The Meri-Rastila multi-purpose building will receive a partly new look in the coming years as the City renovates, demolishes and expands the existing facilities. The multi-purpose building will serve as a vibrant hub for the whole area, with plenty of facilities available for residents to use.
In the renovated premises, the same activities will continue as before, namely the comprehensive school, the daycare centre and the youth centre. The building entity will also include indoor playground facilities, a community centre that is always open to all and home care break rooms. Helsinki’s community houses are activity centres and meeting places that are open to all residents without registration or reservation.
Services to be relocated to larger premises
The buildings will include, e.g. larger school facilities, larger daycare facilities and a full-size gymnasium that can be divided into three sections.
The Jaluspolku site of the Merilahti Comprehensive School will be renovated and extended for 300 pupils of grades 1–4. The renovation and extension will take into account the fact that the premises must have the option to be extended into a single comprehensive school at a later date.
Extensions will be built in various parts of the block to provide new facilities for the daycare centre, indoor facilities for the playground, community house facilities, home care break rooms, and a new, much larger sports hall. The school's former sports hall will be converted into a canteen. The new youth centre will be built in the former chapel building. The building will be extended with a small multi-purpose hall, which will also be used by early childhood education.
There will be around 250 places for daycare children. In addition to the Finnish-language daycare centre, there will be a Swedish-language daycare centre in the multi-purpose building. Both the daycare centre and the school playgrounds will form a harmonious entity with the adjacent Haruspuisto park. Even if new buildings are built on the site, the aim is to save as many of the existing trees as possible. Old play equipment, such as the boat in the play area, will also be repaired and preserved.
Multi-purpose building to be redesigned on the basis of the winning architectural competition proposal
The City organised an architectural competition for the design of the building between 2023 and 2024. The aim of the competition was to determine how well the existing buildings could be utilised and preserved as part of the very demanding facility programme. According to the jury, the winning design, which combines old and new elements, has references to Japanese wooden architecture and 1920s Nordic classicism.
The architects of the winning proposal are Matias Kotilainen, Tuomas Martinsaari and Paul Thynell from Arkkitehtitoimisto Opus Oy. The courtyard design is the work of Landscape Architect Satu Siltanen from Maisema-arkkitehtitoimisto Kokoma.
The City of Helsinki will also involve the residents of the area in various workshops to ensure that the end result is as characteristic of Meri-Rastila as possible.
Services to move to temporary facilities by summer 2027
The contractor for the multi-purpose building will be selected in summer 2026. Pre-construction and demolition on the site is scheduled to start in early 2027, with operations in the renovated multi-purpose building starting in August 2029.
The construction work will require all the services of the multi-purpose building to be moved to temporary facilities.
- The comprehensive school will move to the temporary pavilion (Lohikäärmeenpolku 5) after the 2027 spring term.
- Daycare Merirasti will move to Harbonkatu 8 during the 2026 Christmas holidays.
- Other services in the block will end on 31 December 2026. The nearest youth centres are Kallahti Youth Centre (Pohjavedenkatu 5) and Ungdomsgården Rastis (Ulapparaitti 6).
The project plan for the Meri-Rastila multi-purpose building was approved by the Helsinki City Council on 4 February 2026.
The page can also be found at: hel.fi/meri-rastilan-monitoimitalo