Collage: October
Collage is a monthly summary of Olla’s news. In October, the Oulunkylä sports centre opened its doors, Olla’s designers received notable recognition in a circular economy innovation competition, and the story of Haiku, the internationally recognized renovation project, was released as a video.
The new Oulunkylä Sports Centre has opened – The facilities now serve everyone from casual exercisers to top athletes
The Oulunkylä sports park is an important recreational hub for Helsinki residents. By 2022, however, the ice hall and its service building located in the park had reached the end of their technical and functional lifespans.
In the demanding renovation designed by Olla, the service building was transformed into a modern sports environment that serves a wide range of users. The new sports centre supports both competitive and recreational activities, enables diverse exercise throughout the year, and strengthens the sense of community in the area. Signage designed for different user groups improved both the accessibility and the welcoming atmosphere of the facilities.
As part of the renovation, the outdoor areas and the artificial ice field were upgraded, and technical improvements were made to the ice hall to ensure its usability for the next ten years. Altogether, the capacity of the Oulunkylä Sports Centre increased from 115,000 to 150,000 annual visitors, reinforcing the park’s role as an open and inspiring environment for all city residents.
What activities can you now enjoy in Oulunkylä? Read more about the renewal of the sports centre here. The artificial ice field will open for public skating in mid-November, and on 29 November the renewed field will be celebrated with a family-friendly opening event.
Silver for Olla’s interior architects in the circular economy innovation competition for wood products
The innovation challenge organised by Helsinki Circular Economy Cluster Program, the Finnish Woodworking Industries Federation, and the Viikki Wood & Forest Innovation Hub sought solutions for advancing the circular economy of wood and wood products. Olla’s interior architects Kaisa Eriksson and Tea Ellala, together with Inlook Oy, developed an interior construction product series that utilises side streams of CLT (cross-laminated timber). Their solution was awarded second place in the Modify & Shape category at the Puupäivät event. The main prize went to Aisbois Oy from Rovaniemi.
Sustainable and visually beautiful – read more here about the product series that gives new life to surplus materials and makes innovative use of the visual qualities of cross-laminated timber.
The story of Haiku now on video – “Revealing the thinking behind architecture increases understanding and respect for our shared environment”
Olla wants to communicate about its architecture and the people behind it as comprehensively as possible: not only by showcasing the final results, but also by sharing the processes and reasoning that led to them. In the short film Haiku – From Bystander to Trendsetter, Olla’s designers Bratislav Toskovic and Tea Ellala explain the thinking and values behind the Haiku project, the renovation of a 1970s office building. The video was produced in collaboration with Olla’s long-time partner, Kuvatoimisto Kuvio.
“Stories about architecture inevitably fall short if they focus only on the final outcome. It is not only fascinating but also eye-opening to hear why something has been designed the way it has. Buildings that shape urban space affect us all. At best, revealing the thinking behind architecture increases understanding and respect for our shared environment,” says Olla’s Terhi Isokuortti, who wrote the script for the video.
Watch the video and read Olla’s and Kuvio’s thoughts on creating an architectural film here.
In the photo: After the internal premiere for Olla’s staff, the discussion turned to how the office’s expertise and projects could be communicated as engagingly and comprehensively as possible.
