Exterior rendering of KURIKKA-TALO Town Hall, Finland

KURIKKA-TALO – The new town hall of the town of Kurikka, Finland

A triangular building with a floor-to-ceiling glazed courtyard and facades clad in larch panels, a proposal for the public competition for the new Kurikka Town Hall.

2024 · Kurikka, Finland · Town Hall (municipal headquarters) · Public & Commercial Architecture + Sustainable Design

A triangle that opens up the town

Kurikka is a town of around 21,000 inhabitants in southern Ostrobothnia, Finland, a rural and industrious region on the country’s west coast. The KURIKKATALON YLEINEN ARKKITEHTUURIKILPAILU, the open architectural competition for the new Town Hall, called for a building capable of functioning as an institutional headquarters and, at the same time, as a local civic space: a Town Hall that is not merely a block of offices, but a place where the community can find services, events and opportunities to meet. Maurizio Barberio and Micaela Colella’s proposal stems from a simple observation: Kurikka lacks a public infrastructure capable of encompassing these two dimensions within a single, legible building.

The design solution is a triangular volume with rounded corners. The two main facades are aligned with Asematie and Keskuspuistikko, the two streets that frame the site, whilst the main entrance is situated at the corner between them, in continuity with the existing urban fabric. The third side of the triangle runs diagonally across the site and opens onto a new public green space, sheltered by a continuous roof (green above) pierced by two large round oculus windows that allow light to filter downwards. Beneath the roof are benches, bicycle racks and a heated shelter for the bus stop: a small landscape of amenities for daily life that the City Council makes available to the neighbourhood even before one enters the building’s interior spaces. A pedestrian and cycling network crosses the green space; four car parks and the secondary entrances complete the facade.

The heart of the building is the large glazed internal courtyard, a full-height glass-covered courtyard that brings natural light to the offices arranged along the three sides of the triangle. On the ground floor, the courtyard houses public functions and becomes the beating heart of the Town Hall, open to the flow of citizens and services for the public. A spiral staircase at the centre of the courtyard connects the four floors with a striking architectural gesture; two service staircases and their associated lifts complete the vertical circulation. The building’s most representative and flexible spaces are concentrated at the three vertices of the triangle: on the ground floor, the entrance with lobby and information point, the large circular council chamber of 147 m² (the valtuustosali) and the canteen with café; on the upper floors, the offices of the departments requiring spacious areas that can be adapted using modular furniture and lightweight partitions.

The structure is a steel frame (teräskehikkojärjestelmä) resting on a floating caisson foundation, the typology of foundation best suited to the ground in Kurikka. The external glazed building envelope uses high-performance triple glazing, screened by a series of larch (lehtikuusi) panels that create a variable facade and serve a dual purpose: protecting against cold winter winds and mitigating summer solar radiation, preventing glare in the workspaces. The roof, clad in aluminium sheet, houses 255 photovoltaic panels that significantly reduce the building’s energy consumption; the heating is connected to Kurikka’s district heating network (kaukolämpö), which uses locally produced renewable energy. Inside, a minimalist material palette, timber on the walls, glass in the partitions, a dominant white with splashes of colour introduced by chairs and pouffes, is complemented by dedicated acoustic solutions (carpets in large spaces such as the council chamber and meeting room, sound-absorbing panels and suspended ceilings).

Renders & Photos

Aerial view of KURIKKA-TALO, short triangle

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Technical specifications

Location: Kurikka, Southern Ostrobothnia (Etelä-Pohjanmaa), Finland, the corner of Asematie and Keskuspuistikko
Year: 2024
Client: Kurikka Town Council, public competition for the new Town Hall (kaupungintalo)
Typology: Public building, Town hall (municipal headquarters) with offices, a council chamber, a canteen, an archive and facilities for the public
Status: Concept, proposal for a public competition
Designers: Maurizio Barberio and Micaela Colella, Barberio Colella Architects
Shape and geometry: Triangular plan with rounded corners; two main facades facing Asematie and Keskuspuistikko; main entrance at the corner where the two streets meet; third side running diagonally across the site towards the public green space
Number of floors: 4 storeys above ground
Outdoor public space: A green area under a continuous roof (green roof) featuring two large, light-filled round skylights; benches, bicycle racks, a heated bus shelter; a pedestrian and cycling network; 4 parking spaces; secondary entrances
Indoor public space: A large, full-height internal courtyard enclosed by glass; a spiral staircase in the centre; at the three corners of the triangle: entrance + lobby + information point, a circular council chamber (147 m²), and a canteen with a café
Building envelope: High-performance triple glazing screened by larch (lehtikuusi) panels that create a dynamic facade, serving a dual purpose: protection from cold winter winds and mitigation of summer solar radiation and glare
Roof: Aluminium sheet with 255 photovoltaic panels
Energy: Connection to the district heating network (kaukolämpö) in Kurikka, powered by locally generated renewable energy
Interior: Key materials: timber on the walls, glass in the internal partitions, a predominantly white colour scheme with colour accents provided by chairs and pouffes; specialist acoustic treatment (carpets in large spaces such as the council chamber and meeting rooms, sound-absorbing panels and suspended ceilings)

Technical drawings

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How does one design a Town Hall that functions as a civic space, and not merely as a block of administrative offices?

Town Halls in small and medium-sized towns, in Italy as in Northern Europe, are often closed and unwelcoming buildings: blocks of offices where citizens enter only for bureaucratic procedures, carefully separated from the surrounding urban fabric. The result is a twofold loss: the community does not experience its Town Hall, and the administration loses daily contact with the people it serves. The proposal for Kurikka-talo addresses precisely this gap. The triangular plan distributes the offices along three sides, but leaves a large, full-height internal courtyard at the centre, glazed and accessible to the public. The third side opens onto a new public green space (with benches, bike racks and a heated bus stop) which the Town Hall makes available to the neighbourhood. The 147 m² circular council chamber and the canteen are designed as spaces that can host community events, not just town council meetings. The result is an administrative infrastructure that is also a part of the city.

Frequently Asked Questions

The triangular plan meets three converging needs. First: it aligns naturally with the existing urban grid (the two main facades follow Asematie and Keskuspuistikko, whilst the main entrance is situated at the corner between the two, making use of a junction already perceived as central). Second: it distributes the offices evenly along the three sides, with an efficient central corridor and a light-filled inner courtyard at the centre. Third: the three vertices of the triangle become prime locations for concentrating the most representative spaces (entrance, council chamber, canteen), a geometry that brings order to the functional programme without requiring separate blocks.

The courtyard is covered by a full-height glass roof that brings natural light to the offices arranged along the three sides of the triangle, a vital resource at a latitude such as Kurikka’s, where winter daylight hours are very few. From a thermal perspective, the glazed courtyard acts as a buffer zone, mediating between the air-conditioned interior and the cold exterior: the air in the central space can be maintained at an intermediate temperature, reducing the temperature difference across the internal glazed walls and thus heat loss. The large glazed surfaces are offset by high-performance triple glazing and external larch panels, which provide shading against cold winds and summer sun.

The steel frame meets the structural span requirements of the triangular plan with a full-height courtyard: steel allows for wide spans with small cross-sections, reducing the structural footprint in the workspaces. The floating caisson foundation is a typology suitable for soils with variable bearing capacity or saturated with water, which are common in the Ostrobothnian plains: the caisson distributes the building’s load over a wide surface area rather than concentrating it on deep piles, reducing the risk of differential settlement and adapting to the actual site conditions. It is a structurally sound choice for the context.

Traditionally, identity and energy performance are treated as separate issues: first the building is designed, then the high-performance building envelope is added. Kurikka-talo attempts to integrate them: the variable facade of larch panels serves both as an energy-saving device (summer solar shading, protection from winter winds) and an element of identity (an architecture that engages with the Finnish tradition of timber without slipping into folklore). The 255 photovoltaic panels on the roof, mounted on aluminium sheeting, drastically reduce the building’s energy consumption. The connection to Kurikka’s district heating system (powered by local renewable energy) completes the strategy. The result is a Town Hall that also serves as a manifesto for the local energy programme.

Medium-sized municipalities (Kurikka has a population of around 21,000) require administrative premises scaled to their population, yet these need not be mundane. Typical challenges include: a limited public budget, a comprehensive functional programme (in Finland, the Town Hall combines functions that in Italy would be distributed amongst the municipality, province and regional authorities), and high environmental standards (the Finnish energy standard is one of the strictest in Europe). The solution requires compact volumes, industrialised construction systems, local materials and an integrated design approach encompassing architecture, structure and services from the very earliest stages. BCA’s proposal for Kurikka-talo addresses all these aspects.

Taking part in an open public competition in a country other than one’s own is a highly valuable design exercise: it forces one to engage with a different urban, climatic and cultural context, as well as with specific building regulations and traditions. Finland has a mature architectural culture that values public competitions as a means of selecting high-quality proposals for public works. For an Italian practice such as BCA, the KURIKKATALON YLEINEN ARKKITEHTUURIKILPAILU competition is an opportunity to test ourselves against a rigorous system and to demonstrate the practice’s ability to design public buildings outside our usual context, highlighting our integrated approach to architecture, sustainability and civic engagement. ---

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