HOAS Tuuliniitty is based on an architectural design competition from a wooden apartment building area to the Tapiola Tuuliniitty area in 2013. Competition was organized by the HOAS (Helsinki Region Student Housing Foundation) and Metsäliitto Osuuskunta (Metsä Wood). The competition was organized in co-operation with the Safa (Finnish Association of Architects), the City of Espoo and Aalto University, and was won by architectural office Arkkitehtitoimisto Jukka Turtiainen Oy by their proposal “Tiebreak“. Arkkitehtitoimisto Jukka Turtiainen Oy has since merged with Arkkitehtipalvelu Oy.
Tuuliniitty is located close to good services and good public transport connections, and its apartments are mostly studio apartments favored by students. Tuuliniitty offers 165 comfortable and modern ARA-supported rental apartments and quite versatile common areas with laundry rooms, saunas and other facilities. The building materials of the house have been chosen with ecology and environmental friendliness in mind. For example, solid wood used as the frame material acts as a carbon storage throughout the life cycle of the building, thus significantly improving the building’s carbon balance.
The project was implemented using CLT volumetric elements
The whole wooden apartment building in Tuuliniitty is basically assembled from pre-fabricated apartment elements. Those wooden CLT (cross-laminated timber) volumetric elements by CrossLam serve as the building framework. The interiors of the solid wood apartments were almost completely pre-fabricated under factory conditions at their factory in Kuhmo. When these apartment elements arrived in Tapiola, they already included finished surface materials, fixtures, and household appliances.
Combining the hat-shaped roof with high construction and the building’s windy location posed its own challenges for wind load management. As a result of the architectural competition, this roof shape is nowadays a municipal building requirement at the area. Apartment building has also references to the architecture of the old apartment buildings with their similar facade dimensions and openings. These fine details serve as a tribute to Tapiola’s goals of building a modern Finnish garden city in the 1950s, which raised Finnish urban planning to world renown.
The next wooden building of the HOAS is already being planned. The building will eventually rise to Niittykumpu, Espoo. The design of the third house in Helsinki’s Kuninkaantammi area has also started.
Our services in the project
Tuuliniitty 3, completed in the spring of 2020, is the first completed construction project in the Tuuliniitty area. Structural design was handled by A-Insinöörit, specialists in construction, structural design, community and environmental construction and infrastructure design. Company has characterized the design of the site as a long and demanding process.
HOAS Tuuliniitty proved to be a demanding design task for us as well. The 13-storey building is 1.5 times the height of buildings that can be designed with the standard dimensioning tables, which meant that we needed to use performance-based fire safety designs and fire simulations. We paid particular attention to facade fire control, personal safety, and a sufficiently low probability of collapse.
To achieve a safety level corresponding to fire class P1, an automatic extinguisher system was installed, larger dimensions (R120) and protective cladding were used in load-bearing wood structures. In addition, ground floor facade was built using non-combustible materials.
HOAS Tuuliniitty on the map
More about the destination
The HOAS Tuuliniitty construction project is extensively described in issue 2/2021 of Puuinfo magazine, published in October 2021. The project was also thoroughly presented at Puuinfo’s Puupäivä (design day) on November 4, 2021. The video of the Puupäivä can be viewed on the Puuinfo channel on Youtube. Tuuliniitty is introduced right at the beginning of the video.
