Living spaces, cities and regions shaping the built environment for everyone : AaltoSiilo : peer-learning visit report

Oulu is the largest city in Northern Finland with over 210.000 inhabitants. Oulu has been selected as the European Capital of Culture 2026, with mission to activate 'Cultural Climate Change', focused on inclusive, sustainable approaches to city development. The name of the city originates from the indigenous Sámi language and translates to melted snow or floodwater. For centuries, the city has built on its distinctive cultural roots to become a key centre for industry, commerce, culture and education. Oulu today is a meeting point for different cultures and a city in transition from its traditional industries such as paper, tar and cellulose (based on resources such as water and forestry), to a knowledge-intensive and creative city with strengths in engineering, technology and knowledge-intensive activities. The AaltoSiilo (a cathedral-like concrete silo for wood chip) is one of a number of industrial heritage resources across Oulu, a monument to a different industrial age. However, it is recognised as of particular architectural significance because it is part of the first industrial complex designed (in 1931) by renowned Finnish architect Alvo Aalto and Aino Marsio Aalto: the sulphite cellulose factory Toppila Oy. This silo building operated for several decades but closed in 1985 leaving behind a scarred industrial landscape 2 km from the city centre, isolated and neglected. This is in the context of the Meri-Toppila district, which by the 1990s had a growing residential population, but was struggling with a set of socio-economic challenges, isolated from the rest of the city and facing neglect and marginalisation. For the Living Spaces peer-learning visit, the AaltoSiilo was positioned as the main case study for a group of 17 European peers selected through a call for participants in the context of Living Spaces.