Housing Market Innovation Prize for HOAS Laboratory working for better student living

The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation Tekes and Suomen Asuntotietokeskus [Finnish centre for housing information] have awarded the Housing Market Innovation Prize to the HOAS Laboratory, a joint project of the Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region HOAS and the think tank Demos Helsinki.

The two-year design project aims to develop the communal aspect of student accommodation and to seek ways of reducing housing energy consumption.

”The HOAS Laboratory is an excellent example of applying user-led innovations and new models in living”, Reijo Kangas, Director, Real Estate and Construction Industries at Tekes summarises  the reasons for the award.

Blogs, time banks and energy-saving contests

The first year of the project, launched in the autumn of 2010, focused on building a more diverse resident profile and communality based on mutual dependence.

In terms of practical methods, this has taken the form of blogs published in Ylioppilaslehti, service design with special emphasis on communal living, a time bank encouraging neighbourly help in Kamppi, energy-saving contests between buildings, and communal growing boxes for residents.

“HOAS residents are on average more environmentally aware, cosmopolitan and prepared to experiment with new ideas. It’s a question of how to make intelligent activity corresponding to one’s values easy and attractive”,  says Researcher Tommi Laitio from Demos Helsinki.

As an example, on Junailijankuja in Pasila this has meant pleasant communal areas, making use of walls and floors for communications, and residents’ ‘trustees’. 

Not just for students

In 2012, HOAS Laboratory will focus on how lessons already learned may be converted to actions, practices and widely applicable concepts.

During the spring, a studio course will be run together with the Aalto University Department of Architecture, with the aim of designing the renovation of student accommodation on Jämeräntaipale, Otaniemi. New operational models and housing products will be developed on the basis of the trials. The HOAS Laboratory results will be available for the whole housing field in Finland.

“Due to our approach based on open sharing and the HOAS residents, the project will have far-reaching impacts. The present HOAS residents are future contractors, tenants, decision-makers and property owners”, stresses Heikki Valkjärvi, Managing Director of HOAS.

The HOAS Laboratory project is funded by Tekes and it is linked to the Tekes Tila (Spaces and Places) Programme. The HOAS Laboratory is also part of the WDC Helsinki 2012 array of programmes.