The Helsinki City Planning Department commissioned a reference plan based on our Helsinki Townhouse competition proposal, which received an honorary mention. The town plan, based on our original reference plan, was approved by the Urban Planning Board in December of 2010. After that the specifics of the plan changed.

The coastline and the channels had to be moved. As a result, the Urban Planning Agency commissioned a revised reference plan from us in the summer of 2013. Our original city block shrank in size. The structure was extended by two small blocks to the west. The city blocks consist of apartment blocks with townhouse units between them. The number of storeys range from three to eight, so that the eastern house is the block’s highest building.

The facades to the streets, in the direction of the canal and to the Saukonlahti, form a wall-like surface, which hides a series of triangle shaped courtyards and a lush inner yard. Higher and lower parts have been interlaced so that the lighting conditions in the inner parts of the block are well met, and the street-side apartments have views to the seascape through the housing block. All ground floor apartments have their own entrance either directly to the street, to the pier or to the triangle shaped courtyards. The yards form a green uniform “room” inside a block. Playgrounds are located beneath the trees along the paths crossing the yard. The revised plan was completed in November 2013 and the town plan was approved by the City Council on 26.11.2014.