Espoo, one of the three main cities that make up the Helsinki metropolitan area, boasts the amazingly beautiful Nuuksio National Park with forests and lakes. Alongside this park and its extensive network of hiking trails, the new Haltia Visitor Center has emerged. Its building was designed by Rainer Mahlamäki and his bureau Lahdelma & Mahlamäki. According to the architect, the project was inspired by the epic "Kalevala", in addition, the outlines of the building are deliberately reminiscent of a bird.
It was not so easy to design and implement Haltia: at the same time another important Lahdelma & Mahlamäki project was under construction in Warsaw -
The Museum of the History of Polish Jews (scheduled to open in 2014), and Rainer Mahlamyaki has had to constantly shuttle between Helsinki, Poland and the city of Oulu, where he teaches at the architecture department of the local university.
The area where Haltia stands is inconvenient - it is part of a steep slope that descends to the lake. However, almost to the building itself there is an asphalt road, so it is easy to get there by car or bus - but “nature” starts a little further. I expected to see a more secluded building, where modern everyday life would be separated from the natural environment, but the solution chosen is practical and probably best suited for the current visitor.
The exposition presents not only Nuuksio, but also other national parks of Finland (in total there are more than 30 of them). From the lobby, the visitor enters the "Snowy Gorge", which tells about the winter nature and the life of animals in the cold season. Next, an interactive map of Finland is unfolded on the floor, and a duck egg made from over 600 pieces of wood is delivered, each piece carved on a digitally controlled machine. Inside the "egg" is an installation by the artist Osmo Rauhal.
Haltia also has an auditorium, a cafe, a shop and offices: most of these rooms overlook the lake, there are also two large balconies.
The structure inside is sheathed with multi-layer plywood: its light color should remind of the core of the tree, and the red facade boards - of its bark.
The observation tower, the "neck" of a metaphorical bird, allows, first of all, to see the batteries and solar collectors on the roof, but it is better to admire the landscapes from the balconies. If only relatively healthy visitors manage to climb the tower, then all other spaces, including the national park itself, are quite accessible even for people with disabilities. You can get to Haltia by bus - both from Helsinki and from Espoo train station.
