A NEW CITY CENTRE FOR
LEPPÄVAARA

As one of the largest sub-centers in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Leppävaara is located at the intersection of an important infrastructural node. As a result, it is easily accessible by public transport connections and private cars. However, regional infrastructure and connections have led to the sharp division of Leppävaara into northern and southern parts: the northern centre, which functions at a more local scale, and the southern centre dominated by Sello Shopping Centre which serves more at the regional level. Over time, the space between the northern and southern parts has become a collection of residual urban spaces dominated by street network and parking lots. Currently, this area has been characterized as an uninviting urban environment which clearly lacks comfort, urban quality, and identity.
Despite all the challenges and disorders in the existing situation, the strategic location of the site has made it a unique location with a great potential to be transformed into an attractive and vivid central heart, a centre that Leppävaara obviously deserves. This cannot be
achieved without unlocking the potential of the area including its connectivity to the public transportation hub, its close vicinity to the natural green structure, and the dynamism of various cultural, business, and commercial actives nearby. By benefiting from the quality and dynamics of the surrounding neighbourhoods, the new city centre can function as a catalyst binding all the segments and isolated parts in the north-south and west-east directions.

Design ambitions
Our proposal explores the potential of the existing infrastructure to become efficiently integrated in the city fabric and act as a driver for vibrant urban life instead of functioning as a prevailing barrier. Besides, it aims at transitioning this area into an integrated and vigorous urban centre in Leppävaara, where urban services and business spaces are well-combined with housing and cultural and recreational spaces in an inviting, green and healthy urban environment.
Creating a new centre for Leppävaara starts at the station. The Leppävaara railway station is among the busiest train stations in Finland. Integration of the station area into the neighbouring urban fabric is one of the key elements of our redevelopment agenda.
Having said that, our proposal aims at transforming the station area into a new city centre that blurs the border between the north/south parts while anchoring the central core to the immediate urban fabric.
As a result, instead of being a barrier, the station area becomes a unifying and iconic hub merging urban infrastructures with urban life. Central to our proposal is seamlessly connecting northern and southern parts with the iconic station bridge. It is an essential catalyst in the re-development of the area into a cohesive city centre which extends Läkkitori square to the commercial and cultural activities in the south of the railway. Our vision contributes to a green, healthy, and socially inclusive city centre by ensuring that its beating heart (the public transportation hub), is a highly functional place where a pleasant interchange between trains, trams, busses, bicycles and taxis can happen. And, indeed the pedestrian is central to the entire plan.
This would be achieved by transformation of the parking lots and scattered urban lost spaces into vibrant urban district which is well integrated with the existing urban fabric while injecting new identity and dynamic characteristics to the central core of Leppävaara. To achieve this, four main ambitions for the transformation of the area have been delineated:

- From fragmented to connected city
- From lost space to an iconic urban city centre
- From mono-functional to urban mix
- From built environment to a living environment