New wooden housing in Viikki

Helsinki’s Viikki district will be home to 113 housing units in multi-storey wooden buildings. The buildings constitute one of Finland’s largest wooden housing projects to date. It complies with the City of Helsinki’s goals to promote ecological construction and innovations in multi-storey housing.

Wooden multi-storey buildings are more eco-efficient and feature a smaller carbon footprint than similar buildings constructed using alternative materials, because the manufacture and transportation of wooden components and the construction methods of wooden buildings use less energy. Related carbon dioxide emissions are also lower. Furthermore, trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air, which is thus bound in wooden structures of buildings throughout their service lives.  

The new wooden housing in Viikki will be built in the Latokartano area, in the city block bordering on the streets and alleys of Von Daehn, Nils Westermarck and Agronominraitti. The project comprises six buildings, each with total floorspace of more than 1,000 square metres. The buildings will have three or four storeys, one hallway, and an elevator. The average floorspace of the units is 52 square metres. 

The Viikki project is based on the multi-storey Finnforest building solutions of the Metsäliitto Wood Products business area. Metsäliitto (“forest association”) of Finland promotes innovative technology to produce solutions from wood, a renewable raw material.

The project is part of the City of Helsinki’s ongoing programme to promote and develop multi-storey housing. The developer is Etera and the main contractor is Peab.