Awaken, My Love!

Abstract: After recieving the diplomas from the idea competition win together with two colleagues nothing really happened in the Granite Castle in Itäsatama, Hanko. Some makeshift flea markets and coffee booths were put in the empty shell of the previous granite quarry but in the greater scale it remained a shadow from its former past. Hanko’s unequable tourist season concentrates during peak summer leaving the city with unoperated businesses the rest of the year. In the digital era the city need a public living room - a social platform for people to meet and interact - year round. The city is not only molded around the temporal tourist. I wanted to take advantage of this unique possibility to feedback and explore the potentials we had in our winning proposal. Why did our proposal win and how should the area be developed a posteriori? How would a transformation and redefinition of a 130-year old building be redeveloped and be adapted to the present society? How are the boundaries between public and private, non- profit and commercial activity considered in the sense of availability? This thesis project aims to explore the site deeper with its history and culture and combine it with theory of how good social public domains and architecture could be weaved in to the city fabric to create a prosperous community for today and tomorrow.