Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2016 | Page 45

Photo: Esa Ahdevaara / GSS Lucky-Design

as a Service’ (BaaS), where you focus on
service and activity instead of bricks and
mortar. Aalto, with its real estate assets and
research prowess, is in a unique position to
push BaaS onward.

Face the Future
There are already signals out here that something like BaaS could well be the way of the
future. In the USA, for instance, the amount
of people who are using co-working solutions has hit 3.5 million.
“That figure has actually doubled
every year since 2006,” Ahlava reveals.
When people opt for cost-effective, modern
space, they increasingly choose co-working.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg: Ahlava
believes that in the next phase, companies
will fully embrace BaaS and it will become
a permanent part of their operative strategy.
“This is the more radical step, since it
involves re-evaluating each and every part of
the company’s operations. Once that is done,
however, there’s so much you can achieve.”

Open Up the Campus

(From left to right) Antti Tuomela,
Managing Director for ACRE and
Antti Ahlava, Vice President at Aalto
University.
little – but the corporate angle here is this:
the University has an extra 100,000 square
metres that it’s leasing out. Already, clusters
are being born: bio, health, design, media,
games, Industrial Internet…birds of the
feather do flock together, and there’s versatile space here to make it happen.
“We want to introduce a little bit of disruption into real estate development – you
don’t always have to do things the same old
way,” Ahlava says. What the Vice President
has in mind is a concept called ‘Building

Traditionally, in academic campuses, there
are areas which are accessible and those that
are off-limits – and Ahlava and Tuomela feel
that, in the past, those STOP signs have gone
up way too easily. In a modern campus, you
could have floor-level access to just about
any building on campus – if extra security is
needed, for instance, the upper floors could
be deployed for that purpose. The two Anttis
question the need for excessive restrictions,
since innovations rarely grow in a vacuum.
“This change is not something we aim
to do one building at a time; it is the entire
campus environment that needs to be finetuned to fit this concept,” Ahlava says.
According to Ahlava, the evolution
of buildings has advanced from industrial buildings to smart buildings – but the
“human” aspect of it all is still largely unexplored.
“With ‘Human Buildings’, we have a
situation where people are co-creating value
in the real estate context.”

Rock the Factory
A great example of this is Aalto’s Design
Factory concept. Antti Tuomela points out
that Design Factory, located on campus, has
become the “place to be” on the strength of
the ideas brimming within the factory walls.
“It’s the content and the whole ideology which resonates very strongly with
students, companies and also the international visitors – and that buzz keeps attracting more and more people.”
Add to this, the fact that Aalto University almost singlehandedly launched the new
“Startup Era” in Finland; now, entrepreneurs

are the “new rock stars” and the talk around
the campus is decidedly business-minded.
“We have students here that are not
afraid to push the envelope and they are
challenging also us to keep innovating,”
Tuomela says, while sounding not one bit
disappointed.

Campus on the Move
A key component in the upcoming plans is
the new metro station – to be launched in
August 2016 – which connects the Otaniemi
Campus to downtown Helsinki, and beyond.
And as the university is pulling all the stops
to create a world-class campus, there will
be an ambitious hallmark building leading
the way. Having won a tough international
architectural contest, the competition entry
Väre (designed by Finnish agency Verstas
Architects) provides the unique solution
the university was looking for all along –
emphasising interaction and true dialogue
in an unprecedented way.
In addition to the new building – which
will open its doors in 2018 – there will be a
small shopping centre (7,000 sqm), as well,
linking with the metro station. Ahlava and
Tuomela point out that the university is committed to raising new buildings as well as
upgrading existing assets. With regards to
rental premises, Tuomela promises that the
real estate portfolio will be “aggressively
developed”.
“We are looking to realise premises
that really boost companies’ business,”
Tuomela says, while adding that the university is also in search of quality partners
to ensure the best possible outcome.

Living It Up
A big part of this emerging ecosystem is
the residential element. According to the
plans, Otaniemi could encompass as much
as 75,000 square metres of residential space
in the coming years.
“We have room for 10,000 residents
here,” Tuomela confirms.
Ahlava and Tuomela believe that combining the academic, corporate and residential is also something that the old maestro,
Alvar Aalto himself, would have appreciated.
“We have both versatility and flexibility here – all located in a beautiful setting
close to the nature,” Ahlava says.
Aalto wants to “go green” in environmental issues, as well. The campus has its
own Smart Traffic Programme and an experimental geo-thermal superheating system