INARO designs for the ‘Re-thinking Urban Housing’ programme

”Yes go zone”, a collaborative project by Inaro and the developer Rakennusteho for the City of Helsinki’s Re-thinking Urban Housing programme, has been granted a building plot in the new suburb of  Kuninkaantammi. Our designs are an innovative solution for mid-rise residential occupation, in which we examine how sunrooms and small private gardens may serve as mediating zones to influence the spatial functionality and degrees of privacy of dwelling units.

Aligned within the long axis of the floor plan of each dwelling, the sunroom is at the heart of each dwelling. This glazed space introduces light, lending an outdoor quality to interior spaces. It is accessible both visually and physically from almost all adjoining spaces.

The sunroom concept improves the flexibility of apartments and encourages types of activity not normally associated with multistorey residential buildings. The sunrooms are heated for use as indoor gardens, workshops, or conservatory-like extensions to conventional living areas. These spaces can be adapted to suit the changing needs of the occupant over time and shifting circumstances.

Ground level apartment gardens are versatile and adaptable intermediary zones between the public and private domains. Passage from the communal courtyards to private residential gardens is via wooden jetties extending outwards, an expansion on the ’shoreline’ theme in our landscaping. Homeowners have free rein to mark out the outer extent of their own gardens using hedges, greenhouses, or sheds.