Kuokkala Housing
Jyväskylä, 2019
Competition entry / Master’s thesis

The project comprises of a full housing block with a focus in new innovations in housing and apartment design. The block is situated on a central plot originally reserved for a low public building. The project examines architecture that aims to create a strong sense of home, ownership and agency in an area dominated by inexpensive rental housing. The small scale in volume and facades that descend toward the public space form a unique town identity in the center of Kuokkala. The block is compact but the inner yard creates potential for random encounters with neighbours and the ground floor surrounding the inner yard is full of common spaces. The project takes cues from traditional blocks of smaller buildings next to old churches that have a strong public precense in a central location yet have an intimate private world within.

The compact block is divided in four small aparment buildings and a short townhouse. All of the buildings are made with load-bearing CLT with enviromentally friendly solutions and materials in mind. All of the apartment buildings are designed to be made with space elements to speed up the construction. Many design choices were directed by the goal to design affordable yet desireable and high quality housing. Extensive basement construction was avoided to lower building costs and all parking was situted on a plot next to the block in a centralised parking facility with a public park on top.