Archipelago Mobile, a master plan proposal by Kyung Jae Kim, Gregory Haley, Suah Na, Heejoo Shi, and Halley Tsai, attempts to address and enhance the city of Helsinki. Known as a city ‘in-between’, their design envisions a revitalized South Harbor district, configured to mediate between land and water uses, resident and tourist amenities, port traffic and pedestrian space. By weaving these often competing requirements together in ways that not only allow but enhance their co-existence, they present an integrated model for postindustrial waterfront development in general, and a unique vision for a dynamic cultural district in the heart of the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Planned as a port and stop over point, strategically located between Sweden and Russia, and ruled first by the former and then the latter – only to emerge as the capital of a new nation state in 1917, Helsinki was born as a city in-between. As a city sited within a rugged landscape of jagged coastlines, amidst an expansive Archipelago, it is also a place profoundly situated in-between land and sea. It is this in-between-ness of Helsinki, which the proposed Archipelago Mobile attempts to address and enhance.
