Campus 2015 - Otaniemi central campus of Aalto University

"Otaniemi used to be a prosperous state before the Government acquired the land for its new Polytechnical School. It provided adequate space and was relatively close to the city, but, what was even more important from the Finnish point of view, it also made it possible for the students to maintain a daily contact with nature". (From a book about Finnish architecture)

The complex of courtyards and proposed buildings stands to one side of a single path. To the other side there is nothing, save a meadow, a natural space that crosses the campus from north to south and from east to west, fading in the distance into the long and broad perspectives. The pathway is full of events. Taken from north to south, it starts in Tietotie, at the end of a long row of trees, enters one of the building’s patios, comes out again, runs beside a great gateway giving access to the principal courtyard, meets the valley that leads to the lobby of the Metro, continues to discover the avenue of lime trees and finally reaches the restaurant court.

The proposal for this path respects a form of organization of the landscape present in the long path to Alvarin aukio. This path, too, has on one side the library building designed by Alvar Aalto and, on the other, a meadow which in fine weather becomes an important focus of use. The university buildings, situated in the distance, fill it with meaning. The pathway, bordered by many functional and spatial opportunities, generating a variety of patios and squares, is turned into a simple but exciting street (with an inevitable sense of the idea of a route, of progress) running through the campus.