Loppukiri (meaning ‘a final spurt’) is an owner-occupied housing community for elderly people in the Arabianranta redevelopment area on one of Helsinki´s waterfront sites.
The homes are for people who are recently retired or will retire in the near future, with a minimum age of 48 years as a requirement for at least one person in each flat. The organization provides senior citizens with a new kind of living facility that is partly based on collective help by neighbours and provides its residents with many communal spaces.
Loppukiri is the first project by Aktiiviset seniorit (Active Seniors Association) for its members. The association was created by people looking for an active and communal way of living which they could not find on the Finnish housing market. They had themselves faced problems in arranging care for their relatives and wanted to take the initiative to do better. A strong vision has driven the project; future residents get to know each other first and evaluate their needs, values, and costs. They organize a group, find a plot, choose an architect and then share the design process.
Kirsti Sivén was asked to take part at a very early stage because of the office’s extensive experience with alternative housing.
The idea of the architectural design is to allow the future residents to get involved and decide on the layout of the plan, the room divisions, the materials, and other details. The architects developed a co-design method to work with the future residents, during which there was an opportunity to discuss at length with the architects.
In addition to co-designing their own flats, the residents played an important part in designing the common area. The community kitchen, the dining room, the library, a small sitting area with TV, the office, the laundry, and the shelter for bikes downstairs as well as a storeroom for residents´ use. The top floor is for recreation. There are two saunas, an exercise room, a multipurpose sitting room with a fireplace, and a guest room. The guest room can be rented by the residents when they have overnight visitors. In the warm season, the roof terrace is popular for leisure activities and small gatherings. It has beautiful views across the nature conservation area by the park and the bay.
The street elevations follow the town plan: red brick with some white accents. The courtyard side is more transparent: a high dining room, a large roof terrace, and full-height glazing and galvanized steel railings.
The Arabianranta area follows The Percent for Art Principle. Of the construction costs, 1-2 percent has been reserved for art, and artists have participated in the planning processes from the beginning of the projects. In Loppukiri, artist Pekka Paikkari has worked together with architect Kirsti Sivén and the residents. One of the results is a façade installation “Cataracta” where aphorisms proposed by the residents are carved on ceramic poles. These aphorisms were also printed on a special edition of Arabia-factory coffee cups.
Year: 2006
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Image credits: Hannu Häkkinen / Finna, 1, Tuukka Paikkari, 5
Team: Kirsti Sivén, Asko Takala, Kaisa Savolainen, Niklas Mahlberg, Alex Torres, Jonas Malmberg, Tapani Lehtinen, Suvi Tuuli Korpinen, Tuula Nurmi, Eero Kontuniemi, Riku Rönkä, Hanna Sunela
