Page 5 - Tikkurilankirkko

The building hall, the building houses a café, a
meeting space for families with small
s The Tikkurila Church was designed children, group and teamwork spaces,
by the architectural office OOPEAA, meeting rooms and offices, an en-
Office for Peripheral Architecture, with trance hall as well as a courtyard. The
Anssi Lassila as the Principal Design- spaces open for public are located on
er and Architect in Charge and Iida the first and second floor. The prem-
Hedberg as the Project Architect. Con- ises on the third and fourth floor
secrated in January 2021, the church provide settings for group work and
serves as the home church for Tikkuri- meetings as well as spaces for conver-
la parish and Vanda svenska försam- sations or therapy sessions.
ling (the Swedish parish of Vantaa). The views opening to the green
The building also accommodates the roofs of the building and to the sur-
administration and common parish rounding city space allow plenty of
activities of Vantaa Parishes. light to flow into the building. Togeth-
er with the colours of the walls, this
The main church hall is the heart light creates spaces with different at-
of the building. It is a majestic space mospheres. The courtyard offers a lush
in which light and materials are pro- green view that can be admired from
nounced, and it can be flexibly adapt- the entrance hall and partly also from
ed to many purposes. Materials are the church hall. It serves as a border to
used in an unconcealed and honest the semi-public yard area towards the
way: bricks look like bricks, wood adjoining blocks of flats and makes it
like wood and concrete like con- possible to extend events organised
crete. However, the goal in the design in the entrance hall also to the out-
has been to break away from everyday er space when the weather is warm
life. The height of the main church hall enough.
bears a resemblance to the treetops As a whole, quarter around the
in a Finnish forest with the spruce- church is very urban in character. The
lined ceiling rising up to 14–15 meters. church building is part of the city-
The two primary materials used in scape and, in a way, serves as a com-
the main church hall, wood and cast- panion to the City Hall. It claims its
in-place concrete, form a dynamic role as the church in the centre of the
atmosphere that creates an impres- village, an integral part of the commu-
sion of stability and comfort, warmth nity, yet boldly a building in its own
and consolation. The light filtering in right. The building holds a dialogue
through the skilfully located windows with the surrounding city space and
highlights this ambience created by creates identity and identifiability for
means of genuine and tangible mate- the area with its strong presence. At
rials. the same time, it is inviting and easy
The building is designed to serve to approach and access. The triangular
the needs of the community in mul- shape of the church has its origin in
tiple ways. In addition to the church the construction space, but it can also
be construed as symbolic. The gold-
leafed cross on the roof of the church
is almost two meters high. Further-
more, the bricks on the façade of the
church form a relief-like cross.

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