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In
Finland Eco-Villages grow up
Community and social
housing are making new pathways across the Nordic countries. Here
two Finnish examples, a contemporary large scale, suburban eco-village
and the cross country Wood Town movement look set to influence
policy throughout the Baltic world and further afield.
by Oliver
Lowenstein.
In
the Nordic countries the Eco-Village movement has been growing
up. While here in Britain there are next to no examples to add
up to what would pass for a bona-fide eco-village movement, across
the north Eco-Villages have both been coming of age, and broadening
the definition of the description, letting this alternative form
of social housing initiative spread it wings, in all the main
Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. So much
so that something of the template is being used for some large-scale
eco-developments in various Northern cities, bringing in the support
and financial interest of Nordic regional governmental bodies.
Granted
there is Findhorn in the north of Scotland, which has kept the
Eco-Village beacon alive, while in the south of the country the
very contrasting BedZed and Greenwich Millennium Sustainability
ventures can be seen as two ends of a distantly related spectrum;
the former arguably a millennium upgrade from a movement and cluster
of ideas which were born in the midst and aftermath of the hippy
years. The BedZed/Bioregional nexus is a singular vision of a
small group of people, which seems on the verge of taking off
on a larger scale, with talk of various Zed developments integrated
into the Government’s mid-term affordable housing agenda.
With its compact city, urban based emphasis, the Zed trajectory,
however, isn’t the same as the eco-village movement. Even
less so is the Greenwich Peninsula development, which gives off
a somewhat soulless big development project ‘air’,
imposed from on high, and during my visit – admittedly six
months ago - the glue of community feels all but absent, the very
stuff that these ventures may need in buckets to self-generate
a momentum to keep going.
Eko-Viikki
Across
the North Sea, indeed around the inland Baltic Sea, both Sweden
and Finland have a much a wider familiarity with the self-grown
Eco-Village concept, and developing parts of towns with a strong
emphasis on home-grown socially active sustainability. In Sweden,
around twenty resident-led eco-villages have prospered since the
eighties, Bjorkhagen in Stockholm was one of the first, along
with another in the University city, Uppsala, as well as in a
number of towns further south. These are resident led, and resident
organised. Denmark similarly contains a widespread though generally
smaller scale, and usually more rural network of projects. One
of the first of these, Fjordvang, in Western Denmark, emerged
out of the setting up of the Danish based Global Eco-Village Network
(GEN)1. Since then GEN has helped co-ordinate, nurture and link
the global growth of the Eco-Villages movement, with villages
springing up in regions as far apart as both the African (a new
Eco-Village in Odi, Nigeria opened this year) and Indian sub-continents.
Eko-Viikki
Back in the far south of Sweden, Malmø, which sits on the
Atlantic coastline facing Northern Denmark, a big Government funded
millennium project Eco-Village has also been developed, though
it is a dramatic contrast to the traditional Eco-Village vision.
Stylistically, it’s something of a smorsgabord, all sorts
of eco-developments crowded up against each other tooth by jowl.
Its success, apparently, is somewhat in the balance. Both Malmo
and the Greenwich project are part of a planet-wide intra-Government
drive to propel the traditional Eco-Village concept into the mainstream.
Across disparate parts of Europe there are now many significant
initiatives of master-planning for bringing on-stream bureaucracy
led Eco-Villages, which have in effect turned into large scale
urban ecology projects. So many, in fact, they can be counted
on at least two hands. In Germany these include developments in
Kronsberg Hanover, and Freiberg, while the aforementioned southern
Swedish Malmø, constitutes another example, the figure
rising to about a dozen others across Europe.
Now,
although also initiated in the pre-millennium run-up years, the
Finnish Ministry of Environment is trying something similar with
a large scale eco-village development 7 miles over on the east
side of Helsinki, only now in 2004 is hitting its stride. Called
Eko-Viikki, this is the most co-ordinated and ambitious attempt
to develop an entire eco-residential sector across the Nordic
countries. Set on some former research fields of the University
of Helsinki’s agricultural dept, on a visit this summer
the multi-purpose site is far from complete, earthworks everywhere
and continual evidence of Finland’s rocky granite geological
surface impinging through the ground. The Eko-Viikki city plan
began in 1997, is seen generally as a sustainable housing area.
There are six developers, with 28 sites, all of which are seeking
to meet a set of ecological criteria’s. A significant portion
of the buildings use wood as their principal material, but at
the heart of the project is an involved research agenda; testing
in a system christened PIMWAG, where ratings have been developed
for a range of ecogical criteria (namely water saving, energy
efficiency, sustainable building materials, waste reduction, allotment
provision and effective recycling facilities.). Of the 28 sites
17 are monitored. There is also a whole section given over to
self-build, where architects, builders and others are being given
the lassitude to design and build there own low energy eco-designed
homes. This is very much in the eco-village tradition. There is
also a secondary and primary school, as well as two kindergartens.
There is also a handsome stand-alone and timberbuild community
centre to the north of the site, and, unbuilt as yet, what looks
to be an excitingly designed timber-centric church.
Eko-Viikki
When
Eko-Viikki was first announced the project animated quite a bit
of excitement among various eco-inclined communities in Helsinki.
The fact that the reality of the project, mixing high rise –
6 or 7 storeys, with low rise 2/3 storeys, has, apparently brought
on annoyance and disillusionment with some of those who have,
or were going to move, into the community. People imagined something
on the level of the smaller scale eco-villages that already existed.
Indeed the initial perception of some who signed up was of low
rise – the norm for most eco-villages – so a certain
disappointed when high rise was unveiled, blew through those who
had signed up early on as as part of the plan. The thought was,
that these were neither as ecological nor as true to the Eco-Village
form from its earlier evolutionary stage.
As
it is, much of the residential building is either already lived
in, or complete and ready for moving into. Where heating and electricity
are concerned, a specific research testing method; the PIMWAG
ecological criteria has been developed. These have been met in
50% of the buildings, and the target quality has usually been
exceeded. Probably the most ambitious target of solar energy use
in Finland to date, the solar array elements are a central feature
of Eko-Viikki, About half the Eko Viikki’s buildings receive
some of the solar energy created. The houses are south facing,
thus applying passive use of daylight. The solar arrays are used
as part of the building structure – as balcony balustrades,
roof, balconies, and carports roofs, covering a total of 1248
metres squared of solar collectors, and overall heat storage volume
of 73 cubic meterage and developed from a Thermie-96 Targeted
project, as well as being funded by further EU (Solar Urban New
Housing) Funding, and internal Finnish grants.
The
solar array demonstration dimension of Eko-Viikki serves 368 dwellings,
which have since been monitored by the Helsinki University of
Technology (or HUT as it is known.) The target for solar was for
50% use of domestic hot water and 45% use of all hot water. This
target has been met by half those where solar energy is applied.
On average water consumption is 125 litres per day, 35% down on
normal domestic hit water consumption. As an experiment there
are also collectors installed on roofs at differently built angles
because of the extremely high solar shine – so domestic
hot water is related to the large sites of the solar array. Another
segment of the design envelope – researched by HUT - has
been to ensure that buildings cast least solar shadow on other
buildings in immediate proximity, ensuring the optimum solar pickup
by every building.
 
Eko-Viikki
community centre
There
is also solar energy from building integrated PV modules, used
as see through balustrades. So far 17 buildings are in the early
stages of post evaluation, with good energy results, and heating
energy savings of 36/40%. Thermal energy is used for domestic
hot water production on several of the different estates, solar
heat being used on one site for water based under floor heating
in all its dwellings, which is kept, for comfort, at a low temperature.
The PV’s are described as a Fortum, lumen glazing, that
is they are embedded in 2 layers of glass – and are providing
20% of electricity in buildings where there are common spaces.
Overall the whole Eko-Viikki development gets much of its heating
from the co-generation-based district heating network, with efficiency
levels apparently at 85-90%. Other features which can be mentioned
are the good indoor and health enhancing conditions, such as good
indoors climate, and significant noise reduction, plus because
of the high density planning a closeness to the outdoor nature,
along with full glazing, and balconies and porches. These are
particularly relevant to Finland, which in recent history has
had the highest proportion of its population living in multi-storey
buildings.
While
the focus here has been on the solar energy element of the project
other relevant features can also be mentioned, such as Biodiversity
enhancement, innovation in emissions systems, and water consumption
and waste. Not only this but the private house experiments at
the edge of Eko Viikki are also exploring particular experimental
features; houses relying on pellet boilers; a clay and straw building;
and particularly large sub spaces for conservatories. Still what
is interesting is that this is the largest large scale Solar and
PV demonstration in Finland – it’s a joint public/private
initiative, triggered in part by the recent eco-regulations emanating
from Europe, as well as a new found interest and activism within
government departments to develop such showcase experiments. What
happens next with Solar and PV in Finland will in many respects
depend on how Eko Viikki plays out.
A
related though different and separate housing project which has
been mushrooming up in many parts of Finland is the Modern Wood
Town Project. Part of the thinking of these Wood Town’s
is a return to urban spaces of the pre-modern period, to re-introduce
the convivial elements that have been lost with concrete mid-rise
living. For in Finland it is recognised that the country has the
highest number of people living in flats, around 500, 000 more
than any other European country. This is in part a function of
recent history.
During
the nineteenth century many of the country’s large cities,
including Eastern Finland’s Turku, were wood cities. But
in the mid-nineteenth century the age-old problem of the material’s
inherent combustibility returned to haunt public and planners.
Destructive fires repeatedly raged through large and small towns
alike. In 1827 half of Turku burnt down; 2500 buildings were consumed
in the blaze. As a result, stone began to replace wood as the
building material of choice, becoming the preferred, and before
long predominant material. Timber towns, timber cities went into
eclipse, and today, travelling through these Finnish cities, one
can pick out only the outline husks of these former timber built
communities: clumped single and double storey houses lost in the
cities’ modernist 60's grid remake.
Indeed
after world war two, war-torn Finland embarked on a huge building
programme to house its increasing urban population. The influence
on the country of bordering the erstwhile USSR weighed heavily
during these years, its independence compromised by needing to
watch its step or face the possibility of being taken over by
its powerful neighbour. This may account in part for the brutalist
approach to urban planning of the post-war era, and the rise of
many concrete cities across the country, although neighbouring
Scandinavia proper has just as much a tradition for unappetising
sixties’ flat blocks, described by one as 'Stalinist baroque'.
Wholesale demolition of many major cities’ timber heritage
paved the way for concrete and steel mid-rise; a functionalist
approach which presently dominates the Finnish cityscape. This
new generation of building stock brought significantly better
living conditions inside, but their external features have not
aged well. There are exceptions of course, but during winter,
these concrete box buildings, merging with the murk-heavy grey
of an average day, appear far from inspiring.
Oulu
Wood Town
The
Modern Wood Town Project, originated in the most northerly architectural
dept on the planet, Oulu’s Wood Studio. Inaugurated in the
early nineties by the Vice-Rector of the University, prof Jouni
Koiso-Kantilla, Wood Town demonstrates another strategy for realising
profoundly more sustainable forms of housing in EU Europe’s
most heavily forested country; Finland is home to 23 million cubic
hectares of wooded land. Although from outside the Finland, the
country is thought to be a wood building paradise, the facts are
very different. However in the last ten years there has been a
concerted effort to change this within the different wood in construction
sectors, and the Wood Town project can be seen as an early beneficiary
of these changes. It’s emergence can also be dated to a
thorough going change in the Finnish fire regulations when in
september 1997 revised fire building regulations for any construction
higher than two storeys, for the first time in over a hundred
years, began to allow three or more storey timber-build to be
recommenced, with new safety stipulations. The new regulations
include sprinkler systems ensuring an hour's fire resistance,
allowing time for people to escape, and flame resistant ventilation
systems. Since 43% of the population live in multi-storey apartments,
and three quarters live in less than five storeys, amongst the
small but committed timberbuild community, the feeling is that
this is a rich opportunity for development. If the country was
minded to, it could easily turn its residential building over
to wood materials.
Oulu, as mentioned, is far up on Finland's north-east coast, far
from the countries south-east post-industrial hub. It is also
home to the most vibrant electronics and computer research and
products’ economy outside the gilded south-east. Oulu is
one of the largest regional cities for people moving from the
forested countryside. New homes are needed, and it is because
of this need that one of the most significant wood projects in
recent years, the Oulu Wood Town, has grown. The Wood Town was
completed during the first half of 2002, but it began in 1995
as a student project, and developed into an open competition for
architects. The final result was a completely urban district designed
around wood.
Oulu
Wood Town
Oulu's
wood town turns out to be a core, seven block area of housing,
in the suburbs of the city, a ten minutes’ journey from
the centre. It claims to be part of compact city thinking, a town-like
environment, rather than a fully-fledged wood town. Upon arriving,
I found myself reflecting on the multiple versions of compaction.
Certainly, within the Finnish context, it is a leading example
of sustainable thinking. Considerable play is made of both the
use of wood, the high density of the buildings, and the development
of three or four storey timber housing. The development is over
twelve hectares or 20, 000 sq metres, and consists of eight three
storey, and 70 other timber buildings, with about half rented
and the other half owned, so as to ensure a mixed social balance.
The project inaugurated a completely new Finnish focus on researching
and then designing wooden apartment buildings which take advantage
of the changes in fire regulations. After the first apartment
and the initial masterplan had been developed by students from
the architecture department the site was handed over to a number
of architects, who in turn became project designers for the further
six areas of the site. Visiting the site, in deep winter snow,
it is quickly clear the buildings are low-key social housing.
Today, on the ground, six differently designed building sections
have been completed, housing 450 people. Within the different
architectural styles some of the buildings make an effective case
for a renewed timber functionalist aesthetic.
The
two project architects, Markku Karjalainen and Ristu Suikkari,
elaborate on how such a housing model is preferable to the concrete
apartment high-rise which so many Finns continue to live in. Using
surveys, interviews and questionnaires, the pair found that the
majority of those asked wanted to live in wooden residential districts,
with higher density, though smaller human-scaled houses with backyards,
rather than in flats. All this is innovative in the Finnish context,
although it harks back to the traditional vernacular urban wooden
buildings which existed before the coming of concrete. In the
Oulu example the project team have created narrow alleys between
the blocks, without car access, for children to play and people
to meet, an innovation in a modern Finnish urban design used to
planning with space. The connecting walkways and alleys between
buildings are small by comparison with the open spaced functionalism
of the post-concrete urban planning, in order to convey intimacy.
Building heights have also been varied. The architects at Oulu
claim a significant influence from the remaining medieval districts
of regional towns such as Porvoo and Rauma, where close, varied,
vernacular buildings are still clearly evident.
In
comparison with concrete, these multi-storey timber buildings
are a new building type for the Finnish construction industry.
During planning, while looking for the necessary skilled work
force to construct the building, Karjalainen and Suikkari found
the relevant skills and knowledge were on the verge of extinction.
Heavy carpentry were part of building until the 1950's, but quickly
faded away as a living skill during that decade. For the wood
town projects there is considerable prefabrication, but nonetheless
a degree of retraining was needed. Karjalainen and Suikkari, therefore
had to initiate training and courses with retired carpenters for
a new generation of architects, engineers and builders to relearn
forgotten skills for designing and constructing the timber the
buildings. The two architects had to set up on-site training areas
to reacquaint builders with the necessary skills. Karjalainen
states, ¨We have the material, we have the tradition, and
now again we have the skills, after having lost them¨.
With
timber factored into the dwelling density experiment a sustainable
dimension was added. Other natural materials are used in construction,
such as linseed paints, which are cooked onto the side of the
walls. The results are houses in yellows, creams, reds, greens
and greys, the latter ironically only too reminiscent of the dispiriting
concrete colourings these buildings are seeking to replace. From
the Oulu Wood Town model there's been a mushrooming of interest
around the country, with at least twenty other wood town districts
in various stages of planning and completion, including a second
in the Oulu district. The managers would like to have seen this
in a central city site, as infill, but to their disappointment
it has also been allocated a suburban position.
Overall
the news is upbeat. Wood Town projects are expanding across many
towns and cities throughout Finland. Other projects include ones
at which is just being completed, in the dormitory towns of Helsinki’s
urban sprawl Espoo and Vantaa. Other cities with exotic Finnish
names, Mikkeli, and Alvar Aalto’s birthtown, Jyväskylä,
are both being developed. One of the oldest towns with a significant
old wood town district Porvoo is also coming to completion, and
Lahti, home to much wood industry and Finland’s sole international
flagship contemporary timberbuild, Sibelius Hall, is excitedly
developing a major wooden town areas in the new Karisto section
of town with plans for accommodation for 10, 000 people. A new
area is also being planned in Helsinki itself, with an international
architectural competition for the planning of Etelä-Myllypuro’s
wooden ”urban village” having recently been judged
and announced.
What
the Oulu academic team have learnt since the initial is that people
like smaller, lower storey living, and the more recent projects,
as well as the ones on the drawing board, are following this research
finding, while at times continuing to include three and four storey
timber build. Future housing construction is going to focus on
constructing two-story, closely-spaced town-like neighbourhoods
because a cluster of interlinked reasons; living comfort, ecology
and economy, returning as it does so to the space and human scale
of older towns and villages. With it’s take-off around the
country the Wood Town’s are demonstrating a viable, attractive
alternative community oriented alternatives to concrete and brick
mid-rise, the prevailing method of planning and construction.
Initially
the pick up has been in smaller towns, and urban areas, although
as can be seen this is changing. Yet, evenso, the larger "stone
cities" as Suikkhari calls them, don’t seem to have
been interested. There were no replies from two of the big four
Finnish cities, Tampere and Turku, grist to his contention that
there is an anti-wood bias. It's also noticeable that Helsinki's
feted Arabianranta Virtual Village development, didn't feel any
need to integrate timber for any but the most decorative of functions.
Still the revitalised use of wood as material has meant there
has been a reassessment in concrete and brick led construction
circles as to the merits of timber, both with professionals and
public alike. In this context the wood town project is very much
a good news story for a country, which had almost lost its timber
tradition. There is also possibilities of the Wood Town template
being exported with interest expressed by Germany, Western Russia
(St Petersberg being so comparatively near) and the Baltic countries.
To
a certain extent one can imagine the template of timber building
Wood Town’s overlaid onto the British context. Urban district
ideas such as Oulu fit snugly into compact city theory, still
beloved in Britain by the Urban Task Force and planners alike.
Timber adds another option to the sustainable palette. Given the
renewed interest in wood as a building material in Britain, and
the need for imaginative compact thinking, this double-win environmental
fusion could well be cultivated here, just as in Finland. At a
RIBA timber seminar two years ago, director Maxwell Hutchinson
mused on wood as the new glass. But whether planners here, in
tudorbethan faux timber-frame Britain might experiment with such
a wood-based functionalist aesthetic is an open question. And
beginning a debate about how local British agro-forestry could
grow radically given the redundancy of much British farmland,
in parts of the country, is a debate that is in need of being
aired. Of course that is before you get near to the town planners
and the building industry, which according to Karjalainen, was
in their instance, difficult enough. The conditions in Northern
Europe are markedly different and cannot be reproduced literally
in our specific temperate neck of the woods. Even so by means
of comparison there are interesting exemplars here to take home
and muse upon. And, whatever the wood reserves of any European
country, Finland’s Wood Town project asks searching questions
about the eminent do-ability in European, including British, contexts
for urban housing schemes being built from this twenty first century
natural material.
Web-links
www.oulu.fi
- for information on the Wood Town Project
www.woodfocus.fi
– for information on Wood Town projects across Finland
GEN
is the Global Ecovillages Network
see www.gaia.org/losdanish
and all the links. It is a very large network now.
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