VIRVOITUKSENTIE FOREST HOUSING
Type Invited competition, two phases, 1st prize 2020
Team Schauman & Nordgren Architects
Role Landscape Architects
Client Reale Oy
Size 12,000 m2
Project start 2020
Status Ongoing
In a unique setting, only 2 km from Turku City centre, on the highest peak of the old forest, will a former elderly home be transformed into a new 15,000 m2 neighbourhood.
The existing home for the elderly is characterized by its surrounding significant landscape of old pines and ancient rock formations. The footprint of the new housing block is minimal in order to preserve as much of the forest as possible. The new circular housing block ensures that all residents will look directly into the forest bed. The courtyard inside the block provides a solid foundation for communities to sprout.
In between nature and community
Proximity to nature and a strong sense of community were the two main goals for the project.
The circular shape creates a clear distinction between the inner common spaces and the surrounding natural landscape. Here you get to live with nature right outside your window, and a strong and welcoming community when you exit your home. The circular shape ensures that every single inhabitant can look right into the forest bed from their home.
The new housing capsules the existing building, making it the community heart of the neighbourhood. The common spaces invite the inhabitants to interact with one another, and within the inner space is a variety of versatile common spaces and a diverse set of functions as workshops, gym, library, allotment gardens, and sauna facilities. The housing block offers a diverse housing mix. Together with the unique setting and many facetted common spaces, we aim to attract residents of all ages where the different generations are mixed.
