Tripla has received the Glass Structure of the year 2020 award

The Finnish association of Flat Glass presented Tripla with the Glass Structure of the Year award on 6 May 2020. Sweco’s architects and structural engineering experts were involved in the design of Tripla’s glass structures.

The district of Pasila in Helsinki gained a new, bold centrepiece at the end of last year, as the Pasila station area was reformed with the Tripla shopping centre, a new railway station, apartments, offices and a hotel. The development of Pasila’s cityscape with Tripla has already been celebrated for many reasons. As the latest achievement, the Finnish Association of Flat Glass honoured Tripla with the Glass Structure of the Year 2020 award. The biennial award highlights interesting, challenging and impressive glass structures in Finland.“I believe that the glass structures of the Tripla complex are one of the reasons why the Pasila area has received praise as a result of this project. In Pasila, Tripla represents a trend of contemporary architecture where glass construction is more important than before. Tripla’s glass structures are one of the key architectural areas that bring the entire district to the new millennium,” reflects Sweco architect Simo Anttilainen. “We at the Sweco team are really pleased that the impressive glass structures have been honoured with this award.”According to the jury, Tripla’s design has skilfully taken into account the massive structure of the surrounding Pasila area by creating lightness in the whole with multidimensional glass structures. Tripla represents a new kind of urban glass construction with warmth.“Glass construction played a major role as early as the competition phase of the project. The City of Helsinki had a significant vision for developing the look of the area and promoted high-quality construction in the land use planning and building control of the Pasila area. Thanks are also definitely due to YIT who boldly took up the challenge of glass construction at Tripla,” Anttilainen continues.

Three main features stand out among Tripla’s glass structures: the multidimensional full-wall balcony glass facade, the box windows and the folding glass facade of the station. The structural engineering of the glass structures also required a pioneering approach.

“From a structural engineering point of view, the most interesting and, at the same time, the most challenging part was to design the constructions of the folding glass walls. Our structural design team did a great job with this. Overall, Tripla has exceptionally interesting structures, the successful implementation of which we can be really proud of. Monitoring the testing of the box windows was also an interesting step. We have been developing these window structures for several years,” says Jukka Sammi, department manager of facade engineering at Sweco.

Sweco started cooperating with Arkkitehdit Soini & Horto Oy on the project after the Dutch Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A) stood aside. Sweco’s architects were responsible for the architectural design of the station block. Sweco was also responsible for the structural design of the station block and for supervising the construction and electrical work of the station, shopping centre and car park. Sweco played a special role in the project as the representative of the investors’ interests.