Revitalize Meri-Toppila and Climbing Over Oulu 2026
From 25–29 May 2026, AaltoSiilo was the centre of a week of workshops, events and public performances as part of the programmes Revitalize Meri-Toppila and Climbing Over Oulu. The international workshop Revitalize Meri-Toppila brought together over 100 participants from across Europe — including students, lecturers, architects, artists, local residents and community volunteers — for four days of hands-on experimentation focused on adaptive reuse, circular construction and community-led urban transformation. These events reinforce the AaltoSiilo's role in focusing the debate about sustainable building reuse and the implementation of the Oulu Protocol.
The AaltoKioski: the first spolia structure
Working within the framework of the Oulu Protocol, participants contributed to the construction of the first spolia structure conceived and designed by Charlotte Skene Catling: the AaltoKioski. Built using concrete spolia generated during the restoration of the Silo and sourced from local demolition sites — including remnants from a nearby hospital demolition — the kiosk will serve as a functional symbol of the changes that are happening in Meri-Toppila. Construction architecture students from OAMK and Sapienza University of Rome, working alongside local contractor LTM Rakennus Oy, assembled the structural elements, including four concrete columns cast on site in the weeks preceding the workshop. The kiosk is currently at 50% completion. It is the start of an ambitious project to make a complete building from spolia to house a sauna, a research centre, public spaces, rooms and studios for innovative thinkers, and an open-air cinema and theatre space.
Three renders of the AaltoKioski, made entirely from Spolia © Skene Catling de la Peña
(Left) Proof of concept of the finer grain spolia wall, one of the four different approaches to spolia in the AaltoKioski, and (right) current work on the kiosk designed by Charlotte Skene Catling © Skene Catling de la Peña
Interviewing Valentino Tignanelli (Project Manager) and Charlotte Skene Catling (Lead Architect) during the construction of the AaltoKioski © Kuvaaja Ville Honkonen Oy
Revitalize Meri-Toppila
Alongside the construction work, students from OSAO and TU Delft designed and built two eight-metre wooden benches for the interior of the Silo, using a combination of new and reclaimed materials sourced from Kiertokaari recycling centre. The benches — now protecting the Silo's ventilation system and providing seating for over 40 people — were put to immediate use by the acrobats of Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde during the closing performance.
The landscape team, led by OSAO students and coordinated by Navico Oy, activated the Silo's plot of land with garden boxes, a flower garden, a new accessible ramp and terrace, and seed bomb activities carried out together with children from the local Meri-Toppila kindergarten, who will continue to care for the garden throughout the year.
The week also hosted an official Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) through the UNIC network — a consortium of European universities of cities in post-industrial transition — bringing together PhD and advanced MA students from universities in Ireland, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Poland, France and Finland for seminars, site visits and collaborative design projects. The winning student project, A Letter to Meri-Toppila, proposed an audiovisual letter inviting local residents to respond and give voice to the neighbourhood.
The week finished with free public performances by Flow Productions and Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde as part of Climbing Over Oulu — the culmination of a three-year collaboration rooted in heritage walks through Oulu's post-industrial landscape. A procession of acrobats and dancers moved through the Aalto industrial sites from the city centre, ending at the Silo, where they performed across the building's interior and exterior, incorporating the student-built benches and spolia pieces into a closing celebration for the community. The event was attended by approximately 200 visitors, and was documented by a team of OSAO media students producing an audiovisual record of the entire week.
Collaborations, sponsorships and funding
Revitalize Meri-Toppila and Climbing Over Oulu 2026 were made possible through an extensive network of institutional collaborators, local partners, sponsors and funders.
Academic and research partners: OAMK/OUAS through the Bauhaus Go North network, the University of Oulu's Kerttu Saalasti Institute, Sapienza University of Rome, TU Delft, and the UNIC network of European universities — University College Cork, the University of Liège, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the University of Deusto, Malmö University, the University of Łódź, and Rennes 2 University. Local educational and vocational partners included OSAO vocational school.
Design and production partners: SCDLP Studio, Flow Productions, and Le Plus Petit Cirque du Monde. Construction and technical support was provided by LTM Rakennus Oy, Navico Oy, and the Arctic Construction Cluster. Institutional partners included the City of Oulu, the Museum of Oulu, Aaltosiilo Ry, Factum Foundation, and the Oulu 2026 European Capital of Culture Foundation.
Sponsors: K-Market Toppila, Kiertokaari recycling centre, and Aleniunksen Puutarha gardening supplies.
Funding: City of Oulu, Oulu 2026, the University of Applied Sciences OAMK through the Bauhaus Go North network, Factum Foundation and the University of Oulu through the Erasmus+ programme.