The City of Helsinki wants to build in the present Pasila area a multifunctional and concise city environment with overlapping functions and an integrated urban structure.

“Pasila is of vital importance to Helsinki. It will become a second centre for Helsinki, a key area for commercial building, ­a business centre and a media and events neighbourhood. The upcoming traffic solutions strengthen the role of Pasila as a functional and versatile centre and place of residence for the entire country”, says Mayor Jussi Pajunen.

The planning and plan implementation competition of the central block of Central Pasila was completed in the beginning of September. The winning proposal nominee called Tripla (The Triple) has been developed by Dutch architecture firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.). It was submitted by YIT Construction Ltd.

The view is dramatic from the bridge that joins Eastern and Western Pasila, 15 metres above ground. By the 2020’s the wind-beaten bridge will have been transformed into an elegant urban street lined by shops and cafés. The City of Helsinki and the Finnish State as the main landowner are collaborating in the redevelopment project to transform the valley separating Eastern and Western Pasila into a dense concentration of commerce, housing and services highlighted by public transport.

The future Central Pasila centre, only e few minutes away from Helsinki city centre by train, will comprise three blocks with offices, a trade and congress centre, housing units, a hotel, a multi-use arena and a public transport terminal. The share of housing units is about 20 percent of the building area.

This will be one of the biggest construction projects ever in Finland. The total worth of the project is about one billion euros. The result of the competition arranged by the City of Helsinki and Senate Properties will be confirmed by the Helsinki City Council, the Senate Properties board of directors as well as the Parliament of Finland.

“The initiation of the project was a strong positive signal for the entire Finnish economy and a significant piece of news in the building trade. We continue our long-standing co-operation with the City of Helsinki by immediately starting the development of the next area, to ensure that the entire Pasila area is renewed in a desired manner”, says Senate Properties CEO Jari Sarjo

Central Pasila is already a connecting point for public transportation. The Chairman of the jury, Deputy Mayor Hannu Penttilä notes that the entire neighbourhood of Pasila was once founded around the railroad, the depot and the railway station.

“The development of Pasila existed in Eliel Saarinen’s plans of Helsinki even a hundred years ago. Now the door is open for the development of entire Pasila, as the winning proposal is an entirety of commercial spaces, services and traffic, which considers ease of movement, stylish architecture and ecological thinking.”

Environmental friendliness and energy efficiency have formed a starting point for the planning. A third of the roof and deck area consists of green roofs and decks. There will be 3 400 bicycle stands and almost 400 charging spots for electric cars. The collection of waste is to be implemented with a centered automated vacuum waste collection system. A new kind of modifiable multi-purpose arena will be the heart of the centre.

Finnish Transport Agency Director Kari Ruohonen emphasises that the upcoming traffic solutions will increase the significance of Central Pasila as a traffic centre for the entire country. “New traffic solutions: the Helsinki City Rail Loop for local trains, the western extra rail track, the metro reservation, the airport connection and the renewed Veturitie as the main street in Pasila strengthen the central role of Pasila further”.

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