“At the market meet, ”the architect Antti Mentula From the Helsinki cityscape, shout on your phone.
He has just agreed on a meeting place for his colleagues Teija Patrikan with.
On the Lower Malmi side, it may be so green and comfortable in the future. Malmitalo can be seen on the right side of the observation image.
Let’s be in Malmi.
Mentula and Patrikka, who arrive at the meeting place at Ylä-Malmi Square, are excited, for good reason: Malmi’s phased renovation work has begun.
Ylä-Malmi tori has received feedback on its bitterness. It will be renovated in 2023-2024. Renovation work will begin on the water pool.
New ones are already being built on both sides of the track.
Mentula and Patrikka tell during a short walking tour what changes at Malmi.
The planning principles are based on Malmi’s central vision work carried out in 2018–2020, in which the residents and actors in the area were closely involved.
For a long time, there was a youth center in an old wooden building on the edge of Upper Malmi Market Square.
The concept envisioned an urban-like reform that officials call Heart-Ore.
“Its purpose is to act as a zone of downtown blocks connecting Upper and Lower Malmi, which forms a unified central core,” says Mentula.
For the occasional Malmin visitor, the biggest change is perhaps reflected in the refreshment of the overall look of the train station’s surroundings.
The observation picture shows what the future of Ore could look like from the air.
The 1980s on the red brick will remain visible, but its holiday will include new construction and lots of green.
The first cranes are running.
In the early autumn, a property was demolished on the Ala-Malmi side, where, among other things, the restaurant Tillikka was located. It will be replaced by non-subsidized rental apartments, a street-level grocery store and a parking garage.
Opposite the former Tillika building, on the other side of the Old Helsingintie, the two residential apartment buildings are already at a height.
Architect Antti Mentula has been leading the city’s own Malmi Central Vision project since 2018.
The second tower of the fan-shaped twin-tower building will house the premises of Noli Studios, which offers hotel-like housing, and the other to other apartments.
On the Upper Malmi side, a new one will be built in Askartie 2, which will include a residential apartment building and a street-level retail space and parking spaces. Below, an old, single-storey commercial building has been demolished.
The residents of Malmi have been actively involved throughout the design work.
Ala-Malmi Park opens behind Malmitalo.
That’s something both Mentula and Patrikka are proud of. There were different parties involved – residents, entrepreneurs, the city and the Fairway Agency – all of whom wanted similar changes.
“Thoughts and state of mind were all the same,” Mentula says.
In the next few years, Malmi’s train station will be examined for coverage so that it becomes easier to navigate.
“For example, the bus terminal of the Kirkonkyläntie bridge will be expanded in the future to the hotel and residential plot under construction and its front square,” says Mentula.
Ore there are items that have fallen into disrepair over the decades. Among other things, the Upper Malmi Market often receives reviews for its grim appearance.
In the middle of the square is a grassy fountain pool from which rises Seppo Mannisen steel sculpture.
“It’s true that the market is profitably gray. There is very little green. It is now to be added. Tori’s city square property and traditional market activities will be preserved, ”says Mentula.
“Efforts have been made to take into account concrete, individual wishes and the possibilities for their realization,” says Patrikka.
Residents and actors around the station were particularly enthusiastic about renovating the market area.
This could look like Malmi train station on the overpass at the point where the pedestrian crossing now runs.
Patrikka says that some of the wishes related to landscaping were very detailed.
“It is not possible to implement all of them, but they have all been reviewed and ideas have been picked up,” says Patrikka.
The renovation of the Upper Malmi Square is planned for 2023–2024. Work is likely to begin with the refurbishment of the pool.
Ore is, according to Mentula, like a small town within another. In his opinion, one of the subtleties of Malmi is its stratification.
“Much of the buildings in the city center were built in the 1980s, but there are also older buildings left. The layers will continue to be visible, ”says Mentula.
According to the architects, the walkway will no longer look like it does today. Some small, quick changes will be made as early as next summer.
The old light wooden house on the edge of Upper Malmi Market Square is perhaps the most charming in Malmi. It has last served as a youth soldier.
In addition to the attic-roofed, three-storey wooden building, the building complex includes a reinforced concrete and brick single-storey courtyard wing completed in 1983.
According to the information of the farm center, the building has functioned as an apartment, a pharmacy and an evasive school, among other things.
“It doesn’t have a protection mark in the current formula. It will be applied for in the next town plan, ”says Mentula.
We walk through a covered overpass, a pedestrian tube, from Upper Malmi to Lower Malmi.
The architects say the walking tube is unlikely to remain completely as it is for very long.
Cranes are already dancing above the Malmi bus terminal. The picture was taken from Ala-Malmi.
The first, small changes will be visible as early as next year. Then at least the dilapidated stairway from the walkway to the station platform will be repaired.
Malmin The Malm Nova shopping center and Malmitalo can be reached from the Ala-Malmi market square to the east of the station.
Behind the Malmitalo is Ala-Malmi Park. It is a city-class first-class value park. The park has also become a resident feedback. Some residents have noticed that the park has contributed to disruptive behavior.
According to the architects, the park’s diverse user base reduces distraction behavior.
“The same is really true for all public spaces,” Mentula says.
In addition to a new look, Malmi also gets more services.
Architects Antti Mentula and Teija Patrikka hope that the current Ala-Malmi will also come to life and become an ever closer part of a unified Malmi.
A family, health and well-being center serving the whole of North-East Helsinki has been planned on the Malmitalo side.
Malmi Hospital will also be expanded, as will the indoor swimming pool.
“Going forward three or four years, the whole area looks different and more comfortable,” Mentula says.
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