“Luoto” (islet, skerry) by the Helsinki-based PES-Architects Ltd. has been selected as the winner of the architecture competition concerning the future Experience Centre in Turku Railyard. The jury were unanimous in their decision.

Turku Experience Centre

Turku Experience centre is an urban cluster of tourism, concerts, culture, music, experiences, eSports, and exercise, as well as everyday services, work, and housing. The total entity of 170,000 m2 of floor space will be constructed in the area between Turku Railway Station and Logomo. The plan area consists of 13.2 hectares, and it is estimated that around 1,500 new residents will be living in the area. The estimate for the project is approximately 500 million euros.

Website of the Experience Centre project: www.turkuratapiha.fi (in Finnish)

According to the jury, ”Luoto” was the plan that most accurately met the diverse and demanding objectives of the architecture competition. The jury regarded that it creates a new dynamic and elevated element in the cityscape of Turku city centre, being in balance with the surroundings. At the same time, the exterior and interior spaces will be well connected.

– ”Luoto” is a successful operational hybrid where different functions support each other and generate a future-oriented, attractive, and experiential entity that meets the objective set by the competition, describes the chair of the jury, Turku City Board Chair Lauri Kattelus.

LUOTO, the winning plan of the Turku Experience Centre architecture competition, PES-Architects Ltd.

In the entry, the area has been successfully maintained as spacious and airy despite its massiveness, which was counted as one of the merits of ”Luoto”. The plan does not reveal everything at once, but activates people to explore and browse the area. The park-like appearance and the nature elements on different levels of the buildings soften the entity and embed it into the surrounding landscape. Several naturally emerging and exciting meeting places are created within the area, and they will enable encounters between people from different fields, creating synergies and innovation, as stated in the arguments.

– ”Luoto” represents world-class architecture and radiates internationality, but at the same time feels easy to approach. The area will attract people from sports fans to architecture enthousiasts. An enviably great centre will be created in Turku, and it will stand as an example for other cities in the future, estimates musician and Head Designer at the designing company Alvardag Lauri Ylönen, who was heard as a specialist outside the jury.

Further development of the project launched immediately

According to Director of Turku Urban Planning Timo Hintsanen, the winning plan creates a brilliant basis for the development of the project. The goal is that the Experience Centre would be finished in 2022.

– As the next step, PES-Architects, the representatives of the Turku Railyard project, and the City of Turku will start to specify the planning and drive the proposed plan forward. I.e. the link between the Experience Centre and Logomo, and the centre’s connections to the future Travel Centre and routes of public transport will be taken into consideration more thoroughly in the further development, Hintsanen says.

The architecture competition was organised by Turun Ratapihan Kehitys Oy, who are developing the Experience Centre, in cooperation with the City of Turku and VR Group. The invited competition was participated by five architect offices.

LUOTO, the winning plan of the Turku Experience Centre architecture competition, PES-Architects Ltd.