Hot Heart

This project was named an Citation winner in the 69th Annual Progressive Architecture Awards, and was featured in the March 2022 issue of ARCHITECT.

“This may be science fiction, but you’ve got to start somewhere and this is providing a vision for the people of Helsinki of what life could be like.” — Juror Kai-Uwe Bergmann, FAIA

There are transformative green technology ideas, and then there’s Carlo Ratti Associati’s Hot Heart. With offices both in Europe and the United States, the Italian-born architect and engineer decided to train his multidisciplinary practice on a singularly daunting problem: how to provide a zero-carbon heat source for one the world’s coldest capitals. The city in question is Helsinki, where the challenge is made all the more vexing by Finland’s traditional reliance on coal-fueled power plants, their heated runoff water traditionally used to keep residents warm during the lengthy subzero winters. To cut this Gordian knot, Ratti and company have devised a suitably ambitious infrastructural sword: a series of lily pad-esque, glass-topped domes, each as wide as two football fields, set afloat off the city’s waterfront. There, they would serve to trap thermal energy produced by seawater heat pumps as well as wind and solar installations, banking it for subsequent circulation throughout Helsinki’s civic heating network. Not content to only solve a pressing global problem, the designers go a step further, proposing to install verdant natural parks within the greenhouse-like enclosures, opening them to visitors as otherworldly, eco-futurist tourist attractions.

PROJECT CREDITS
Project: Hot Heart, Helsinki, Finland
Design: Carlo Ratti Associati. Carlo Ratti, James Schrader (Project Manager), Alberto Benetti, Federica Busani, Rui Guan, Stephanie Lee, Juan Carlos Romero and Chenyu Xu
General Engineering: Ramboll. Mika Kovanen, Kreetta Manninen
Climate Engineering: Transsolar. Monika Schulz, Thomas Auer
Demand Management Engineering: Danfoss Leanheat. Oddgeir Gudmundsson, Jukka Aho, Juho Nermes,
Lauri Leppä, Nico Klecka
Technology Partner for Sustainability and Energy Efficiency: Schneider Electric. Jani Vahvanen
Financial Analysis: OP Financial Group
Lightweight Structural Engineering: schlaich bergermann. Mike Schlaich, Boris Reyher
Communications Partner: Squint/Opera
Renderings by CRA graphic team: Gary di Silvio, Pasquale Milieri, Gianluca Zimbardi
Video by Squint/Opera