Greija

Woodberg Oy’s As Oy Laajasalon Greija project was built on the site of a former grocery store in the Yliskylä area of the Laajasalo district in Helsinki. The project is a model example of how to add buildings to an existing residential area. The long since the defunct grocery store was demolished, and exceptional permission was granted to plan a townhouse with six apartments and a storage building.

The apartments are 77 m2 and two stories. The floor solution is based on creating a feeling of spaciousness by placing interior fixtures, doors and windows in a way that never blocks the view. The first floor extends over the entrances. This creates sheltered entrances and adds just the right amount of additional space to the precisely dimensioned floor plan to allow the flexible placement of the furniture in both bedrooms. The walls between the yards visually extend the living room outwards. The white volume of the lower floor connects the yards together, making the exterior areas an integral part of the building’s architecture.

A solid wood CLT exterior wall structure was a major starting point for the design, as were of course the general properties of the site. The structure itself is sufficiently insulated so that no separate insulation wool is needed. The intention was to leave the elegant wood surface of the exterior wall’s CLT elements visible wherever possible. Other interior surfaces were designed to be compatible with the visible wood. The intermediate floors, ceiling structures, and partitioning walls are also made of wood with the wooden surface in plain sight. Residents were allowed to select the floor coverings themselves.

All CLT elements were custom-made for the project. The robust stairs were made from the materials leftover from cutting door and window openings into the elements. These pieces were finished with a CNC milling cutter at the factory. The electrical installation conduits were machined into the elements.

Woodberg Oy
Residential
Helsinki, Finland
550 m2
2018
Completed
Architecture
Design
Interior
Team
Aleksi Niemeläinen
Collaborators
Antti Lehto (Inaro), Koski Consulting Oy, Vantaan Sähkö- ja Teleurakointi, Planera Oy, Redan Oy, photography: Martin Sommerschield, Kuvio Oy