Arctic health care center and a residential area in Sodankylä, Finland

My graduation project is an entity formed by a new health care center for Sodankylä and a residential area where the center is located. I have created a plan of the residential area, and detailed plans of the health care center. Main themes of the whole are meaningful environment as foundation for human welfare, arctic environment and wooden construction.

As a response to the brief, I based the design to an insight that meaningful environment creates the basis for human welfare. Meaningful environment is seen as series of meaningful places that are informed by the genius loci of the area. Area of Sodankylä is wilderness. Nature is rugged and ascetic, but breathtakingly beautiful. In this vast landscape, a forest is traditionally seen as a safe haven. This inspired the design process throughout the project.\nIn the master plan houses form courtyards, as in traditional villages of Finnish Lapland. This advances the sense of community, enriches the hierarchy of spaces from public to private, and creates a friendly micro-climate.\nThe healthcare center and the residential area form a symbiosis that benefits both: Health care center as an important public building has for itself a worthy, visible place in the townscape, creating unique character for the area. At the same time, customers and staff of the center get a place right in the middle of every-day life, and thus a certain traditional stigma of health care facilities is removed. Visibility to the passing road E75 was considered in the placement of the center. References to traditional buildings in the architecture seeks to create meaningfulness for the environment, but are also justifiable because of harsh arctic climate.\nIn the health care center, the roof encloses roof lights and ventilation fixtures. Overall structure is rational and universal, which is part of the so-called future-proofing of the facility, enabling future changes in the plan. Floor plans are designed based on processes and routines of the center. By rotating the building blocks, meaningful places are created inside the building: Interesting routes are created that help to orientate inside the building. Along these routes, altering views open to the surrounding nature and townscape. Large glazed surfaces enable to experience the ever-changing seasons and time of day of arctic environment. The vertical rhythm of the facades is based on the regular wooden structure of the building, and echoes the rhythm of the surrounding pine forest.