Project name
Location
Design
Gross floor area
Client

Pihlajamäki atrium housing - urban design
Pihlajamäki, Helsinki
2005
2425m2
Helsinki City Planning Department

The Helsinki City Planning Department asked Avanto to study how the first Finnish modern suburb could be complemented without weakening the Docomomo classified whole. The site is now used for parking and was clearly left unfinished in the 60's, when the first prefabricated housing area in Finland was completed.
The low pavilion like atrium housing creates an intermediate scale between the high towers and the long horizontal lamellas. The strict structuralist composition is eased by turning the dark grey metal boxes positioned on the white masonry basement to face different directions, simultaneously securing privacy and allowing for long views.