The Atrium

It took us two years, more than twenty-five "maybe" apartments and five different offers to find exactly what we were looking for - a piece of mid-century modernism from the 1960's. Our hometown Espoo (located right next to Helsinki) is actually one the best places to find Finnish mid-century modernist residential architecture. Make sure to check it out if you are visiting the area!

In general, post and beam structure, circular staircase, windows from floor to the ceiling, brick walls, atrium yard and flat roof are features typical for mid-century modern (MCM) architecture. Among other places some of the most well known works of this era are located in the Los Angeles area and were built by The Case Study Program (1945-1966). This program is one of America's most important contributors to MCM era including the work of Richard Neutra, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Craig Ellewood, Raphael Soriano and Pierre Koening, and it succeeded in producing some of the period's most important residential architecture.

These architects, together with other key players of international modernism greatly influenced also their Finnish colleagues, such as Osmo Lappo, the architect of our home. Lappo is known for his concrete architecture with a very distinctive brutalist approach.

Against this background, in this posting we would like to focus on one of the central elements of our home - the atrium. It's located upstairs and due to it's central location, it is visible from most areas of the upper floor. The atrium terrace faces south, is approximately 25 square meters in size and is defined from the apartment side by the huge living room and kitchen windows. And it is needless to even mention - we totally love it!

The atrium from the dining area

The atrium from the lounge

Looking from the backyard, the atrium terrace is well visible and defined by an overhanging wooden structure above and a semitransparent composite railing on the side. The railing has seen better days, and will thus be changed to a glass version by the condo association in due time. This is fantastic, as the new railing will allow a better view to the backyard and the nearby park.

View from the backyard

At the atrium, one can sense the proximity of the large trees standing right next to the terrace. In addition, there is an odd sensation of being part of the interior even if you are indeed outside. This is, of course, due to the large windows allowing one to se everything what is going on inside. Large windows combined with the post and beam structure is a great example of a typical architectural feature deriving from the Case study program.

Two layers of windows

One of the greatest visual effects in an atrium apartment arises when while being inside, one looks through the two layers of windows and sees back inside again. In other words, in our apartment one can see the kitchen from the living room via the atrium, and vice versa.

View from lounge towards the kitchen

Viewing from kitchen towards lounge

As the atrium terrace has been covered with ice through the winter, we have only recently rediscovered its full potential again. Even the snow is finally gone, due to other projects ranking higher on the Eisenhower grid, we really haven't done much with the terrace yet excluding Pekka disassembling and washing the composite railing.

At the moment the big question is: what we are going to do with the terrace? In its current state, it is honestly not very inviting at all. The floor, which actually is not original (information kindly provided by the neighbours) is cold and wet, and still dirty from all of the renovation work done during the winter.

Getting rid of the moss

One of the ideas was to cover half of the atrium with glass panels and attached sliding doors, but that is still under consideration. Clearly, it is the most expensive option and given all the work we still have to do downstairs its not the most appealing idea to commit quite that much money right now. Also, as we are still not quite certain what do we want exactly, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to sleep (one more year) on it. And it still would not remove the fact that we don't like the current floor.

Cement and moss

At the moment, we would like the atrium to be an inviting, comfortable and visually pleasant area as the summer is almost here. Therefore, what we have committed to is first to cover the floor either with wood or possibly composite material, both of which have their advantages. Then, we plan to move on to furnish the terrace with some nice furniture both practical and pleasing to the eye. Of course, a process you are more than welcome to follow through our blog!

And what does Urho think of the atrium? Well, the best thing in his opinion is obviously the fact that the windows come down to the floor level. The perfect height for a hot dog!

Aah, some heat..