Young Finnish architect to design a Viewpoint

The Finnish Institute in London and the Architecture Foundation with the London Wildlife Trust are appointing a Finnish architect to produce a permanent Viewpoint structure in the heart of London.

The Viewpoint will be built and launched in 2014. The structure will be designed to serve as a viewing platform for the London Wildlife Trust's Camley Street Natural Park overlooking Regent's canal. The Camley Street Natural Park sees 30.000 visitors a year, offering an invaluable study centre for many local London schools. Viewpoint's floating structure will allow the London Wildlife Trust to expand their educational remit to examine the canal and its associated wildlife.

Three Finnish architectural teams have been invited to submit a proposal for the Camley Street Viewpoint. They are Erkko Aarti & Arto Ollila, Esa Ruskeepää Architects and Heikki Muntola & Toni Österlund. The Finnish Institute and the Architecture Foundation in collaboration with the London Wildlife Trust will commission one of the three to design the Viewpoint. The winner will be announced in the beginning of January 2013.

The three teams competing for the commission were selected from a long list of eight practices nominated by Finnish architects Ville Hara (Avanto Architects), Vesa Oiva (Anttinen-Oiva Architects) and Samuli Woolston (ALA Architects). In early 2012 all three nominators took part in the New Architects: Finland_UK exchange programme curated by the Finnish Institute, The Architecture Foundation and the Museum of Finnish Architecture.

"With this collaboration, we want to help to introduce more Londoners to the vital co-existence of nature and the city. We hope that the viewpoint will become a proud London landmark," says Hanna Harris, programme director for Arts & Culture at the Finnish Institute in London.

More information on the commissioning partners:

Arcitecture Foundation
http://www.architecturefoundation.org.uk

London Wildlife Trust
http://www.wildlondon.org.uk

More information on the shortlisted architects:

Esa Ruskeepää (ERA)
http://www.era.fi

Heikki Muntola & Toni Österlund
http://www.heikkimuntola.fi
http://www.osterlund-ark.fi

Erkko Aarti & Arto Ollila
http://www.erkkoaarti.fi
http://www.artoollila.fi