2027, Helsinki

Café Ursula

A wooden new building for a traditional seaside café

6 images

Design team

Pauli Siponen (principal designer), Severi Hellstén, Anne Landsdorff, Saara Savolainen, Heini Kilmer, Laura Karhunen

Floor area

800 m²

Collaborators

Tradeka, Catedral Group Oy

Next year, Kaivopuisto’s shoreline will gain a new wooden landmark when the renewed Cafe Ursula opens on the site of a café building originally completed in 1952 and subsequently altered and extended many times. We won the invited competition for the building in early summer 2024, after which the design of the new café has progressed rapidly.

The design of the new wooden building respects the old Cafe Ursula. Alongside the original form, the building draws inspiration from Japanese wood architecture and coastal rocks. The new building has been designed to be approximately one third larger than the old one in both floor area and customer capacity.

When completed, the building will continue the line of high-quality contemporary architecture along Helsinki’s shoreline, alongside Löyly, Katajanokka Pier and the future Museum of Architecture and Design.