5.8.2020

Laamanninpolku 10 –14 Housing Association

The trio of four-storey wooden houses is bound to one another by a band of wooden fencing. The supporting structure of the buildings is concrete, the facades are wooden. The cladding is painted in traditional Finnish ochres of earthy red and yellow.

The red ochre colour scheme is offset by yellow painted lower sections and amber-stained trellises. The footings and subsurface garage are sheathed in granite. The third floor of each building is recessed, bringing lightness to an otherwise heavily framed structure.

The apartments were designed to be small and to afford to as many as possible a view over the new wooden town in the direction of Porvoo River. The buildings’ traditional window openings are supplemented with glazed balconies.

Together, the buildings and the adjoining wooden fence interlink to create a pleasant, communal courtyard area. In terms of scale, the fourstorey wooden houses act as an effective mediator between the two-storey buildings of the wooden town and the older concrete apartment blocks on the west side of town. It will be fascinating to see how Porvoo’s new wooden town will develop in years to come.

Project in brief

Laamanninpolku 10 –14 Housing Association

  • Location | Porvoo
  • Purpose | Residential building
  • Constructor/Client | Matti Keskinen, AW-INSTO Oy
  • Valmistumisvuosi | 2005
  • Architectural Design | Sami Ekman, Arkkitehtikonttori Vainio & Ekman Oy
  • Structural design | Martti Helino and Saila Asumaniemi, A-Insinöörit Oy
  • Pääurakoitsija | Lauri Kuusinen and Jan Viitala, AW-Rakennus Oy
  • Photographs | Kimmo Räisänen
  • Text | Sami Ekman