Rethinking the future of Hernesaari: Within the studio we are using the spatial context of Hernesaari as a testing ground for speculative computational design methods. Each team will be assigned a 'slice' of Hernesaari as a field of intervention. We are looking for experimental explorations on various scales formulating new approaches for future-oriented waterfront developments. The interaction within the assigned slices allows to either explore and formulate small- or large-scale speculations in the area of urbanistic answers to specific site conditions.

Project Area: Hernesaari is located in the southernmost part of downtown Helsinki. An island of ca. 0.49km2, once used as pasture land and a fishing base, was connected to the mainland by a causeway in the 1930s. In 1941, it was decided that the island would be used as a harbor, and it was connected by filling to Munkkisaari, an island that had already become part of the mainland. Hernesaari served as a dockyard and industrial area for several decades.

According to the lease made with The City of Helsinki the dockyard left Hernesaari at the end of 2012 and the island became vacant for construction. The ongoing Hernesaari development of the city of Helsinki is part of a sea-oriented change process in Helsinki and sets its focus on new waterfront development. The currently developed urban plan follows a classical modernist approach, represented through a conventional zoning strategy, which divides the island into 3 separate zones of function.

Task: The central theme of the studio is to rethink this traditional approach of separated functions by applying computational design methods for mixing form and functions into new spatial configurations.