One of the finalists!

It has been quite a journey.

In 2012 when it started we did not think about TV shows. Instead, we thought about making a home. We had too small of a budget, limited resources and time, growing family and demanding jobs. But also, a shared vision, can-do attitude and patience to take small steps.

Four years later, commitment to Suomen Kaunein Koti forced us to finish up a million incomplete projects. Given the deadline we had to stretch and simply make everything happen. So with some help from our family and friends, at 2 am the previous night, only a few hours before the production crew arrived, we finally dropped the hammer and decided to call it a day.

Not knowing what to expect it was great to notice that the production team was very easygoing but professional, efficient but creating a relaxed atmosphere. Thanks guys, it really was a fun morning!

The first appearance on the backyard (source: MTV3 Katsomo / Suomen Kaunein Koti)

After the photo shoot, we waited for nearly six months. Then, on a random day in January we saw the first ads in TV. The night when our episode was played was unbelievably exciting, as we had no idea what was coming. But it was fantastic. We simply couldn't have wished for more.

Overview (source: MTV3 Katsomo / Suomen Kaunein Koti)

We were completely blown away by the judges' comments and compliments, but also their expertise in architecture and design. They paid attention to several relevant details, and it was great to listen to their discussions. By the way, the red carpet to mark our favourite spot just needed to be in the living room next to the Eames Lounge Chair!

The Red Carpet and the Three Judges (source: MTV3 Katsomo / Suomen Kaunein Koti)

"Good planning allows less depth in a countertop" (source: MTV3 Katsomo / Suomen Kaunein Koti)

"Is there an acoustic panel on the back...?" (source: MTV3 Katsomo / Suomen Kaunein Koti)

And the final outcome got us screaming! Of course we thought it would be nice to make it to the finals, but to do that with a top score did not cross our minds. We are happy, excited and really eager to see how this journey continues.

So when the time comes, please - don't forget to vote!

The Perfect Thirty! (source: MTV3 Katsomo / Suomen Kaunein Koti)

(all photos are screenshots from Suomen Kaunein Koti 2017 episode 3: Omalla tyylillä by MTV3)

Simply a great week

It's been a great week. 

First, the results of Fennia Prize 2017, Finland's biggest design competition for companies and organizations, were announced on Thursday. The Fennia Prize Grand Prix was given to Merivaara Corporation for Q-flow surgical light. Guess who was responsible for the industrial design? 

Then today, our home won the first step of Suomen Kaunein Koti (the Most Beautiful Home in Finland) competition. We will be up against the nine other finalists for the first prize. The judges really, really seemed to like our home and after all the work we have put into the project, it felt fantastic. It was great that so many of you supported us during the show

More about both really soon. First, it is time to celebrate!

Pieces of history - meeting with architect Lappo

While anxiously waiting for Monday, we thought it might be interesting to focus a bit to the early days of our home. Therefore, if you are curious about the very beginning, please revisit a very special blog post from the past. 

About two years ago we were honored to invite professor emeritus Osmo Lappo, the architect of our home, for a visit. Lappo, born in 1927, is one of the central figures of modern concrete architecture in Finland. Among his most recognised work is the Vekarajärvi barracks in Kouvola, Finland, which was built between 1966-1975 and is a great representative of the concrete brutalism era emphasising construction materials and techniques. The Vekarajärvi barracks have received a recognition of an important architectural and environmental site both by Docomomo and the Finland National Board of Antiquities. More generally, Lappo's work includes a wide variety of residential, commercial and public buildings. 

Architect Lappo

For our pleasant delight, professor Lappo arrived with several original photos by photographer Simo Rista form 1960's brilliantly illustrating the early days of our home. Browsing through the photos with Lappo's guidance took us right back to the very early days of the project, when Loviisa Agnisbäck, the owner of Ängskulla estate sold the land to Väinö E. Koskinen. Koskinen was the owner of a construction company responsible for building Niittykumpu region for the City of Espoo.

Koskinen had originally met Lappo in 1950's when they were working together in another project in Helsinki. As their earlier collaboration had been very successful, Koskinen invited Lappo to be the lead architect also in the Niittykumpu project.

View from backyard (photo by Simo Rista)

At that time, Danish architecture had a significant influence also in Finland - for example, many buildings were made of brick and had an atrium terrace. Lappo, as well, was following the prevailing trends of the 1960's, and was to include these elements in his design.

Back to the sixties (photo by Simo Rista)

It was not only our residence Lappo and Koskinen were working on in Niittykumpu, but actually the entire region including several different apartment buildings. To add variability and prevent buildings looking too similar, after the initial drafts Lappo assigned different project architects from his studio to work with each building. This was an approach he adopted while working in Viljo Revell's office during the early years of his career.

Plan for Niittykumpu region (original photos by Simo Rista)

A crucial consideration was the quality of the site where the foundations of buildings were to be laid. Basically, the buildings were located to areas where conditions were favourable. Also, for some apartments the chosen design reflects the site conditions - in one of the buildings, namely the "Pillar Building", has no basement and the ground floor is replaced by a string of massive pillars, as the site was too soft to support these structures.

There were already some houses on one side of Niittykumpu which needed to be taken into account when considering the areal set up. Therefore, the goal was to complement the existing infrastructure and surrounding nature as well as possible, which had a big influence on certain decisions. 

South view to Niittykumpu (photo by Simo Rista)

The construction process of our apartment building was quite fast. The design was completed during summer 1963, construction work started immediately and the apartments were ready in 1964. According to Lappo, very few changes were made during the process, as the plans were comprehensive and thus followed quite faithfully. At that time, Koskinen's company did not have the supporting infrastructure or cranes to build by using prefabricated elements, so all the work was conducted on site manually.

First, as soon as the design fundamentals were locked, the team started by building models to be able to work with the details, including e.g. the atrium terrace. The models were also useful when Koskinen was discussing with potential buyers. 

Original model, back view (photo by Simo Rista)

Original model, side view (photo by Simo Rista)

On top of the hill, the street and rock limited the shape of the building resulting in a serrated form in front. As a result, the back of the building followed the same serrated pattern, also complementing the surrounding nature as well as the existing small buildings further down the hill very well.

Protected front entrance (photo by Simo Rista)

Serrated form from the back (photo by Simo Rista)

The original windows were made of regular window glass units. Each window was also divided in three parts to enable efficient cleaning from both sides. The outside window glass could be opened to clean the inner surfaces, but the glass inside was fixed to the frame to prevent the escape of warm air. A few of the ten apartments still have the original window set up, but in our apartment the glass has been replaced by contiguous double-glazed insulated glass units, which no longer need to open for cleaning.

Discussing windows (original photos by Simo Rista)

None of the atrium terraces were covered, as the decision was left for the future owners to do what they wanted - first to decide whether they wanted a roof or not, and then the design of the roof. Also, originally all units were drawn with a second door in the living room leading to the atrium terrace. However, as the buyers were able to make changes during construction, it may have not been built to all apartments.

 Original windows (photo by Simo Rista)

In general, the upper level in all units was quite similar. More buyer specific adaptations were made downstairs, resulting in more variability between the units. Back in 1960's, Finnish tax regulations made it beneficial to limit the actual living area of an apartment to 119.5 m2. This meant the downstairs ceiling height and window size were limited, and in official plans the space was named an area for e.g. arts and crafts or storage. Some buyers added a cold room, and consequently the waste heat from cooling the cold room was captured to contribute to downstairs heating. Half of downstairs are was left unbuild, as at that time it would have been very expensive to do the mining and blasting work required.

Downstairs model (photo by Simo Rista)

Lappo's team was also responsible for the kitchen design, and the cabinets and other structures were manufactured by Turenki Sugar Factory carpenters (a contact of Koskinen). At that time, there were only a few kitchen manufacturers and thus existing contacts who were not necessarily specialised in kitchen manufacturing were used.

Kitchen area back then (photo by Simo Rista)

After a few hours of great discussion and revision of piles of pictures and plans it was time to say goodbye. For us, it was really a true honor and beyond pleasure to meet professor Lappo in person and discuss his work, our home, which clearly plays a very significant role in our lives right now. We really appreciate he so kindly took the time to meet us. It is not very often you get an opportunity to dig a bit deeper to historical details, and especially with the guidance of the architect himself. 

Architect Osmo Lappo

References:

1. Interview with Osmo Lappo (November 23, 2014)
2. Osmo Lappo introduction by the Museum of Finnish Architecture (January 25, 2015) 
3. Niittykumpu by Osmo Lappo, Sanna Lahti 2003, Master's Thesis, Helsinki University of Technology
4. All original pictures by Simo Rista 1963-1964 published with a permission of Osmo Lappo, who owns the rights to the photos. Please do not copy or use without permission. 

Most Beautiful Home in Finland?

Why did we go on a crazy renovation frenzy last summer?

Bit surprisingly, sometimes during Spring 2016 we got committed to a Finnish TV show called Suomen Kaunein Koti (the Most Beautiful Home in Finland). Inevitably, this lead to an assessment of all the unfinished projects we wanted to complete before "going live". As the list grew quite long, not everything got finalised but having a crystal clear deadline definitely speeded up things a lot.

Guess how it look around here today?

In Suomen Kaunein Koti, the most beautiful home is selected among 30 homes. First, in each episode focusing on different category, a group of judges selects their favourite out of three homes. After 10 episodes, the Finns get to choose the winner by voting among the top 10 homes.

Filming took place last summer, and since then we have been waiting. We only knew that the show would most likely air sometimes during the first half of 2017, but nothing else. No idea how our interviews went, did we succeed in telling our story the way we have felt and experienced it. No idea of the outcome, did the judges enjoy visiting our home. And quite honestly, only vaguely remembering how everything here looked like back then, as we were pretty exhausted after such an intensive summer.

So, the wait is finally over. The season started on January 9th. Next week, on Monday January 23rd, our home will be competing against all the other beautiful Finnish homes (channel MTV3 at 20 pm). If you have access to Finnish TV, tune in and please let us know how did you like it!

The game is on. May the most beautiful home win!

Relax. What's so great about TV anyway?

Himmeli

As if there would not be enough to do with completing the world before the Holidays, also DIY spirit seems to magically strengthen during that time. In the beginning of December 2016, Minna got and idea to make a himmeli (FI), a traditional mobile decoration made of straws. So a few nights before Christmas, Minna and her cousin Anu had a small himmeli workshop. Neither with prior experience on working with delicate straws, a relatively straightforward model was chosen to start with - Ostrobothian (Pohjalaanen) Himmeli, from Eija Koski's book Himmeli (highly recommended, if you master Finnish).

Instructions for Ostrobothian himmeli (by Eija Koski)

In addition to great instructions and a lot of enthusiasm, a pile of straws cut to measure, long needles, some soft bamboo string, mulled wine and chocolate were the key components of this project.

Materials and mulled wine

The first minutes felt slightly challenging but in the end, it was easier (and faster) than expected. Yes, some invisible tape was needed to fix a few glitches here and there, but surprisingly it was not too complicated. The trickiest step was to combine six diamonds together to create the basic shape. 

Six diamonds

Careful, careful!

It was a great night! Craftwork, good company and very satisfactory end result. A perfect way to switch off from daily routines. Altogether four Ostrobothnians were made. Kindly enough, Anu donated one of hers to complete the series of three, which now hangs from the living room ceiling.

Three Ostrobothians

Inspired by the initial success, the Himmeli team has already agreed on the next project. Also, the downstairs guest room has an empty corner which is just screaming to host a himmeli...