Housing · East Helsinki

Kolme pihaa: 18 townhouses around three courtyards

Eighteen family homes on a long, narrow plot, grouped around three car-free courtyards. Every home has a private garden on one side, a shared yard on the other and its own sauna.

Project: SK-024
Type: Housing, townhouses
Location: East Helsinki
Gross area: 2,150 m²
Homes: 18, from 85 to 120 m²
Completed: 2025
Client: Private developer
Our role: Brief to handover, principal designer

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Site plan with three groups of townhouses, trees, a parking area and the site boundary in orange — **01 Site plan · 1:1000**Three courtyard groups on a former nursery plot, with the site boundary in orange. Parking stays by the street, so the yards are free of cars.

Ground floor plan of six townhouses around a courtyard, with numbered rooms, dimensions and section line A–A — **02 Ground floor plan · 1:200**One courtyard group: two rows of three homes facing a shared yard. 1 Kitchen and living room, 2 Hall and stair, 3 Bathroom, 4 Sauna, 5 Courtyard, 6 Storage, 7 Bicycle shelter. The home outlined in orange is cut in section A–A.

Section through two two-storey townhouses with pitched roofs and the courtyard between them, with level markers — **03 Section A–A · 1:200**Through two homes and the courtyard. Living rooms open to the private gardens; bedrooms sit upstairs under the pitched roof. The sauna has a small window over the yard.

Axonometric of two rows of pitched-roof townhouses around a courtyard with trees, a bicycle shelter and a storage building — **04 Axonometric**One courtyard group seen from the south-east: vertical board cladding, standing-seam roofs and a low storage building that closes the yard.

The brief

A developer had a long, narrow plot in East Helsinki and a local detailed plan that allowed two-storey townhouses. The question was how to fit eighteen family homes without turning the site into a car park with houses around it.

Three yards instead of one street

We split the homes into three groups of six. Each group shares a courtyard with trees, a play area and a storage building, and each home also has a private garden on the other side.

Front doors face the yard, so neighbours meet on the way home. Living rooms face the garden, so evenings stay private.

Built in timber

The frame is cross-laminated timber on a concrete ground slab. Wall and floor elements came to site ready-made, which shortened the wet works and kept the frame dry under temporary cover. Outside, dark-painted spruce boards and standing-seam steel roofs.

A sauna in every home

The wet zone sits by the courtyard wall: bathroom, sauna and a utility corner, all reached from the hall without crossing the living room. The sauna window looks over the yard, high enough for privacy.

What we delivered

Feasibility study and three massing options
Sketch design, priced with the developer at each step
Building permit drawings and the principal designer role
Construction drawings, door and window schedules, specifications
Site meetings until handover

Next project

027 Lukusali

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