Skatta Hotel

The new Skatta Hotel building adapts to the rough urban structure of Helsinki’s second oldest city harbour area, which was founded in 1878 when the South Harbour was expanded into Katajanokka. The environs include new buildings, the Finnish Film Foundation in the remaining part of an original port warehouse, and Wanha Satama, a listed port building converted to a conference centre. To blend in with the old port buildings, the main material of the hotel’s facade is burnt clay brick in reddish tones. The new building also complements the urban structure of the area with architecture characteristic of the site and enlivens the intersection at the border of the ship terminal and the warehouse blocks.

The hotel has 5 above-ground floors. The roomy public ground floor houses a restaurant, co-working spaces and the reception area, and the upper floors are reserved for hotel rooms of different sizes. We paid special attention to the openness of the ground floor and the activation of the surrounding street space. As a 500-car parking facility will be built under Katajanokka, a driving ramp is integrated into the hotel building mass in order to minimize the impact on the existing urban space. Since the plot is located within a flood risk area, we paid attention to moisture management and flood protection, and a green roof will be used to collect and control rainwater. Adequate sound insulation will mitigate the low frequency noise from the adjacent port area.