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The cylindrical building is like a cornertower in an imaginary town wall, on the south-west edge of a dense block structure. The open plot on which the building stands makes its facade equally public irrespective of whether it is approached from the direction of Helsinki city centre, or from the west, or from the north, the area of Pikku Huopalahti, a picturesque 1980s building project crowned by this building.
The McDonald's HQ houses a hamburger restaurant, a small training centre, and offices. The supporting structure and the interior of the building are set within Cartesian coordinates, around which the curving line of the continuous window of the facade provides a landscape panorama. There is an outside view from every point of the building, and each storey is open and transparent. The landscape and the site of the building are constantly present in the design. On the sunny side there is a wooden trellis fastened onto a steel structure; the wood is glued, heat-treated Thermowood spruce. This method, developed by the State Technical Research Centre, increases the weather-resistance of softwood to the level of tropical species without the use of impregnating agents.
The facade is of greenish glass and powder-painted matt-finish aluminium sheet, which is fastened with open joints on top of a weatherproof cladding.
Instead of the more usual lightweight aggregate, the flat roof is covered with crushed recycled glass.
For the restaurant, the client wanted to recreate some of the atmosphere of the 1950s and the first standardised McDonald's restaurants, designed by the architect Stanley Meston. The painting by Pekka Mannermaa on the wall celebrates the classic restaurant built in 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois. Patrons can see right through the glass walls to the kitchen, as was the custom back then, and be assured of the high level of hygiene observed in the preparation of the food. A sculpture by Kari Cavén called 'The Flight of a Bat' hangs from the ceiling, its form derived from the 1950s chair design classic, the bat chair.
The office furniture has been custom-designed for each separate working area. The table frames are of powder-painted steel, the tops of maple-coated plywood, and the storage units of varnished MDF board.
The client did not require that the design be identifiable as a McDonald's building, nor demand adherence to design manuals. The incorporation of the logo as part of the architecture and townscape originated from the sign's own graphic and formal potential. Attached to a noise wall coated with blue clinker is a six-metre M logo formed by a perforated, internally illuminated hollow structure. Its "shadow" is dimly drawn on the wooden trellis. The perception of this sign as high as the building is dependent n the viewer's movement, the weather, and the light.
MIKKO HEIKKINEN
MARKKU KOMONEN
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