Soukka metro station

Since the completion of the second leg of the western extension of the Helsinki metro in 2022, the metro line has continued all the way to Kivenlahti, the westernmost suburb of Espoo. The metro now serves approximately 170,000 passengers per day. The first construction phase, a 14-kilometer-long underground rail line from Ruoholahti to Matinkylä with eight new stations opened to traffic already in November 2017. Of those stations, ALA designed the ones in Keilaniemi and at the Aalto University campus in Otaniemi.

The second construction phase of the extension, the Matinkylä–Kivenlahti stretch, consists of five stations along a 7-kilometer-long metro route. ALA has designed the Soukka, Espoonlahti and Kivenlahti stations. The excavation of the metro tunnels began in late 2014 and the construction of the stations in 2016. Construction work was completed in May 2022 and metro traffic between Matinkylä and Kivenlahti started in December 2022. The metro runs in a tunnel also for this entire section.

The Soukka neighborhood in Espoo is like a 60’s utopia – a symbiosis of nature and modern technocracy centered around skywalks and deck structures. The themes defining the design of the Soukka station are modernism, punctuality and sharpness. The two entrance pavilions are unfaltering – every nook and corner is razor-sharp and every surface paper-thin. Following modernist traditions, the surfaces have colors, but lack material feel. The subdued tones are contemporary and unabashedly trendy. As the station ages it will become a relic of the 2020’s.