Sompasaari Block

According to Vesa Oiva, the inspiration for the design, in terms of the cityscape, was the Hanasaari coal-fired power plant (Timo Penttilä 1976), which stands imposingly at the end of the Sompasaari canal, the huge volumes of which consist of brick and metal-clad cuboids of varying heights. The same composition principle was also applied in the design of the residential block. The power plant, located at the end of the street vista, provides temporal depth to the new residential area.

The recognizability and identity of the home was an important objective. The facades are therefore divided into “houses” the width of one residential unit, which differ in colour and fenestration. The colour palette and fenestration have been kept simple enough to make clear the principles of repetition and variation. At the same time, the varying textures and finished detailing offer visual delights for both residents and the casual passer-by.

All the facades of the city block are designed on the basis of the same principles, but at the same time they react subtly to their immediate surroundings. The north side bordering the canal is relatively solid, while the residential streets are enlivened by the spacious terraces and retaining walls of the ground-floor apartments. In the courtyard, the scale is more intimate due to the garage below it, and a row of commercial premises and an in-house laundrette with a display window open onto the promenade – yet another insightful detail. To counterbalance the diverse brick facades, the three towers have been covered with a regular grid layout.

Of the 175 apartments in the block, the five two-room apartments from the final construction phase have attracted the most attention because their bedrooms receive natural light only indirectly through internal windows. The size of the apartments varies between 29m² and 117 m², and there are very few identical floor plans. Spatial variation has been created for the ground-floor apartments with differences in level, and in the largest family apartments the large windows bring natural light from as many as four directions. In addition, the varying fenestration creates different moods for otherwise identical apartments.

The most spectacular apartments in the block are the two-storey loft apartments of the north-side towers, whose exterior walls are almost entirely glass. The higher tower in the south corner was originally designed as a “house tower” with only one apartment on each floor. Eventually, the plan was modified so that the floors could be sold as one, two, or three apartments, depending on demand. However, the ability to join together the apartments was taken into account in the design of the building frame and technical infrastructure, and buyers have, indeed, subsequently combined a few adjoining apartments. In addition, the towers also comprise activities rooms and sauna facilities for the use of all residents, which on the north side open onto a spacious terrace placed on the roof of the lower section of the building.

Source: Kristo Vesikansa’s review in Finnish Architectural Review 4/2021