The residential complex "Kotisatama" ("Home Harbor") is located in the new area of Kalasatama ("Fish Harbor") near the center of Helsinki. It appeared at the site of port facilities near the Hanasaari power station; the subway is already running there. The complex enables older people to live together with neighbors - to maintain an active lifestyle, sharing a variety of activities with them. This is not ordinary housing for retirees, but something like a commune, a response to the atomization of modern society, which is especially acutely felt by older people who risk dropping out of public life upon retirement. And when you take into account the growing life expectancy, the problem of loneliness of people of mature age looks even more acute, and its solution is even more urgent, especially for Finland, one of the fastest aging nations in the world, where, moreover, costs were reduced in the 1990s for social support for pensioners. 84 people under the age of 80 live in the house; an important condition - they are all completely independent: although the complex is completely barrier-free (like most modern buildings in Finland), it does not provide conditions for residents who require constant special care.
This is the second project of the Aktiiviset seniorit group - "Associations of Active Seniors": its members have either recently retired or are planning to do so soon. To create the most suitable home, they studied trends in the design of senior housing outside Finland and even visited such complexes, for example, in Berlin. Anyone aged 48 and over could become residents; if it was a family, it was enough to have one older relative in its composition. In total, the house has 63 apartments ranging from 38.5 to 77.5 m2. This is not affordable housing: all members of the cooperative belong to the middle class. At the time the Kotisatama was commissioned, a square meter cost about 4,372 euros there.
Architects Kirsti Sivén & Asko Takala Arkkitehdit Oy are renowned for quality housing. But this does not mean that their projects are extremely expensive: they are also known for their social housing estates, housing for the elderly and nursing homes.
The nine-story Kotisatama, completed in June 2015, differs from other works by Siven and Takala in the active participation of future residents in the work on the project. Since the members of the cooperative are essentially construction investors, they were able to be involved in the “co-design” process from the very beginning. Therefore, they determined the layout of their apartments, the palette of materials, as well as the program and solution of various public areas that are very important for the project: after all, it is based on the idea of community building and voluntary cooperation.
Among the common areas (in total they occupied about 500 m2) there is a kitchen and a dining room, an office, a library, a laundry room, rooms for hobbies (there are weaving and turning machines, etc.). The dining room is designed for those who would like to eat together once a day (this is about half of all residents): they are on duty in the kitchen, and all residents take turns cleaning the common areas. According to them, this is not at all difficult and not strange: the home space does not end at the threshold of their apartment, so living rooms and a library, corridors and staircases are the same house as their own kitchens or hallways. There is also a guest apartment for visiting relatives or friends, and all kinds of useful little things like a "shower" for washing bicycles and dogs at the front door.
Asko Takala says that he was surprised by a very modern outlook on the life of his customers: in their approach to the project, they more than once turned out to be more progressive and daring than himself. Information screens in common areas, where you can view public transport schedules, weather forecasts, house duty schedules, announcements, and so on, are a good example of this "modernity".
Public spaces are surprisingly functional, youthful and fresh; the furniture for them was chosen by the residents themselves, who carefully checked all the chairs for comfort before agreeing to a purchase. In the dining room, which also serves as an assembly hall, there is a scarlet piano.
Red brick facades create a pleasant and at the same time "practical" image. The existence of spacious public areas outside is betrayed by extensive glazing surfaces from the street side. All apartments received glazed balconies with built-in storage rooms. The house is located in a new area near the water, and so that even those residents who do not have breathtaking panoramas from their windows can admire the city, the sky and the sea, open and glazed terraces are arranged on the upper floors, and also rooftop greenhouses where you can grow vegetables and herbs. There is also a common room with a fireplace, two saunas, a barbecue on the open terrace; If the meal at the grill party was too filling, the extra calories can be burned off at the gym. There are two bike storage facilities on the ground floor: a network of bike paths has already been laid in Kalasatama.
The cooperative occupies half of the complex-block: the second part is “ordinary” housing for the elderly (aged 55+), where the Helsinki Department of Housing acted as an investor. The architects are the same there - Siven and Takala.
A gigantic complex of skyscrapers and a shopping center is now growing next to Kotisatama: residents, in general, are satisfied that a whole range of necessary shops and services will appear nearby, although such a neighborhood will not allow small shops and consumer service establishments to open in the area. important for creating a "habitable" atmosphere.
