HS Espoo | A well-known architect designed a unique house in Tapiola almost 70 years ago – Today, moving there is “better than winning the lottery” for the residents.

Tapiolan The teddy bear trail has a remarkable looking building.

The large windows look out onto the street like an industrial plant, but if you properly reach in and out of the windows, there are paintings, sculptures and tool mounds in front.

The houses don’t look like homes, not until you peek around the corner: there are comfortable patios here!

This is Finland’s first studio house built specifically for artists, the current owner of which is the Finnish Artists’ Association’s studio foundation.

HS Espoo was able to visit three artists’ homes.

First opposite are the painter Anne Tompuri and the dogs Sepe and Tiuku. You enter from the courtyard side.

Hallway, kitchen, living room – it looks like home here – and then: a tall and bright workspace. Giant windows overlook the sky far away, and Tompur’s black-and-white works rest on the walls. Faceseries.

How did Tompur feel four years ago when the news of a new home rushed to Lappeenranta and Tompur’s former apartment?

“I was just crazy,” says Tompuri.

“Pomp’s luck in the woods with the dogs.”

Let’s start the story of the house from the beginning, i.e. the early 1950s.

After the wars, there were more and more artists in Finland, but there was an acute shortage of work space.

After all, the artists were promised everything: after the Helsinki Olympics, studio apartments had been built in the houses of the race village, but their prices quickly jumped so high that the artists could not afford them.

In politics, however, winds favorable to art blew.

After the wars, a great spirit of reconstruction prevailed. Sports had already been supported by Veikkaus ‘profits, but since 1953, 30 per cent of Veikkaus’ profits have been used to support science, art and youth work.

In the same year, the artists also organized associations, as the Finnish Association of Sculptors, the Finnish Graphic Artists’ Association, the Finnish Painters’ Association and the Finnish Association of Fine Arts formed the Finnish Artists’ Association.

The Finnish Artists ‘Association began to push for the issue of artists’ workspaces.

At first Plots from Nummi and Sammat were offered to the artists’ association.

An excellent plot option was finally opened in Espoo from the young garden city of Tapiola, on the shores of Otsonlahti.

The artists’ association hired a younger architect for the design work Aulis Blomstedtin, who was already a somewhat familiar character in art circles or at least in the Finnish music world: Blomstedt was married Jean Sibelius filial Heidin with.

For Blomstedt, Tapiola was a familiar area, as he had previously designed terraced houses and blocks of flats there.

The society presented its ideas in the ministries and even to the President of the Republic: the atelier house should be available once and for all.

In the summer of 1954 some sort of confirmation was received, as the Housing Foundation reserved the Nallenpalu plot for the Artists’ Association. The government allocated the necessary funds for the studio house, and the Minister of Education Johannes Virolainen promised that the project would receive the additional funding it needed later.

In October, architect Blomstedt’s plans were ready. The wooden-clad terraced house would have six studio apartments and four slightly smaller apartments, primarily intended as work space.

There is a sauna in the common basement.

There were 30 applications for the new house by the deadline, and by the end of 1955, ten visual artists and their families moved into the newly completed studio house. Among the first were a sculptor Heikki Konttinen his wife Marjatan and with his three children.

Container is known Brideof his sculpture, which stands in front of the Ainoa shopping center in Tapiola.

Let’s get back home of the artist Anne Tompur.

Tompuri lives in one of the house’s four smaller homes. There are a total of 83 square meters, of which the workspace is split by 50. The bedroom is located in a loft that does not count as residential squares.

There is room for one person and two dogs comfortably.

The workplace is very close – for better or worse.

If you raise your head while lounging in bed, you will see the workspace below.

“It was a habit to have a home and a workspace in the same place,” says Tompuri.

Works revolve around the mind all the time, it’s hard to break away from art.

“Yes, dogs will pick it up if I forget to paint.”

Originally In the 1950s, the idea might be that the artist’s house should only be inhabited for a few years at a time, and then another artist should be given the opportunity to live in a studio home.

Only able-bodied artists without a workroom would be hired as tenants. Low rental income would cover the running costs of the artist’s house.

In the lease case, however, a solution was reached over the years that no time limit was set for tenants. Artists also deserved permanence in both their own home and study, without having to move out.

Some residents have been comfortable in the house for decades.

Next we are visiting a visual artist who has been rented at Nallenpalu since 2005.

Pekka Jylhä will open the door.

Jylhä works in premises with a working space of 50 square meters and an apartment of the same size – although at the moment the works have taken over the entire space. There are books, stacks of paper and scale models everywhere.

Two stuffed rabbits are resting on the old bed.

Jylhän’s family moved to a larger home in an artist’s house nearby a few years ago. The small triangle became cramped as the family’s three children and dogs grew big. There was a collision in the kitchen, and there was a queue in the only toilet.

But when the children were small, the house was wonderful to live in:

“This place was great for a family with children!” Jylhä says.

The children played on the floor of the studio, one was particularly comfortable in the loft of the workspace. The Otsonlahti park area started right next door.

“It was nice to have a squeak here.”

But let’s take a closer look at the architecture of the house now.

Architect Aulis Blomstedt became known for his carefully considered solutions, simplicity and harmony.

In his composition he used only a few geometric basic pieces.

The following is an example of modular thinking: In Nallenpolu’s studio building, apartments, study rooms and also patios consist of 50 square meters of rectangles of the same model.

The large windows of the artist house’s workspaces face north, as is the case in the studios. Light is softest when it is not direct.

“Originally, there was supposed to be a small fireplace in the corner of the studio, but apparently the builders drank the fireplace money,” Jylhä says of the story he heard.

Let’s go to PÄ still getting to know Jylhä’s neighbors.

There are planting boxes in the yard, the door reads Nio.

Kalle and Leena are at home.

In addition to them, the apartment is home to one junior high school student and two dogs.

The apartment is comfortably furnished in the style of the 1950s, and the kitchen cabinets are still original. The ceiling of the living room is decorated with a beautiful finger panel.

“I like the dark roof, it’s insanely gorgeous,” Leena rejoices.

Nioille it is important to keep the apartment as original as possible. They are only a third of the residents in the nearly 70-year-old apartment.

“The architect has been a visionary in designing this,” says Kalle Nio.

According to the couple, the light travels beautifully. The logistics are helped by the fact that the studio opens large doors directly onto the street.

Before the exhibitions, however, there would often be a need for larger doors as well, when large works are taken to the gallery.

The home stays intimate on the park side.

“The architect has also designed a place for the vacuum cleaner,” says Leena Nio.

Let’s take a look workspace. Opposite are similar large windows as the neighbors. Nious windows cover the giant troll leaves.

Painter Leena Nio works in the studio space, and the workspace of visual artist Kalle Nio is in the loft.

“This has just been a passel home for our family,” says Kalle Nio.

“It was better than winning the lottery to get here,” says Leena Nio.

Family moved to Tapiola six or seven years ago from a cramped apartment in Kamppi, Helsinki.

What is the best thing about an artist’s house?

“Being part of the community and the continuum,” says Leena Nio.

“It’s crazy to think who has lived here before. Those artists have worked under exactly the same conditions as we do now. ”

The source is the work Elämää Nallenpolulla – Tapiola Studio House 50 Years, edited by Erkki Anttonen.

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