Humlegård House
The client wanted to move away from inner city Helsinki, to be closer to nature. A suitable plot was found a few kilometres from the centre of The old ironworks community of Fiskars village, which in recent years has become a centre for culture. The new house stands on a small knoll in the traditional way, so that the north-south direction runs diagonally through the building from corner to corner. The courtyard is bounded on the west by a carport shed, on the south by a field with an old village road winding across it, and to the north the building is sheltered by a high cliff. A traditional type log sauna has been built to the east of the house and Degersj Lake can be seen through the forest leading down to it.
The wooden monolithic building can be seen as a typical peasant house split lengthways. It consists of three parts: two kitchen/living rooms linked by balcony, with a bathroom and walk-in warderobe below. The interior is dominated by a horizontal spruce board, which has been left untreated to allow the structure to breath.
The plywood surfaces in the centre part are finished with coloured translucent varnish: the orange bathroom, yellow ochre walk-in warderobe, honey-colored balcony bathroom and Preussian blue store are all framed in spring-green birch ply.
The facade facing the road is of stout spruce boards. The vertical boarding is fixed with the heartwood facing outwards and the base wood at the top. Each board is cut on the splay to form a drip, and the untreated cladding will gradually turn an even grey colour with time.
The east side of the building is clad with corrugated galvanized steel sheet and the large windows are arranged freely to suit the interior. The high window openings catch the first rays of the sun, which are reflected into the interior by the ceiling.
