Construction A terraced house is being built in Helsinki’s new wooden house area, which is hand-carved and looks a hundred years old – each apartment has a small log cabin

Bricklayer Ville Korhonen assembles the steep chimney of a brick stone in the middle of a deserted townhouse. Masonry of a tower-like structure for a fireplace and ventilation is a millimeter job.

In the new wooden house area of ​​Helsinki, Honkasuo, an ecological terraced house is being built, which is created by several professionals. An ensemble consisting of seven individual log frames is rare in Finland.

Each 225 millimeter thick log is matched by hand carving.

The building is distinguished from a terraced house made of traditional log by the fact that each apartment has its own water roof and a gap of 50 mils between them. This prevents footsteps from being carried from one apartment to another.

In principle, the flats could be moved one by one or the logs removed and reused.

Log house built by an architect Minna Aarnion and civil engineer Jukka Reinikainen construction agency Aarre.

The couple, who specialize in renovation, say they have put not only all their skills but all their assets into the project.

The idea originated from the climate crisis and construction emissions. The actual revival took place after Aarnio had read the IPCC report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2018.

More than a third of Finland’s greenhouse gas emissions come from construction and buildings. They accelerate global warming more than motoring.

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“I told Juka that we need to do something. We cannot continue to build as before. ” – Minna Aarnio

“I told Jukka that we need to do something. We cannot continue to build as before, ”says Aarnio.

In a house project Efforts have been made to reduce the carbon footprint of construction and building use in various ways. Domestic solid wood, pine and spruce have been chosen as the building material, which absorbs and stores carbon dioxide.

The trees come from Ähtäri and Kangasniemi, and they are carved in Kuortane.

In addition, the property utilizes renewable energy, for example through solar power plants and air source heat pumps. The terraced house will be built in the best A-energy class.

The light partitions, chimney and fireplace of the apartments will have moisture-binding clay plaster, and the lower and upper floors will have chemical-free cutter insulation. The insulation is made of surplus wood from the sawmill industry.

Construction Honkasuo started on May Day and will last at least a year. The last of the log frames will come to the site in January.

“There’s still a long stretch of handicraft here,” says Aarnio.

The apartments will not be sold until all the buildings of the housing association have been approved for use by the building inspectorate. Housing prices and final construction costs are still transparent.

According to Aarnio, curious interviewers have already visited the site. That’s not surprising: the city rarely sees new log houses that suddenly look a hundred years old when viewed from the outside.

The city authorities initially wondered whether the log should be hidden behind the board upholstery, Aarnio says. However, this was not done because it would have lowered the energy rating of the building.

“The board upholstery would have prevented the storage of solar heat in the solid structure.”

When talking about the project, Aarnio uses the term “wood brutalism”. He explains:

“Our architecture is submissive to what technology and materials require. For example, the roof angle comes from what is optimal for solar power plants. ”

The width of the apartment, on the other hand, is determined by the length of the log, which is more than eight meters.

There are two floors, because in three-storey wooden houses, fire regulations are, according to Aarnio, too tight.

“Then there should be a sprinkler system, which is at odds with the long-term sustainability of the building. If there is a fault in the system, it would wet the entire wooden building. ”

However, Aarnio is pleased with the cooperation with the authorities.

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“Everything just talks, but pretty little in the end nothing is really done.” – Minna Aarnio

“It has been easy for their people because they understand that purpose. Helsinki has ambitious carbon targets, and they know that the city alone will not be able to achieve them. ”

Helsinki aims to be carbon neutral by 2035 at the latest. One way to do this is in residential areas like Honkasuo, which the city has zoned for wood construction.

Admittedly, the formula also determines something else: each apartment must stand out with its own color. The terraced house under construction gets its surface in yellow, red, green, orange and gray cooking paint.

“At first I thought there aren’t enough shades of cooking paint, but from the lovely paint factory in Hanko – oh how cute – the old gentleman said how many there are. Then he cooked us green paint. ”

From within the apartments are still badly in progress. Plywood that sags underfoot will later be replaced with plank floors. The log walls remain bare.

The living space will be less than 80 square meters, rooms from three to four.

Only half of the second floor will be built, making the living room two storeys high. Future owners can choose to continue the second floor themselves. In this case, the apartment will have two additional rooms and the squares will grow to one hundred.

Each apartment has a 13-square-meter courtyard building, which Aarnio calls a “cottage”.

“It can even be used as a warehouse or telecommuting space. Or a moaning teenager can make music there. ”

Next to the “cottages” there is a heated courtyard sauna, which is shared by the residents.

Will log houses continue in the future?

“Well, let’s see if we can figure this out alive,” Aarnio says.

“It was important to me that at least this is built, because everything just talks, but quite a bit in the end, really nothing is done.”

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