Lohja is a town of some 36 000 inhabitants not far from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. In the south the Hiidensalmi area borders on the centre of Lohja and in the north, via the Hiidensalmi Bridge, on the town district of Routio. Hiidensalmi has for a long time been an industrial area, and soil pollution caused by industrial activity has prevented its development. However, both in terms of function and location the area is in the best direction for the centre’s organic expansion. The aim of the architectural competition was to devise an entity that would be implemented within a time span of 10-15 years.

It is the wish of the organizers to make Hiidensalmi, on the one hand, an efficiently developed area and on the other an extension of the town centre while respecting natural values, making use of the possibilities offered by the new western approach road and embodying the interplay between a natural and an urban environment. The aim of the competition was to find a functional basic concept for building an innovative new town district. The area was to become an entity that had an identity of its own and reflected its industrial heritage, combining the architecture of high quality, preservation of the historically valuable building stock and the natural environment with the principles of sustainable development.