Jyurki Tasa, as one of the founders of NRT Architects, designs public, residential and office buildings. But he also "on special orders" develops original projects of private villas. Among them are the well-known house of his cousin and the Moby Dick mansion in Espoo.
Now a newcomer has joined this company, this time - a house for a capital customer. Villa Asikainen is located in the Munkkiniemi district of Helsinki, on Tiilimäki street, well known to architects: there is the workshop of Alvar Aalto.
The new villa on the opposite side of the street is a cream-colored three-tiered building. From the side of the roadway, its appearance is determined by the energetic motive of the "wave", although the protruding wall protects the privacy of the owners from the views of outsiders. The owner's family has several cars, and therefore a lot of space has been allocated for them.
The main areas at the entrance level are a double-height living room, dining room and kitchen area, a sauna and a guest room with a private bathroom. The dining room and kitchen as well as the bedroom open onto the backyard.
The connection between the levels is provided by a staircase made of glass and steel with wooden steps, which is open to the interior space. For the convenience of guests, the house is equipped with an elevator, which in Finland is considered a great luxury for private houses.
On the upper floor there are two children's bedrooms (which have their own bathrooms and a place to sleep for friends), a master room with a large terrace and a hall with an open fireplace. There is also an office of the owner of the house - an inventor and a businessman. In addition to this large terrace, from where you can see the sea, there is a small one, hidden from prying eyes.
From the rear façade, you can see that the building has three floors: on the lower tier there is a gym, utility rooms, a meeting room with its own entrance, a wine cellar and a small but luxurious cinema. The house has three fireplaces and an outdoor fireplace.
Jyurki Tasa carefully coordinated the building with the context: the cubic volume of Asikainen echoes the outlines of other houses on this street, and the tone of the facades also matches the environment (usually the architect uses much brighter colors for his residential buildings). The rear facade is functionalist-modernist in its appearance - also in the spirit of the neighboring buildings. However, over time, it will be partially hidden by an overgrown garden.
The western part of the site is given over to leisure, and the eastern part - to household needs, these zones are separated by a garage. Much attention has been paid to practical details that make keeping order as simple as possible: in the basement there is a special room for ironing, storage of clothes, etc., the house has a lot of space for storing clothes, suitcases, sports equipment.
The interior design was carried out by the Torpedo studio from Tallinn.
Of course, the house of the Asikainen family can be called exclusive, but any private order and cooperation between a client and an architect can give an excellent result, and hundreds of square meters and a cinema in the basement are not at all a necessary condition.
