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Apartments • Helsinki, Finland Architects: ARK-house Architects

Area Area of this architecture project Area: 5800 m²

Year Completion year of this architecture project Year: 2012

Photographs photographs: Tiia Ettala

The building site is located in Vuosaari, the most eastern suburb of Helsinki in Finland. The site is characterized by the new artificial canal and its circular pool, which creates the ending and the new focus for the architectural composition of the area. The building site is located on the edge of the built environment, from the other side it faces the almost untouched virgin landscape dominated by dark fir forest.



The program consists of modest sized rental housing units enjoying long vistas along the canal and towards the forest. In section the building is terraced in order to create light atmosphere and to enrich the housing typology. The outdoor balconies are playing an important role in the whole. Some of the flats are occupying two balconies looking into different directions and lighting conditions. On the Northern façade the most characterizing feature is the chess-like composition by cantilevered balconies and the entrance areas.

The visual trick in order to obscure the scale has been created by composing four different balconies into one huge unit. Each of these elements has been treated with vibrant colours giving different identity for each of them. Inside the boxes the colours range from strong reds and purples into more diffused greens. The entrance areas with their canopies mimic the balcony elements completing the chess-like composition. Rest of the façade has been treated calmly by white plastering and quite rigid window openings. The inner elevation maximizes the light by using different whites and corrugated aluminium panels.