New construction efficiency goals often lead to impractical layouts that do not meet the needs of the residents.
This is the opinion of a research doctor familiar with housing planning Jyrki Tarpio from the University of Tampere.
He takes, for example, the two-bedroom apartments that have become common in new developments, which have a kitchenette and a small bedroom that can fit a double bed, but not much else.
The bedroom is accessed through two doorways, between which there is a place for a bed. You go to the other side of the bed through a different door, because in a cramped space you can’t go around the bed.
According to Tarpio, the problem is that in a strictly dimensioned apartment, the space works when it is furnished as planned. However, the designer cannot know how the resident would actually like to use the space.
This leads to situations where, for example, an unusual table or sofa in the living room will not fit in the new apartment.
This article is illustrated with floor plans of well-known construction companies. However, Tarpio emphasizes that he is talking about problems on a general level.
Read more: Smaller and smaller apartments are being built for Finns. In the future, it may have unpleasant consequences.
In a typical two-bedroom apartment for new destinations, the bedroom can fit just a bed, which can be moved to different sides through its own doorways. The floor plan is a 41.5 square meter two-bedroom apartment in Kaarela.
Furnishing inconvenience is only one problem in new apartments. The second is the inflexibility of housing foundations for different life situations.
According to Tarpio, the reason behind poor layouts is often that developers try to build as many apartments as possible in one apartment building.
“Increasingly, houses have started to be built where there are more apartments on one floor than before in one stairwell. It becomes a geometric problem.”
Maximizing the number of apartments produces, for example, floor plans where the entrance is in the corner and the apartment has a lot of space to pass through. In new apartments, you usually have to walk through the open kitchen and living room, which means that they turn from living spaces into traffic spaces, Tarpio describes.
Research doctor Jyrki Tarpio.
According to him, there would be no problem if there were, for example, four apartments instead of eight on one floor level. Then the apartments could be designed in such a way that the entrance is in the middle and every room can be accessed from the hall.
This is a familiar solution from, for example, apartments from the 1950s to the 1970s. In them, according to Tarpio, the surface area can be used more freely for new projects.
Why So many apartments are crammed into the same floor?
Because it is cost-effective, says Tarpio. Staircases are expensive square meters, and elevators also cost a lot.
“The fewer elevators and stairwells there are, the more living space can be created. Of course, the grinder wants more surface area for sale.”
This is an architect and phenomenon builder working at the construction company Fira Tero Vanhanen in my opinion, it is only part of a phenomenon known in the field.
According to him, low-quality compromises have to be made in apartment construction, also because of detailed site plans and residents’ willingness to pay.
Architect Tero Vanhanen.
According to an old estimate, it can cost up to twenty percent more to build a detached house with three apartments on the landing than a house with several apartments on the same floor.
“Läätalo’s bright apartments are unfortunately beyond the reach of many people’s ability to pay and can put the project on hold. Construction companies reach an annual profit of a few percent, so all housing quality goals cannot be reached with current costs.”
Functional ones according to Tarpio, it would be possible to build apartments in such a way that the costs would remain reasonable.
He takes, for example, a project called Køge Kyst in Denmark near Copenhagen: there it has been possible to implement new developments in blocks of flats with a few apartments per floor.
“They have caused it to be in a bad way in terms of costs. One factor may be that there are narrower staircases and thus smaller stairwells than in Finland.”
The 80-square-meter triangle in Jätkäsaari represents a typical contemporary design, where the hallway of the apartment is in the corner. In the middle is the living room-kitchen, through which you can go to the bedrooms.
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“More and more houses have started to be built, where there are more apartments than before on the floor level of one stairwell.”
Efficiency thinking because of this, quite inventive solutions have been seen in new developments, such as bedrooms with no window to the outside at all. In some apartments, the bathroom and hallway are combined into one space.
Read more: These are the brand new apartments in Helsinki with no windows in the bedrooms – Homebuyers rejoice, architects are horrified
Read more: The developer came up with a way to circumvent the regulation: A house was built in Vantaa whose apartments have a toilet in the hall – “I think this is an innovative solution”
The central corridor solution of stairwells, typical of new developments, reduces the number of apartments passing through the building, when apartments are built on both sides of one corridor in the same way as hotel rooms in hotels.
The solution creates tube-like apartments, where the kitchen often has to be built on one wall. For the same reason, not all rooms have exterior windows.
For example, in Töölö, the housing development company Newil & Bau is currently converting a former office building into residential use. The site will have apartments whose bedrooms only have a glass brick wall to the stairwell, no other windows.
“I’m not a fan, but if there are users for the apartments who are satisfied with them and are ready to pay for them, that’s a good thing,” says Tarpio.
Read more: An exceptional renovation solution in the apartment building in Töölö: Some of the bedrooms have no windows
Until now, buyers have been found for new apartments in Helsinki. Vanhanen says it is due to the lack of options: you have to buy what is available or what you can afford.
“Most home buyers have to think about the price-quality ratio. Many would perhaps like a high-quality electric car or high-quality organic food, but think again when they see the price.”
The same logic works in real estate.
There are 52 square meters of duplexes under construction in Töölö, the bedrooms of which have a glass brick wall opening to the stairwell instead of an outside window.
Flexibility. In particular, both Tarpio and Vanhanen need it for the design of new apartments. The possibility to transform apartments according to changing life situations.
Let’s think of a triangle where all the rooms are separate from each other. It works not only as a family home but also as a cell where someone lives in the living room.
Many people have started looking for this kind of flexibility in their homes in recent years, as remote work has become more common. Some construction companies now offer, for example, work space instead of a sauna or a cloakroom.
Read more: Saunas are now being converted into rooms
According to Vanhanen, one of the most efficient ways to develop residential plots is flexible building rights on city lots. In the arrangement, the plot rent would be determined according to the building right used in the building permit.
“This would support the creation of narrow houses and brighter apartments, when the right to build could for once be left unused in planning.”
The goal of the city’s zoning and management is, among other things, to ensure the versatility of the apartments and the quality of the cityscape. In Vanhanen’s opinion, however, cities should not intervene in the building’s massing, i.e. the exterior dimensions, nor too much in other details.
Head of the licensing unit Aarno Alanko The city of Helsinki recognizes the problem of the quality of housing. However, he denies that zoning alone would prevent the implementation of certain types of apartments.
“The fact that builders shouldn’t be able to build whatever quality they want is completely untrue. Market conditions have guided construction for a long time. Let’s build what is worth building in order to get the best possible return.”
Head of the Helsinki City Plan Coordination Unit Tuomas Hakala points out that the city aims to get a certain number of new apartments per year and thus growth.
“In a certain way, the goal is that the right to build would be used and not terribly unused.”
In the group building project, the residents themselves get to influence what kind of spaces will be in the house. Saku Kuittinen makes use of the bicycle service facility of his apartment building.
Helsinki In Postipuisto Saku Kuittinen fills up a tire in the housing company’s bike service facility.
When the housing market could not find a suitable new home for Kuittinen’s growing family, they ended up with group construction. The apartment building, built according to the residents’ wishes, was completed last summer.
The family wanted, among other things, spacious bedrooms that are on different sides of the apartment and not next to each other as is often the case in new family apartments.
“The apartment is not the kind of small hatch that is made these days, and the walk-through wardrobe at the back of the bedroom is really nice. When the child grows up, he too will probably appreciate being allowed to be in his own circumstances.”
Researcher Tarpio considers group construction to be a viable way to realize customized apartments, but in his opinion it is not suitable for everyone.
“You have to have a moderately good income and a secure job.”
Kuittinen felt that the project was easy for the residents: unlike traditionally, the future neighbors did not have to find each other, but could join the project led by the construction company on a flight.
Read more: An apartment building project led by residents ran into difficulties in Jätkäsaari
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