New School of Business going up in the heart of the Aalto University campus

The School of Business’s new building is located at the heart of the Otaniemi campus. Right in the vicinity, the School of Arts, Design and Architecture will also start operating in its new facilities in September this year, after moving from its current main location in Arabia. The new School of Business is also right next to the Aalto University metro station and the new shopping centre A Bloc.

New building brings something new while honouring the old

The faculty and staff of the School of Business will move into the new building, and the school’s master’s and doctoral teaching will be carried out there. The teaching facilities are a vast improvement on the ageing Töölö buildings. Undergraduate teaching will continue as at present in the Otaniemi Undergraduate Centre and in Mikkeli.

Although it is new, the building will exude the famous spirit of the School of Business and its interior design gets some of its inspiration from the unique solutions used in Töölö. In all stages of the new building’s design, the users have been consulted – both staff and students, and alumni as well.

The building also has working space for students as well as a restaurant and café which were named Restaurant and Wine Bar Arvo and Café Kylteri, which were the winning entries of a competition. The student that proposed the name Arvo (which means ‘value’ in Finnish) gave the following reason for their suggestion: ‘We students at the School of Business are here learning how to create value. The value is in us: it is what we must find, strengthen and protect.’

‘We wanted to choose for the café a name which represents us in Otaniemi. Kylteri (a word for a Business School student) is just that: historical and strong’, says Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning Timo Saarinen, who is also responsible for the move to the new premises.

Shared campus opens up new opportunities

The School of Business’s move to Aalto’s shared campus opens up truly new opportunities for other Aalto staff and students. Multidisciplinary studies and research are made easier when everybody is close to each other and the people get to know each other - meeting others will be easy.

'The move and the new building are really important for the school. For the first time in decades all departments will be under the same roof' says the head of the project, Perttu Kähäri.

Also from the point of view of businesses, having the School of Business in Otaniemi as an integral part of the Aalto community promotes cross-disciplinary cooperation with a broader scope than before. 'After the move the partner companies of the School of Business and other important cooperative bodies are most welcome to acquaint themselves with our new building', notes Jonna Söderholm, the Head of External Relations at the School of Business. 

Töölö main building to be renovated

The current main building of the School of Business in Töölö will continue to be owned by Aalto University. After the move, the building will be renovated. The Arkadia and Chydenia buildings on the Töölö campus have been sold and will be used for other purposes once the School of Business has moved out.

The new School of Business building was designed by Verstas Architects and it is being built by SRV.