The project is located in the new neighbourhood of Vermonnitty in Espoo, Finland. The building is low-cost state subsidized rental housing with a variety of different apartments. The building was the first built project in the neighbourhood and we wanted to give it a strong character.

Furthermore, the residential building is wedged between two large multi-storey car parks and thus most of the apartments open up to the courtyard. Communal space with two saunas is on the top floor as well as a communal roof terrace.

The building is characterized by the red concrete façade and the rigorous grid of glazed balconies. Facade is of prefabricated red concrete elements with horizontal stripes of undulating exposed aggregate.

The entrances are highlighted by brushed aluminium panels. The concrete elements are developed particularly for this project with artist Pertti Kukkonen. The concrete’s red colour was chosen because it works well with standard grey cement and standard aggregate. The undulating surface was developed with several models and the final styrofoam formwork was custom made for this project.