In Finland few places make a worse case for Architecture or Urbanism as practised then Espoo City Centre. It was supposed to be a modern centre for the post war burgeoning metropolis of Espoo now the second biggest city on Finland. But lets be honest its an embarrassment really, an indictment of all that is wrong in post-war planning across the globe generally. Public places smelling of pee, the best central spaces made into badly planned car parks, average architecture stripped by contractors of even a semblance of elegance or meaning, I could go on but you get the drift right?
However there is a shiny new urban plan for this part of the world, and the Office of Lahdelma & Mahlamäki recently won a competition for a mixed use scheme shown here which I think is the kind of anchor project for this area. The moniker is Tango which for some unknown reason has a deep psychological resonance in Finnish culture. So its a plucky name, concept and looks nicely worked out. It definitely has a fresher style than much Finnish Architecture of the recent past, and I really quite like it. Can it be delivered without sacrificing too much to commercial pressure, like in the Hanasaari project only time will tell!
