WESTEND SHOW.

Two terraces of houses show how suburban development can pay more respect to nature, have higher densities, and achieve individuality through participation.

Finland had an extremely severe slump in the early 1990s. Most Western countries did, but Finland's recession was worse than many because it traditionally was an economic pivot between the West and the Soviet bloc, and both sides went down simultaneously. So many buildings just ground to a halt unfinished.

One of these was a car parking structure in a rather posh part of the Helsinki conurbation, Westend, where suburbs meet the sea in a glacially undulating, bolder-strewn, pine studded landscape. The concrete hulk stood windswept and empty for years, a rather sinister ghostly reminder of the ambitions of two successive developers who both abandoned the project. Towards the end of the '90s when the economic climate had improved dramatically, a third developer, Asunto, commissioned Marja-Ritta Norri to make a medium-density housing scheme, using what remained of the previous scheme.

She decided to make two terraces stretching down the east-facing slope with a common semi-private green court between them. Both terraces are entered from the north, and both have small gardens to the south. But the plan geometry of the two varies greatly. The northern one takes its orthogonal form largely from the existing car parking structure. Opposite, the other terrace flexes gently in sympathy with the quietly rounded landscape. A resonance is set up between the two sides of the long court: from its comparatively constricted east end (where most people will approach it), it widens in the middle, then is slightly constrained again. Combined effects of the slope and the constriction, expansion, constriction sequence give the court a sense of privacy and informal generosity, enhanced by the fine trees and the way in which individual private gardens open to the green.

In all, there are 17 houses, all different in plan with sizes varying from 136 to 245 square metres. Plans were finally established with the occupants, but there are several common factors: each has a south-facing terrace, a generous glazed balcony and fireplaces both inside and out. Most living rooms are at least partly double-height, making compact plans light and airy. Houses in the south terrace have generously glazed stairs, which act as hinges to allow the row to flex down the slope. The north terrace has houses of two widths: wider ones (10m) are generous enough to be filled with light from the south-facing windows. Narrower ones (5m) have rooflights over the stairs to ensure that luminance is brought into the middle of the plans.

Construction is brick with a concrete frame. What the Finns call 'cold' walls: chimneys, garden dividers and so on are left fair-faced; house walls proper are given a thin coat of render which allows the texture of the underlying brick to show through. The concrete car park is clad in black granite offcuts that are laid as coursed rubble to form a rough dark plinth to the red and white terrace above.

The scheme is reasonably dense, it respects the landscape and was finalized in detail by participation. Its approach could be adapted for many suburban sites and seriously lower budgets.

Architect

Marja-Ritta Norri, Helsinki

Project team

Marja-Ritta Norri, Ari Sahlman with Arcad Oy H & S assistants Harri Koski, Johanna Nordman, Mariltta Helineva