As Oy Tampereen Tohtori

Asunto Oy Tampereen Tohtori is a wooden apartment building with an urban look that fits into the compactly built cityscape. Tohtori was built using modular construction technology, and industrial production methods were leveraged extensively over the course of the construction process.

Located in the middle of a large block along Tieteenkatu street on the west side of Latsarus Park, the site design presented a special technical/financial challenge: industrial volumetric element construction methods needed to be reconciled with the detailed municipal construction requirements. In terms of urban landscape, the challenge was to integrate the entirely wooden residential building into a large complex made up of concrete buildings.

The building has five residential storeys with 64 apartments in addition to a basement. It is built with prefabricated volumetric elements and a balloon frame. Wood was also used for the facades, balconies, the elevator shaft and other building components.

Individual details in the building mass, and variations on window locations and facade colours make the building a lively complex that fits into its environment. The boundaries on the Tieteenkatu street side are defined by an uninterrupted fence and its associated shelters and gates. This maintains the urban look of the street and provides inhabitants with varied degrees of privacy. This arrangement also shelters the rather urban courtyard, which opens onto the adjacent park, from its surroundings. On the building’s east side, lower than the street-side facade, Tohtori settles among the blue coloured ends of the other buildings surrounding Latsarus Park.

Residents have access to a shared club room near the entrance that opens onto the street, and the top floor has a shared covered terrace that overlooks the lush park. The apartments are bright and offer views of both the adjacent park and Tieteenkatu street.

THE PROJECT IS YIT’S FIRST wooden apartment building. Built under a turnkey contract, YIT built the apartments as part of a rental housing project for the OP-Vuokratuotto (OP-Rental Yield) special investment fund. The balloon framed volumetric elements were supplied by Kodumaja from Estonia.

Volumetric element construction techniques were further developed in a number of ways during the construction phase: Not only the apartments but also the stairwell is made entirely of prefabricated volumetric elements, which meant the stairwell could be installed at the same pace as the rest of the building.

The balconies came as part of the prefabricated volumetric elements for the apartments. The methods used for the stairwells and balconies meant less work and lifting on site, which helped make the construction phase exceptionally quick. Construction began in summer 2019. The 98 volumetric elements used in the building’s five residential floors were lifted into place in eight days in February 2020. The building was completed in June 2020.

To investigate opportunities for reducing the CO2 emissions from its operations and products and to get familiar with new construction methods, YIT wanted a wooden apartment building for the Tieteenkatu street complex. With different buildings being put up in the same complex in the same conditions, the company was able to compare wood construction to concrete and traditional construction to modular.

The methods turned out to be very different. English was used in providing design guidance to the Estonian contractor, and collaboration had to be learned from scratch since the Estonian side was unfamiliar with Finnish practices. YIT sent a supervisor to the factory to monitor quality throughout the element manufacturing phase. The design phase took longer than usual, but the construction phase was swift. YIT believes that there is still room to speed things up.

The company’s next wooden apartment building will be built with products from its own wood element factory. It will be completed at the end of the year in Niemenranta, Tampere. For more information, see: https://www.yit.fi/asunnot/kestava-asuminen/puukerrostalot

Read the article in Finnish: As Oy Tampereen Tohtori