings does not only ask for architectural consideration but also of the program. With the architectural reconstruction and preservation of the facades, the restoration and upgrading of the beautiful indoor spaces, and the use of the building should be interpreted too. Former living areas should remain living areas, public or service areas should remain public areas. The most obvious way to redesign the historic buildings is to combine cells into bigger units. The hallways can be upgraded and remain intact. It allows reading back history and creating a fascinating living condition for both housing and hotel functions. Some parts alow the incorporation of hallways into the houses. This allows optimalisation of the use of the current volume without affecting the chacteristic interior elements. Living on the hill inside a monument asks for a certain kind of inhabitant.

New: Prison Offices

The common image of living and working on Kakolanmäki Hill is that of a parkscape. Kakolanmäki Hill is an exclusive enclave in Turku. Surrounded by more common program elements the hill is a logical place for the extra ordinary.
Green Monument Hill was in a way the place of the un-fortunate and will be te place of the fortunate.
Te keep the Hill public the aim is to find places for small and medium size companies that are to small to claim larger parts of buildings, indoor or outdoor areas. The Buildings should be open for people to visit even on an non prearanged visit.
Smaller offices can combine services in central places to cut in costs. Combinations of working at home or home related offices will be promoted in the monumental buildings. The historic layer has a program of small elements with a preference of combinations. The new layer is a layer of seperation and larger scale.


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gpa architecten bna