Planned for completion in 2025, the Pirkkala campus is an exceptionally large construction project – the largest in the municipality’s history. Pirkkala is one of Finland’s most attractive municipalities in terms of its relative population growth, and the number of its residents recently surpassed 20,000, so the need for a larger campus is urgent.

The construction site is busy with activity. The piling and foundations are already complete, and elements are currently being installed.

“The work is going well and we are right on schedule. The pandemic gave us some problems, but we cleared them without any major delays”, says Matti Juola, project manager at Rapp Valvontakonsultit Oy.

Parts of the adjacent Naistenmatka school, built in the 70s, were demolished to make way for the new campus. The old school building could not have served Pirkkala’s needs even after major renovations.

“Long and narrow corridors are a thing of the past. There was no way to turn the building into a modern school”, comments Timo Orjala, facility services manager at Pirkkala municipality.

Multi-purpose facilities require careful planning

The Pirkkala campus will primarily serve the needs of 1,400 pupils in primary and secondary schools and early childhood education, but all residents will benefit from the new facilities. All campus areas will also be accessible during evenings and weekends. The multi-purpose hall is perfect for sports, and the auditorium doubles as a concert hall and a theatre stage. Special attention has been paid to the sound systems, acoustics and presentation technology on the campus.

The elegantly sleek three-storey building has a brick facade and lots of windows and glass surfaces. The building is not structurally complicated, but a lot of effort has gone into the design of the multi-purpose facilities. To ensure smooth access control, the premises will be equipped with smart locks, which will be programmed with both permanent and one-time access rights.

“A key can grant access to a specific path at a specific time. For example, if the user reserves a multi-purpose room for one night, the control system will change access rights only temporarily. The key will not give access to all premises, but only to the appropriate areas”, Juola explains.

The wishes of many different user groups were heard during the design phase. Plans for the individual facilities have been discussed in several workshops, and more will be organised in the future. The plan is for all groups to benefit.

“The workshops have discussed the facilities at a very detailed level. For example, teachers wanted each classroom to have two washbasins, one with a hand washing tap and one with a kitchen tap”, Juola points out.

“The users know what they need, and the designers know how to make it happen. Bringing them to the same table can achieve the best outcome, but also save time and money. And the plumber won’t have to ponder which type of tap to install in the classroom.”

Consistency across the board is the key to energy efficiency

The campus project was praised by MuniFin’s Green Evaluation Team for its moderate energy consumption and carbon footprint.

“The energy efficiency and carbon footprint of the campus were included as criteria already in the tendering phase and used to compare bids. Municipalities have a strong desire to participate in climate work”, Orjala says.

The new campus will be financed by MuniFin’s property leasing, from which the municipality already has previous experience. Tommi Ruokonen, Pirkkala’s CFO, notes that flexible real estate leasing is well suited for long-term projects, as the financing costs will be distributed evenly and the large loan amount will not strain the municipality’s finances.

Property leasing was the best option for Pirkkala, in part thanks to the margin discount granted for green finance. However, the municipality aims for its new projects to meet the green criteria regardless of the financing method.

“This coincides with our climate goals and will also save the municipality some money”, Ruokonen adds.

The YIT Group will take responsibility for the project’s turnkey contract. YIT’s bid included a comprehensive approach to the environmental aspects of the project. When looking at the entire lifecycle of the buildings, the new campus will consume less than half of the energy of its predecessor.

“The new campus will have geothermal heating and cooling, solar panels and effective heat recovery. We didn’t invent any ground-breaking solutions, but just applied what we already know are tried and tested ways to save energy”, says Janne Hynynen, project manager at YIT.

Juola emphasises that environmental factors must be considered consistently across the board. If they are to be taken from paper to practice, they must not only be accounted for in municipal strategies, but also in the tendering requirements.

According to Juola, the tender process should focus on goals instead of details. In addition to environmental aspects, this type of thinking is also well suited for air quality, electricity consumption, heating, lighting or acoustics, for example.

“The best results are reached when the professionals are given clear goals and a free hand to achieve them”, Juola concludes.

Text: Roope Huotari
Kuvat: BST-Arkkitehdit Oy

In early summer, a group of lucky performing artists and other professionals in the industry will move to a building designed for them in the Kaleva district in Tampere. Situated right next to the new tramway line, the building is a collaboration between the Live Music Foundation ELMU and M2‑Kodit, a company owned by the Y‑Foundation Group offering affordable state-subsidised rental housing.

In 2015, the two foundations found that they share similar values, and 2017 saw the completion of their first collaboration project, the Jallukka building in Helsinki. In Jallukka Helsinki, some of the apartments are earmarked for musicians, and some are regular rental apartments that are rented out by M2‑Kodit. In Tampere, the Jallukka building only inhabits music industry and performing arts professionals.

“Tampere is an important music and theatre city, but it doesn’t have an artist house. This made it a natural choice for the second Jallukka”, explains ELMU’s chair Juha Tynkkynen.

The choice of location was spurred by the Tampere Tramway, which will start operating this year and make the city more interconnected. But luck also played a role.

“The MAL agreement on land use, housing and transport stipulates that 30% of the housing production in Tampere must be state-subsidised. We won a plot with a great location and the project moved forward quickly”, says Pekka Kampman, development director at the Y‑Foundation.

A convenient location with good connections is important for musicians and performing artists who often work late at night.

“The Tullikamari concert and events venue is within crawling distance”, jokes Tynkkynen.

Rehearsal spaces accessible in slippers

Jallukka Tampere has 39 apartments in total. Of these, 17 are earmarked for music industry professionals, and their tenants are chosen by the ELMU foundation. The remaining 22 apartments are earmarked for other performing artists, and they are administered by the Y‑Foundation’s company M2‑Kodit, which also chooses the tenants to these apartments. The demand is great.

“We received about 250 applications for the M2‑Kodit rental apartments”, says Kari Komu, CFO at the Y‑Foundation.

Based on the experiences of the Jallukka building in Helsinki, Jallukka Tampere will also have soundproof band rehearsal spaces and other shared facilities, such as club rooms and saunas. Each apartment has its own storeroom, but residents can also rent out storage spaces for their instruments. Although these special facilities bring extra costs, they are considered important.

“Performing artists appreciate having a studio outside their home, but one that they can access by elevator, for example in their slippers. This is why we wanted to include rehearsal spaces in the building, although we had to cover the costs ourselves”, explain Kampman and Tynkkynen.

The apartments themselves are regular rental apartments and fairly small in size. Sleeping lofts provide extra space in top-floor apartments, which are particularly sought after among artists with families.

Strategy dictates choices

The Y‑Foundation’s strategy is connected to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The foundation’s three spearhead objectives are the eradication of homelessness, the economic and social well-being of tenants, and a fair transition towards carbon neutral living. The Y‑Foundation seeks to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035.

“Our strategy states that in new construction, we build energy class A residential properties that are implemented with a high level of material efficiency”, Kampman says.

Jallukka Tampere also represents energy efficiency class A, and it has been financed with MuniFin’s green finance.

“Green finance offers us an interest benefit of a few basis points. This difference may not seem significant at an annual level, but over long loan periods, green finance actually saves us hundreds of thousands”, explains Komu.

Savings are also achieved through AI-controlled heat regulation, which anticipates peaks in heating and keeps indoor air in the apartments at an optimal level.

“The apartments have sensors for monitoring temperature and other indoor air conditions. Based on the data, AI finds the most energy-efficient solution to heating. Thanks to this smart solution, we have already been able to bring our annual heating costs down by 5–10% in our other buildings”, Komu says.

The Y‑Foundation owns more than 17,300 rental apartments in over 50 cities across Finland, so this reduction translates to significant savings.

The Y‑Foundation is also committed to improving the energy efficiency of its existing properties by making renovations and upgrades focused on energy consumption and by increasing the use of renewable energy in heating.

“In the future, we will focus heavily on recycling construction materials. Our goal is to increase the recovery rate of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste”, explains Kampman.

The Y‑Foundation’s sustainable ideology is also seen in how the foundation encourages its tenants to adopt low carbon means of transport. Jallukka Tampere does not have parking spaces for all tenants, but residents have access to a communal car or van that they can hire. The building also has a designated room for servicing and maintaining bicycles, just like Jallukka Helsinki does.

“We are offering residents carsharing in Jallukka Tampere for the first time, but we will offer this option in our other new properties in the future”, promises Kampman.

Meeting places wanted

Jallukka Helsinki has received praise for the restaurant and bar that operates on the bottom floor of the building and offers residents an easy place to meet. In Jallukka Tampere, a spacious club room on the first floor will serve as a convenient meeting place.

“People value a sense of community. The residents of Jallukka Helsinki have organised barbeques together and also with other residents in the quarter. However, the building also offers peace and quiet for those that prefer it”, says Tynkkynen.

Inspired by the Jallukka buildings, the Y‑Foundation will start to include lobbies and club rooms in its other new buildings as well. According to Kampman, the use of shared sauna facilities is on the decrease, as the hopes and wants of residents are shifting.

“Our role is to offer facilities for communal activities. We are also planning to include completely novel and innovative shared spaces in our buildings, such as remote work facilities and a small apartment that residents can book for their short-term visitors.”

What about the ELMU foundation’s plans: will there be more Jallukka buildings?

“The demand seems great, especially in the Helsinki region. We are a small foundation with limited resources, so we’ll take one Jallukka at a time”, muses Tynkkynen.

Written by Hannele Borra