Arkkitehdit Oy from Oulu and Arkkitehtitoimisto Jääskeläinen Oy from Seinäjoki are responsible for the principal and architectural design.
What is your role in the Kokkola Sports Park alliance?
I’m the alliance’s expert in sports construction with my wide range of knowledge and skills. We have solid experience in constructing sports facilities: our office has designed venues such as IKH-Areena in Kauhajoki and OmaSp Stadium in Seinäjoki. Kokkola Sports Park is actually a combination of these projects. We’re joining forces with UKI Architects as they have experience in building ice rinks.
How do you find working in an alliance?
The strength of an alliance is cooperation. We’re joining forces with UKI Architects to combine our experience and expertise. We’ve found common ground in a very short space of time, and I would say that our collaboration with UKI Architects and everyone else involved in the alliance is smooth. Of course, I’m not the only one from our company involved in this. Every member of our staff is working hard on this project and plays a huge role. Timo (Timo Sivula, CEO of Kokkola Sports Park) has done a large amount of background work and gathered valuable information that has been very useful to all of us.
How is working in an alliance different from your previous projects?
This is our first alliance and I can say that we are very enthusiastic about it. I firmly believe that this is the future of construction and, on the whole, this is a very interesting model of cooperation. I’ve explained this model to our staff as very few projects such as this have been carried out in Ostrobothnia to date. UKI Architects, on the other hand, have long experience in alliance projects, and it’s very useful to work with them. I think that the alliance model requires a large-scale site, such as Kokkola Sports Park. That’s when you get the most out of the alliance, which actually means working together.
Have there been any challenges?
Budgeting is always challenging, which is normal in large projects. But I think that if the extensive knowledge that we have in our team does not make this project happen, then what will? The whole team is incredibly motivated and we all pull together. It’s great to work with a team that is so committed to what we’re doing!
Could you tell us a bit more about your company?
We’re a family-owned company, and this is our 50th year in business. My father started this company back in the day, and we have since been involved in many things: constructing residential buildings, hospitals, industrial buildings, supermarkets, parish facilities, just to name a few areas. We have 10 employees, and I’ve been here for 30 years. The company and entrepreneurial activities have always been the most important thing for us, and I slept countless nights on the drawers in my father’s office when I was a child. So the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, and even my eldest son just qualified as an architect. He’s working for someone else now, but perhaps he’ll follow in his father’s footsteps one day.
