Residents of nursing home relish comforts of wood.

When Ann Basha walks the halls of the Hoivakoti Nursing Home at Finlandia Village in Sudbury, she does not see a typical institutional interior.

Instead, the long-term care facility in which she lives has warm wood decorating almost every area.

"I walk around this place about three or four times a day," Basha says, "and I like that wood."

She is not alone in her opinion. The use of wood in the 110-bed facility won the Wood WORKS! "Show us your Wood" award in 2001.

Officially opened in September of 2000, the building has also received a Community Enhancement Award from the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce.

Originally from Corner Brook, Nfld., Basha moved to Sudbury with her husband in 1946. The retired accountant and mother of two enjoys socializing with other residents in the wood-accented common areas.

"I like the wood in the dining room, and the front entrance is nice, too."

She also likes the chapel. Basha says the wood finishes on valances, window sills, and selected walls makes Hoivakoti feel more like home.

"It's a lovely place to live," Basha says.

That was the intention of the architect and the design committee, says Erkki Leinala, executive director of Finlandia Village.

"Wood is natural and calming," Leinala says. "It's a soft material in feel and appearance. Overall, wood is comfortable for residents."

He adds that about half of the current residents at the Finlandia Village are of Finnish heritage, and says that wood is particularly comforting to them because it is so much a part of traditional Finnish culture.

"Basically everything in Finland was wood," Leinala says. "Utensils were wood, pails were wood, buildings were wood..."

Two very Finnish features of the facility are the wooden sauna and the chapel, which is modelled on a sixteenth-century church in Finland.

Both buildings have a traditional bright red board-and-batten exterior, explains Leinala. The sauna's cedar interior departs from tradition. Spruce would have been used in Finland, "but all Finlanders use cedar inside saunas now because of its longevity," he says.

This is an example of how aspects of Canadian wood culture have been adopted by those of Finnish heritage, he adds.

Both the church and sauna are the centrepieces of courtyards with large wooden trellises and mature trees, transported fully grown to the site. The courtyards are visible from many windows, and residents enjoy looking out on the trees and colourful buildings.

The Finlandia Village complex sits on 72.5 hectares of land, and the grounds have been intentionally left wooded.

"We try to keep the birch trees and poplars, to maximize the trees in general," says Leinala.

Hoivakoti resident Miriam Halonen, a retired nurse of Finnish heritage, appreciates the traditional touches and wooded grounds.

"My sister and I lived in Finlandia Koti (the seniors' apartments at Finlandia Village) for 10 years," Halonen says. "We admired it so much because there were so many trees and little wild animals."

Of the wood accents at Hoivakoti, Halonen says "wood makes it feel natural and homey. It's really something like you'd want in your own home."

"I think I notice a Finnish influence in the woodwork," she adds, and says she is particularly fond of the wood-paneled library adjacent to the lobby.

The lobby itself is a dramatic wood-paneled area with a soaring ceiling.

Wooden railings, windowsills, and valances on light fixtures enhance the corridors, Leinala says, and wooden walls in the dining rooms, along with other wood touches in the living areas, make Hoivakoti an attractive place to live.

The residential wings have been named for trees. Rooms are either on koivu (birch), kuusi (spruce), manty (pine) or haapa (poplar) wing. Each resident also has a wooden memory box at their door in which to display photos or other cherished mementoes.

Leinala realizes that cost has to be a consideration when using wood as a finishing material.

"The reality is that (wood is) expensive compared to drywall. That's why wood has been used selectively where it will have the greatest impact."

However, esthetic appeal more than makes up for any increase in building costs, he says.

"The selective use of wood is definitely worth it."

Leinala points out that wood has been used decoratively in other facilities at Finlandia Village. As well, Hoivakoti's wood accents provide continuity with other buildings on the site.

He credits Finnish-born architect Seppo Kanerva with creating that continuity. Kanerva was selected in 1983 when planning began for the Finlandia-Koti apartments, and has designed all of the complex's housing.

From the initial planning stages, a committee worked closely with the architect to ensure that the facility would provide residents with the best possible care.

Director of care Miriam Laari-Alton was a committee member, and says the wood finishes contribute to the quality of care.

"I think especially residents of that age group like wood a lot," Laari-Alton says. "You can see things in wood; let your imagination run."

"There is some kind of peaceful feeling" in the facility, Laari-Alton says, and the atmosphere is home-like, not institutional, which is entirely appropriate, because in Finnish, koti means home.