COBE + Lundén Architecture's winning traffic hub entry for Tampere, Finland

The Finnish city of Tampere recently found the winning design for the Tampere Travel and Service Centre by a collaborative team led by Danish architecture firm COBE + Finnish practice Lundén Architecture, with Rambøll Finland and Newsec.

Titled "ReConnecting Tampere", the new Travel and Service Centre will be a new central traffic hub for the country's second largest city. The proposal also aims to be a gateway to improve connectivity both within and outside Tampere.

The additional teams that submitted entries were Alejandro Zaera-Polo & Maider Llaguno Architecture, Karres en Brands Landscape architecture + urban planning, and KCAP Architects and Planners.

Below are more project details from the architects.

"'Tampere’s new Travel and Service Centre has not only the potential to become a gateway to Tampere and the rest of Finland, but also the potential of becoming a generator for the future development of the urban center of Tampere...', says Dan Stubbergaard, Founder and Creative Director of COBE."

"...The vision, 'ReConnecting Tampere', introduces an intermodal transportation hub in the heart of the city as well as a development plan for uniting the city center. By introducing a diverse urban structure that extends from the east to west across the railyard, the project provides a solid and robust foundation for unifying the two sides of Tampere’s city center once and for all,' Stubbergaard continues."

"As a main feature in the project, the station plaza will be Tampere’s new urban living room. A great roof structure hovering over the plaza and train tracks below will provide the visitor with an exceptional spatial experience. Fringing the station plazawill be a variety of functions; ranging from a new cinema, retail shops and boutiques, to housing and new office spaces. Large circular openings in the deck structure will give the visitors a good overview of the station below, and establish an easily understandable station area."

"The project also proposes a new central park in Tampere located between the old and the new city center. It will be a green lung in the urban structure, and become a recreational meeting point in the very heart of the city. An arcade flanking the park, will provide the citizens with an active and qualitative edge zone that opens up towards the new urban space."

Project details

Location: Tampere, Finland
Client: City of Tampere, Finnish Transport Agency, VR-Group and Senate Properties
Architects: COBE and Lundén Architecture
Engineer: Rambøll Finland
Property valuation: Newsec
Program: New Travel and Service Centre for the City of Tampere, as well as a masterplan for the areas surrounding the railyard
Size: 120.000 m2
Assignment type: 1st Prize in competition in 2014

Images courtesy of COBE and Lundén Architecture.