Detail of the project ed. 2024

suvela-chapel / Finland

Design­er	Anssi Las­si­la
Loca­tion	Kirstin­tie 24, 02760 Espoo, Finland
Nation	Fin­land
Design Team	ARCHI­TECT IN CHARGE: Anssi Lassila PROJECT ARCHI­TECT: Iida Hedberg DESIGN TEAM: Juha Pakkala, Teemu Hirvil­am­mi, Jus­si-Pekka Vesala, Han­­na-Kaa­ri­­na Heikkilä, Anis Souis­si, Miguel Sil­va, Marit­ta Kukkonen
Year	2016
Pho­to credits	Exte­ri­or photos: 1. Mika Huisman 2. Marc Goodwin 3. Mika Huisman 4. Mika Huisman 5. Mika Huisman Inte­ri­or photos: 1.–5. Marc Goodwin

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

Suvela Chapel is a mul­ti­func­tion­al build­ing that offers a space for the peo­ple of the neigh­bor­hood to use togeth­er regard­less of their reli­gious affil­i­a­tion. It is gov­erned joint­ly by the Espoo Parish Union, the Swedish Parish of Espoo, and the City of Espoo to serve the entire com­mu­ni­ty of Suvela, one of the most mul­ti­cul­tur­al dis­tricts in the Helsin­ki met­ro­pol­i­tan region. With rough­ly one third of the inhab­i­tants being of for­eign descent, cul­tur­al diver­si­ty is both a rich poten­tial and a chal­lenge to the community.
In the design for the chapel and the adja­cent com­mu­ni­ty park, the goal was to cre­ate a build­ing that pro­vides a frame­work for the res­i­dents to come togeth­er. With an invit­ing and wel­com­ing atmos­phere, it is a build­ing that is easy to enter into. It hous­es a range of flex­i­bly adapt­able and func­tion­al spaces for a var­ied range of activ­i­ties from meet­ings to events to serve the com­mu­ni­ty both in the every­day as well as for spe­cial occasions.
All func­tions are placed on one lev­el, and the build­ing wraps into a sin­gle U‑shaped enti­ty that extends to the perime­ter of the plot on the out­er facade and forms an inti­mate inte­ri­or court­yard in the mid­dle. The main entrance is placed in a cor­ner where the U‑shaped build­ing opens to the inner court­yard. The bel­fry is embed­ded in the main build­ing vol­ume pro­vid­ing fur­ther clo­sure to the yard. The main chapel hall with its aux­il­iary spaces is locat­ed in the north-east part of the buil­du­ing. Offices of the parish staff as well as spaces for meet­ings and group­work are locat­ed in the mid­dle part of the U‑shaped vol­ume. Spaces for chil­dren and the youth as well as spaces that serve the com­mu­ni­ty park are locat­ed in the west part of the build­ing. The spaces occu­pied by the com­mu­ni­ty park face out­ward to the park while all oth­er spaces face the yard.
The height of the build­ing varies great­ly. The tall chapel hall is placed in the cor­ner of the lot. The build­ing height gets grad­u­al­ly low­er towards the office wing and ris­es high­er again in the part clos­est to the com­mu­ni­ty park. The build­ing has a hybrid struc­ture with wood­en as well as con­crete and steel ele­ments. Wood is used also in the inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or sur­faces. The pres­ence of wood is most promi­nent in the chapel hall where the walls are for the most part cov­ered with wood­en scant­lings. The eni­tre exte­ri­or shell is clad with cop­per sheets cov­er­ing both the walls and the roof.

Explana­to­ry report of the project
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

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