As Finnair opened up a new direct flight route from Helsinki to Chongqing, an official Ministry and Business Delegation visited the city of Chongqing in May 2012. The delegation was lead by Mr. Jyri Häkämies, Minister of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Employment and the Economy of Finland and consisted of leading Business delegates from various fields of Finnish companies and trade organizations.

Patrick Eriksson presented Eriksson Architects’ latest projects in China. By example the concept plan we designed in 2011 for a Hotel in Chengdu and the International Data Center office complex for Nansha International Science Park in Guangzhou. Once again much attention was given to our conceptual master plan for the Mentougou Eco Valley, designed 2010.

Eriksson Architects Ltd on the China Import Expo

Patrick Eriksson and Ms. Sun Lin presented Eriksson Architects at the China International Import Expo at Kunshan Convention and Exhibition Center, Jiangsu, China, in March 2012.

China International Import Expo carries the unique distinction of being the largest import industry based trade show in China and is held under the auspices of the China Chamber of International Commerce and the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government. The exhibition, with full support of the Chinese central government, seeks to enhance the amount of foreign technologies and products imported in the country. Better foreign goods and equipments can help increase productivity and keeping this fact in mind, the fairs organizers make arrangements for business match making services and promotional activities.

Cleantech Finland, operated by Finpro, is a network of Finnish environmental technology companies that has a goal to profile Finland as a top country in the field. Cleantech Finland’s SOLVED expert service brings together cleantech companies, clients and other interest groups, the problems and their solutions on an online platform that enables new ways to be active and cooperate.

The experts from Cleantech Finland ‘s member companies play a key role in SOLVED. In the service anyone can ask questions, engadge in discussion and do networking. The top experts from the respective field then provide the factual information, perspectives and practical experience to solve a problem or take part in the discussion. About one hundred experts have already signed in the service. Also Eriksson Architects Ltd has experts among them.

Press release in English
Press release in Finnish

2. Linna.

The concept of the plan was to make a sheltered inner yard in the middle of the building masses by designing a hard shell around it. This was achieved by laying the building masses in an abstract castle like manner around the courtyard thus sheltering the residents from the noise and pollution coming from the new highway. The height differentiation of the masses was a way to maximize the lake views from the apartments and let the sun shine through to the yard. The vicinity of a small boat harbor was stretched into the planning area and taken as a feature that could liven up the more public lakeside of the housing area.

The planning area, Savola, is located just northwest of the center of Savonlinna. The area of the site is 16750 sqm and the plan consists of 15650 floor sqm.

The jury praised the plan for its fresh, bold and new take on a housing area. They were seeing it as a strong landmark for the future city of Savonlinna.

Kide (Kirkkolahti)

The plan consists of three and five story apartment buildings and townhouses along the lake shore which gives 21 020 floor sqm. The planning area, Kirkkolahti, which is 156 000 sqm is located southwest of the city centre.The urban setting of the project had two intentions. First to form a proper street scale by situating apartment buildings, with small commercial spaces at the ground level, along existing streets. That made them more city like and alive. At the same time, it created an L-shape ‘shelter’ form for smaller apartment buildings which were placed inside the mass and which slope down to the east giving terraces feeling from the lake. Second intention was to create a park at the lake shore for public use with different leisure activities spaces placed.

Whole planned area was covered with pedestrian lines, creating public and semi-public zones, for people to spend time and socialize. There was no need to create new streets, so the traffic noise was reduced to minimum but the whole terrain is functionally joined. The design creates a field of relationships and a new ‘pattern’ to the city plan of Savonlinna.

The jury praised the plan for its beautifully designed building massing that makes the silhouette of the area uniform and for the architecture of a high class. “The landscaping and the design of the green deck are of a high quality and are important for the area”.

The new “NB Plan” -service offers tools for simulating energy efficiency solutions and analysing life cycle costs of a property during the concept phase of new building or a refurbishment project. The new starting point is to shift the fcus from structural impermability to holistic simulation of energy balance, where external conditions, primary energy sources and novel technical solutions are fused into energy efficient spatial design.

Nordbuild and Eriksson Architects realise and develop the simulation service together, utilising each party’s expertise and BIM-knowledge . The simulation service will form a major part of a service process, the NordBuild E-process. E-process is a comprehensive energy efficiency management system, with which the clients can lower their energy costs. The customer gets an energy efficiency strategy, objectives and a management model that supports the process. The energy efficiency simulation – NB Plan – supports the definition of the objectives and helps anticipating the impact of different measures and technical solutions. Other E-Process modules, E-Analyzer and E-manager, help the clients to monitor how their objectives are met in existing buildings. The whole E-process is supported by Nordbuild’s own E-Screen IT-solution, a SaaS-based solution.

Link to Rakennuslehti article

Casiopeia Finland Oy arranges a new architectural competition for the enlargement of Levi Koutalaki leisure area.Other competitors are Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) from Danmark, Wingårdh Architects from Sweden and the Finnish Serum architects.