The Saukonlaituri parking facility and the recently completed parking facility along Atlantinkaari street (Inaro, 2020) are examples of the City of Helsinki’s investment in architecturally ambitious mobility infrastructure in Jätkäsaari. The developer is the city-owned Jätkäsaaren Pysäköinti Oy. The parking solutions are implied in a variety of other aspects that determine the design and construction of the area: an excavated underground parking facility also functions as a civil defence shelter, and the centrally located parking facilities allow the surrounding residential blocks to have lusher ground-level courtyards instead of raised yard decks. The parking facilities have been justified primarily by cost: they are a cheaper solution than the other available options. At the same time, substantially more than simply financial savings are achieved.

The parking facility is located in an area of newly completed buildings, ongoing construction sites and vacant plots. The surroundings should be completed by 2025 at the earliest, so the facility will be a key landmark for years to come. The pentagonal multi-storey mass, the size of a small urban block, takes its place in the urban structure bordered by the surrounding streets. The south side of the building mass is stepped with ramps and strips that support shoreline vegetation, creating a sloping route and an area where people can gather, that extends all the way up to the roof level. The artificial slope can be interpreted as a reminder of the island of Utter which existed on this location more than a hundred years ago, though its immediate significance can be found through its use, that is, as an alternative route to the parking floors and even as a place for spending time. The slope also relaxes the parking facility’s relationship with its neighbours, allowing for longer vistas and increased sunlight for the surrounding apartments.

The herringbone-patterned facade cladding comprised of bars of burnt clay gives each side of the building a cohesive and recognisable look. The different shades of the bars, which lighten towards the top floors, also bring a vibrancy to the otherwise restrained decoration of the abstract surfaces. The orientation of the facade bars is in line with the directions of the ramps, and their dimensions and spacing are based on technical requirements: to allow for smoke extraction and to prevent any disturbing headlight glare from the cars circulating in the parking facility.

The various architectural solutions in the parking facility form a seamless whole; the different parts refer to each other, to the location, and to the use of the building through the choices of materials, form, and composition. In terms of its stepped terraces, the Saukonlaituri parking facility is derived from designs that utilise the parking and traffic conditions as tools for the generation of form, as in MVRDV’s Carstadt study (1995) or the Mountain Dwellings (2008) in Ørestad, Copenhagen, designed by PLOT and JDS. The contemporary geometric ornamentation of the facades ties the building to the present moment and, at the same time, is intrinsically connected to the forms of the building. The uniform and systematic impression is delightfully broken by the green heart found unexpectedly in the very core of the facility – at the bottom of the light well is a boulder-filled and lush stormwater retention area with ferns, giving rise to a highly charged experience, especially on a rainy day. The ceramic vessel shelters something more valuable than the vehicles it stores.

Source: Tommy Lindgren’s review published in Finnish Architectural Review 2/2021