OOPEAA Wins Multi-functional Church and Social Housing Proposal in Helsinki

OOPEAA and Lujatalo worked together to design the winning proposal for a new multi-functional church and social housing project for Tikkurila, Helsinki entitled Church in the City. The project is unique in the way that the architect, builder, and client participated in a highly collaborative design process.

The new church will be centrally located while relating to the urban fabric of eastern Helsinki. Because Tikkurila is the business center of Vantaa, Church in the City will incorporate office and meeting spaces to better serve the community it occupies. The project will also adjoin 11,700 square meters of social and student housing. These 185 units, called Bethania Housing, are planned be built simultaneously with Church in the City.

While Church in the City will be Tikkurila’s newest landmark, its interior spaces intend to be at a more intimate, calm human scale. The main church hall will have the capability to seat 500 parishioners or be divided to entertain smaller, concurrent events. Church facilities will include: a café, a store, an outdoor gathering space and workrooms for up to 143 people.

Church in the City is scheduled to be completed in 2020 and is commissioned by Vantaa Parishes; who also commissioned Bethania Housing along with the Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region.

For more information on the New Tikkurila Church, see here.