18.8.2020

Huvitus housing

Huvitus is a terrace of 3-storey townhouses built in timber, where the dwellings are all completely separate, single-family units. The development is an alternative to the traditional Finnish detached house.

The site is on a pine-clad hillside where there is a difference of one storey between the street and the courtyard gardens. The houses are set on the northern edge of the site following the curve of Omenamäenkatu. The houses are 3-storey on the street side and 2-storey on the garden side. Each of the south-facing gardens is bounded by a sauna building belonging to the house.

The houses, which are timber framed with concrete ground-floor/basements, were built from prefabricated units. The top two floors are also in timber and the pitched roof is clad in bituminous felt. The laminated timber beams used for the floors were left visible to give the feeling of a wooden building.

The external cladding is in 28-mm vertical boarding treated with a dark tar-based paint, while the horizontal panels are treated with a light tarbased paint. Balconies and other details are in red laminate.

Each house is 144 m², plus sauna, basement store room and garage. There is a conservatory linked to the kitchen on the garden side.

Project in brief

Huvitus housing

  • Location | Vuosaari, Helsinki
  • Purpose | Residential building
  • Constructor/Client | Helsingin asuntotuotantotoimisto
  • Total area | 1 986 m2
  • Volume | 7 950 m3
  • Architectural Design | Kirsi Korhonen and Mika Penttinen Architects
  • Structural design | Insinööritoimisto Ylimäki & Tinkanen Oy
  • Pääurakoitsija | Skanska Talonrakennus Oy
  • Photographs | Kimmo Räisänen
  • Text | Kirsi Korhonen and Mika Penttinen