The competition task was to improve the attractiveness and liveability of the Kaarina city centre by improving the public spaces, bringing in new housing and services and generating a more pedestrian friendly urban environment. Kaarina is a city of 36 000 inhabitants in Western Finland in the proximity of the historic city of Turku.

Harris-Kjisik Architects’ entry ’Luodot’ was awarded a purchase. According to the jury, the entry contains a wealth of ideas, architectural themes and varied typological alternatives, fusing them all into a coherent urban structure.

The sustainability goals are achieved (among other things) by preserving the existing buildings as much as possible and integrating them into a new framework, and by generating arcades and balcony zones along the building facades for enhancing passive housing principles and simultaneously generating a ’connector space’ between the pedestrian streets and building interiors.

A new proposed ’Archipelago centre’ is a new landmark public building, helping to give the Kaarina city centre a unique and recognisable character.

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