The Unbelievable Challenge 2021 finalist Elina Harjunpää visited Ruukki

Introduction of The Unbelievable Challenge 2021 top five finalists continues. Now we get to know architect Elina Harjunpää from Finland, who today works at Sigge Architects. She entered the competition with a proposal called "Iceberg". We have met earlier two other finalists,  Štefánia Vasilková  from Slovakia and Alice Šindelářová from Czech Republic. 

The task of our third ideas competition for young architects was to design the Museum of Snow in the hometown of Mr. Santa Claus, in Rovaniemi, Finland. The big idea was to draw attention to the challenge of declining snow cover even in the Arctic Circle. 

Elina’s goal was to design a museum that addresses with current environmental challenges, where the basis for the design was not only the dissemination of climate awareness but also encounters with snow on a practical level. Basis of the planning was also to enliven the area of the Koskipuisto park and guide the developement of the area in the future.  

"In the competition proposal, I wanted to respond to area's other development needs in addition to museum activities, creating a multifunctional cultural center from the museum environment to serve the needs of the entire Koskipuisto area. The architectural entity interprets its environment guided by its needs and functionality, striving for an innovative entity," says Elina about her work. 

The environmental theme of the competition was personally important to Elina. "Museum design competitions are rarely seen, so it was refreshing to start design something out of the ordinary and something so called landmark building. The shape of the building's mass was influenced by the geometry and design language of the adjacent Jätkänkynttilä Bridge. The buildings symbolic meaning as a melting iceberg was created to reflect the building's context and referring to its function as a snow museum. The symbolism also reflects Rovaniemi's status as an arctic capital." 

"Due to the precisely defined competition brief and requirements, the long-planned model was partially not presented, because the number of presentation documents for the jury was limited to only three A3 sheets. It was challenging to get everything you wanted to say about the idea into it," Elina says about her experiences. Fortunately, however, the design work was not wasted, as she further developed her competition plan into her master’s thesis. 

In order to get an intact whole, Elina would have liked the competition area to include the entire Koskipuisto area instead of a single plot. "The starting point of planning should always be the needs of the entire area. When supplementing Rovaniemi's most culturally and historically valuable river landscape, we should really carefully examine what kind of built environment is desired for the area, or whether it is desired at all, and what kind of landscape effects new construction will have on the area." Elina tells about her thoughts. 

"As a positive feedback, the planning was made easier by the availability and scope of Ruukki's 3D/BIM objects, which I was able to download directly into the model. This makes the architect's work much easier and faster", she continues. This was rewarding to hear for us in Ruukki, as recently we have invested significantly in the availability of our product objects. 

We finally had the opportunity to cheer and celebrate Elina's top five position in the final of the competition, and to hear her presentation about her own competition proposal as well as her thoughts on the competition and Ruukki's product range. Elina presented her competition proposal both to the Käpylä office staff and to the technical design team for the facades at the Pärnu factory.

"The visit was warm-hearted and interesting, thank you for that. The development from the architectural vision to the production line includes many phases. For me personally the visit to the Pärnu cladding factory was most interesting part.  It is instructive to see how the products are actually produced. It isn’t always thought enough in the design phase," says Elina. 

Congratulations, Elina. It was a pleasure to meet you!