Vuores Kuusikko

Vuores Kuusikko is a complex with six wooden apartment buildings in the Isokuusi neighborhood of Tampere’s Vuores district. Nestled in the northern part of Vuores, Isokuusi has a cohesive architectural design and is built using wood. Kuusikko extends across two plots and was completed in the spring of 2022.

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The site has a total of six wooden apartment buildings on two adjacent plots with connected wooden storage units and a sauna in the yard. There are also three wooden carports, and a concrete, partly underground, parking facility. The residential buildings vary in height, ranging from four to six storeys. A dual-pitched gable roof gives the six building complex a uniform look. As called for by the municipal zoning plan, the residential buildings have been given the feel of a perimeter block with the addition of pergolas and the connected storage units in the yard.

Nestled in the northern part of Vuores in Tampere, Isokuusi is an area built using wood, with its residential and commercial buildings and bridges tied together with a cohesive architectural design. The facades in the area feature wood quite extensively and are created with large elements. The residential buildings are mainly clad with horizontal wooden panels painted in different shades. Meanwhile, the ground floors and the storage units have vertical wooden relief panels for effect. Subdued, natural shades of green and brown were chosen for the facades, which have a colour scheme reminiscent of spruce forests. The balconies are clad with vertical slat motifs that also add a little flair to the facades.

The apartments have plenty of natural light, and almost all have a spacious balcony. Indoors, wood surfaces have been left visible whenever fire safety regulations have allowed, including in the wooden steps of the stairwell.

Two of the buildings in the complex have basements made from concrete. These sturdy facilities house the civil defence shelters and utility rooms, and the parking structure is also made from concrete. There are a total of 195 apartments, varying in size from 28 m² studios to 80 m² three bedroom homes. Once complete, the complex will be Finland’s largest wooden apartment building project in terms of floor area. One of the two plots has a floor area of 7,951 m² and the other is 6,422 m², resulting in a total of 14,373 m². The complex includes right-of-occupancy apartments and standard rental apartments.

The site also hosts artworks from Design Alonen called Ikimetsä and Jatkumo. The spruce cone-shaped Jatkumo has been integrated into the facade of one of the buildings and is illuminated. Ikimetsä’s “evergreen trees” are made from corten steel and adorn the northeast corner of the plot.

Technical solutions

The large wooden frame elements and the load-bearing wooden partitioning wall elements were manufactured in Heinola. Kerto-Ripa slabs were used for the intermediate floors, whereas the elevator shaft, balcony frames and balcony tiles were built on site from CLT. The stairs in the stairwell are also solid wood. The storage units in the yard have wooden frames, roof elements and roof structures.

The basements are constructed from concrete elements, and the shared parking facility is also concrete. The foundations and subfloor are concrete, and are either a floor cast on the ground or a ventilated hollow slab subfloor.

To ensure fire safety, both the residential apartment buildings and the storage units connected to them have a water mist sprinkler system. The ground floor facades and the balcony back walls have been treated with fire retardant.

Each apartment also has its own service panel that can be accessed from the stairwell.

Construction project

The project was built on two adjacent plots rented from the City of Tampere. Both developers, A-Kruunu Oy and TA-Asumisoikeus Oy, have shares on both plots. The two owners have agreed on joint arrangements for the properties and the plots have been divided up with shared management agreements.

Three residential buildings in the complex are owned by TA-Asumisoikeus Oy (Honkakuusenkatu 5, house A and Aihkinkatu 6, houses B and C) and three are owned by A-Kruunu Oy (Honkakuusenkatu 5, houses B and C and Aihkinkatu 6, house A). The parking facility at Honkakuusenkatu 5 is jointly owned and operated.

Planning for the site began in spring 2019, with the building permit being granted in May 2020 and construction starting in summer 2020. The residential buildings were completed in stages: the first building was ready in summer 2021 and the last in spring 2022.

The project was completed under a turnkey contract overseen by Arkta Rakennus Oy. The basic floor plan for the apartment buildings is the same in each building, which allowed the contractors to improve their working methods as the project progressed. The repetitive floor plans simplified element design and other specialised design phases, resulting in savings and cost benefits. All the residential buildings were built under weather protection, which added its own challenges to the progress and working methods of the construction work.

CREDITS

Arkworks Architects is an architecture office founded in 2017. Ecological, social, functional and economical principles guide our analysis, development, and design work – that we conduct in intense collaboration with our clients. We’ve gathered extensive experience ranging from large scale urban planning to intricate permit procedures and we are deeply committed to our work with passion, professionalism and efficiency. We specialize in urban design and residential architecture, wood construction and low energy/passive house solutions. Our projects are always BIM-modeled and visualized vividly. We’ve been active in developing design practices, new building methods and products, conceptualizing and experimental construction. Mika Ukkonen, CEO in the picture.