The Teaching Personel

professor, architect Trevor Harris, SAFA/RIBA

architect Antti Ahlava, SAFA

architect Veikko Mäkipaja, SAFA

architect Kirsti Rantanen, SAFA


Information about the site to be designed

The site is about 0,5 x 1 km all together. At the first design stage, every group makes a general study for the whole Espoo's development, a plan for the area's meaning in Espoo and the site's connection to its surroundings ('sketching Espoo'). The result of this stage may be a readjustment of the borders of the area to be designed. Afterwards, we will make a detailed urban design for the site.


Information concerning the task

Official Plans:
o The present City Plan for South Tapiola (available on the 15th September)
Architectural drawings:
o The area with surroundings in CAD format
o The design area printed on paper in 1:2000 scale (available on the 15th September)
o The area with surroundings, printed on paper in 1:5000 scale (available on the 15th September)

Maps:
o Espoo Guide Map
o Tapiola Service Map (with axonometrical building drawings)
Books:
o All the Tapiola books at the library.

Exhibitions:
o The WeeGee Gogo Exhibition 17-29 September, featuring 'Tapiola - Looking for a Better Life' etc.

Periodicals:
o Espoon kaavoituskatsaus 2003
o Tapiolan asukas- ja yrittäjäyhdistysten lehtiä
o Juhlalehti Tapiola 50 v.

Leaflets:
o Tapiolassa tapahtuu (on the happenings in Tapiola - Autumn 2003)
o Espoo Guide Summer 2003 (on happenings)
Architectural development projects on the area:
o Tapiolan keskustan eteläosan kehittämisselvitys / Arrak Arkkitehdit Oy
(A Development Report for the Southern Tapiola Centre by Arrak Architects Ltd, in Finnish)

Statistics:
o Seututieto-CD 2002
In the internet:
o www.espoo.fi
o www.hut.fi/Units/Separate/YTK/Tapiola50/tapiola.html (Tapiola Anniversary Celebration Conference)

Theoretical Background on the theme 'City as Spectacle?':
o Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition (1956)
o Marc Auge: Non-places (Non-lieux, 1992)
o Mike Davis: City of Quarz (1992)
o Guy Debord: Society of the Spectacle (La société du Spectacle, 1967)
o Arnulf Lüchringer: Structuralism in Architecture and Urban Planning (1981)
o Herbert Marcuse: One Dimensional Man (1964)
o Constant Nieuwenhuis: New Urbanism (1966)
o Constant Nieuwenhuis: Another City for Another Life (1958) www.notbored.org/another-city.html
o Richard Sennett: The Fall of Public Man (1977)
o Alison and Peter Smithson: Team 10 Primer (1962)
o Alison and Peter Smithson: Without Rhetoric (1973)


Excercise 1: Background analysis
The task entangles many different urban, spatial and social spheres. The idea is to first analyse this background and present the results to the whole Urban Renewal course.

The tasks:

A. Division into about ten student groups 2 persons each, preferably nationalities mixed.

B. Choosing the study topics:
You can start with the bibliography and other stuff already gathered above.

1. Tapiola and Westend in larger metropolitan context

2. History of Espoo, Tapiola & Westend and the site

3. The culture of Espoo & other social aspects
-The Espoo people, its society and local concepts of contemporary urbanity

4. Existing development strategies for the whole of Espoo; Social segregation (the Espoo model?) vs. mixing polarities (the Helsinki model?)

5. Architecture of Tapiola outside the design area in general
-the main building and urban space examples

6. Present day Tapiola & Westend, their city structure, events and entertainment
-activities / functions

7. Present South Tapiola / Westend site
- cityscape
- traffic
- nature; climate, geology, geography etc.
- all buildings
- relationship to immediate context

8. Existing development schemes for the site

9. Contemporary garden cities

10. Bridging Länsiväylä?: Contemporary traffic renewals / decking or tunneling traffic areas.


C. Instruction to analytical methods.
-Literature, magazines
-internet
-emphasis in spatial, pictorial and diagrammatical analysis.

D. Presentation
-In horizontal format (for example Microsoft PowerPoint of Adobe Acrobat) to be presented by a data projector (94 dpi, 28,5 x 21, 5 cm) + the same pages printed in a4 format. The work must be brought on a cd disc.


Brief:

-No brief. The analysis and selected typologies will later generate the individual briefs.


Material to be produced:

-Documents that illustrate the urban design for the area and its connection to its environment; its new three dimensional and functional characteristics. Special attention can be put to atmosphere and image of the place as a new urban realm.
-The technique is free: it can be drawings on boards, scale model, Data projector presentation, Flash presentation, video etc.
-The scale is basically free, but the presentation must give an architecturally reasonable and detailed view of the designed area. For example at least:
-for the interim critique: connections to the surroundings 1:20,000-1:5,000, structure map of the whole area 1:5,000, the actual design area 1:2,000, scale model of the area 1:2,000-1:1,000, calculations, perspectives, axonometrics, area sections 1:500 - 1:1,000.
-for the final critique the same material + a detailed block study 1:1,000, selected building plans, façade diagrams and partial sections 1:500.