“It is not impossible to create high-quality homes within deep-plan buildings, but it is a challenge.”
2/2025Housing Reform
How do we reform the standards of housing production? How to turn the downturn in residential construction into an opportunity? What new housing typologies does Finnish housing design need? Read the issue →
What Did We Learn from the Previous Building Boom?
For the past couple of years, housebuilding has been stagnant across Finland. Homes built during the boom years that preceded the downturn have come under sustained criticism for their poor quality. What should the industry do differently when construction activity picks up again? We asked five architects to share their solutions.
A Carpet’s Many Patterns
Between a detached house and an apartment building there is room for more diverse building typologies that both save space for nature and offer a detached house-like living experience.
Towards Housing Design for Shared Living
Shared living challenges the established principles of what is considered good housing design.
Unique, Personalised and Urban Housing
When an architect or client sets out to build a multistorey residential building for their own use, the end result is often more intriguing than what is typically generated through ordinary housing production – for example, a home base for a theatrical community or a combination of a private home and an editorial office for an architectural journal.
Where Can One Find Housing Reform?
The reform of housing construction often requires completed pioneering buildings. We asked Jyrki Tarpio, a postdoctoral researcher in housing design, to evaluate the apartment buildings presented in the Housing Reform issue (2/2025) that originate from Housing Reform architectural competitions and the City of Helsinki’s Re-Thinking Urban Housing programme.
Ode to a Work in Progress
Instead of clearly defined development projects, urban design should entail more continuous processes without predetermined end results. Ecosystem thinking offers guidelines for changing the focus.
Helsinki’s Sprawls and Burrs
The urban structure of Helsinki is fragmented by wrong planning ideals, says architect and professor Kai Wartiainen.
And Then There Was White
With the completion of the new office and hotel building, the dominance of red brick on the Katajanokka waterfront gives way to white.
A Child-Friendly City is Slower, More Permissive and Better for Everyone
In a child-friendly city, play spreads beyond parks, and car users have to be flexible, envision landscape architect Mari Ariluoma and researcher Veera Moll. Through discussion, they found eight principles for planning a child-friendly city.
Where Did the Landscape Go?
Urban nature is more than healthy and hygienic green space steered by science and technology, argues landscape architect Meri Mannerla-Magnusson.
“Museum that is appropriate for the location” and a “plan full of risks” – Experts share their opinions on the shortlisted proposals for the new museum of architecture and design in Helsinki
The finalists in the international architecture competition for the new museum of architecture and design in Helsinki were published last December. The museum will be located in Makasiinranta, with its plans already developed into a draft local detailed plan based on the competition organised in 2022. We asked five architects for their opinion about the designs.
Finnish (Post)modernism?
The prominent names in Finnish architecture of the 1980s, Simo and Käpy Paavilainen, Jyrki Tasa, and Reijo Jallinoja, talk about what postmodernism meant to them at the time, and what it means today.
Internationalising Finland – Four Viewpoints
Four architects who have made Finland their home discuss what day-to-day practice looks like here and the change that is needed to help the sector become more international in outlook.
Destination USA? – In Discussion with Ala Architects
Ala Architects has designed buildings throughout Europe, but so far none of their designs have made it to the United States. Why is that?
What Sets the Finnish Architecture Scene Apart from the United States?
Henrik Ilvesmäki studied architecture at Harvard University for four years. He noticed a marked difference between the United States and his native Finland in the dynamics between architectural academia and practice. This difference has a potentially profound impact on the future of the field in the two countries.
12,000 Years of Building Finland
A new general overview of Finnish architectural history incorporates prehistoric structures, the built heritage of Sápmi Region, and environmental aspects into the familiar story.