A long-awaited artificial ice rink was planned for Kirkkonummi

 Published 17.4.2026

A multi-purpose artificial ice rink was designed for Kirkkonummi, which will enable skating as well as a wide range of sports when the ground is unfrozen. Sweco’s designers helped to take into account different perspectives, from the structural solutions of the field to the cooling technology and the accessibility of the maintenance building.

The mild winters of Southern Finland are not conducive to skating on natural ice, and in Kirkkonummi, located on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, proper frosty winters are becoming rare. The municipality wants to improve the situation by building an artificial ice rink in the Central Sports Park. “There are no artificial ice rinks in Kirkkonummi yet, even though the skating season is short or non-existent in most winters,” says Ville Saikko, the municipality’s sports service manager.

The aim is to respond to the long-term wishes of school and early childhood education groups as well as leisure time enthusiasts.

It is important for the artificial ice rink to complement the existing sports services of the central sports park.

“That’s why we designed both a rink and a free skating area for the rink, and the rink must also serve as a year-round sports facility,” Saikko emphasizes. When the ground is unfrozen, the field can be used for a wide range of sports, from basketball to street hockey.

An artificial ice rink project is the sum of many technical disciplines

Sweco’s architects were responsible for the artificial ice rink project.  “The great thing about sports facility design is that the architect gets to make a positive change that people are excited about,” says Roope Elojärvi, Chief Designer at Sweco.

The project utilised Sweco’s expertise in both sports facility planning and geo-, structural, and building services engineering. In Saikko’s opinion, the design work was systematic and well scheduled – and most importantly, enough resources were included in the project.

“Sweco’s extensive group of experts helped us think about the big picture from many angles, and we also received valuable reference information on successful solutions in other projects.”

The maintenance building of the artificial ice rink fits into the architecture of the city centre

There will be a maintenance building in connection with the artificial ice rink, which will include accessible and user-safe toilets and maintenance facilities. In Savilevo’s opinion, it is just as important to adapt the maintenance building of the airport to its surroundings as other public buildings in the city centre.

“The façade system of the maintenance building was modelled on the library in the city centre, and the wood construction mentioned in the plan regulations is carried out with the wooden grille of the façade.”

The basic shape of the maintenance building with a sloping roof was created naturally through functional requirements. “The maintenance space of an ice maintenance machine requires height,” Savilepo says.

The architects proposed some user-friendly changes to the original space program. “For example, we recommended moving the toilet facilities 100 meters away to the field’s own maintenance building, so that they are easy to use with skates on,” Elojärvi adds.

The asphalt of the artificial ice rink is permeable to water

In connection with the service building, there is a refrigerated container, the design of the refrigeration technology of which was  the playground of Sweco’s refrigeration designers. The cooling pipes were sensibly fitted to the field structures together with Sweco’s sports facility designers.

“The asphalt field will be flat, which means that there will be no slopes or ridges that would hinder freezing,” says Matti Lindgren, Project Manager of Sweco’s sports facility design. When the field is flat, there is no need for bends in the pipes, which improves the cooling result. The ice is also protected by a fence surrounding the area, which prevents, for example, unauthorised riding of mopeds.

Cooling pipes are installed inside water-permeable grooved asphalt. The thicker piping extends from the refrigerated container to the manifolds at the edge of the field area. “From then on, there will be 25-millimetre cooling pipes in the field every 10 centimetres,” Lindgren says. When the ice cover is allowed to thaw in the spring, the water can pass through the asphalt and be directed to the drainage wells in a controlled manner.

The ground conditions of the artificial ice rink require stabilization

The artificial ice rink is intended to be located on a grassy area that has not been used much and the ground conditions are not the best possible. Help was received from Sweco’s geotechnical experts.

“The clay soil is stabilised with foam glass relief, which prevents the soil from subsiding,” Lindgren says. Thanks to stabilization, the asphalt surface remains intact, which reduces the repair costs of the field during operation. “A high-quality ice surface also protects the skaters.”

In principle, the cooling of an artificial ice rink is never environmentally friendly, but the energy efficiency of the process can be influenced by the design solutions of the refrigerated container. “It was important for Kirkkonummi that it would be possible to utilise the condensation from cooling later in the area,” Saikko says. Condensation heat can be used to heat an artificial turf field, for example.

The construction of the artificial ice rink is part of the municipality of Kirkkonummi’s sports facility investment programme. The planned construction of the airport will take place preliminarily towards the end of the current decade.