Villa Margo
The home of a four-member family, Villa Margo is located in Helsinki in a dense small-scale residential area. The design of the dark-green-painted house was inspired by the sympathetic and slightly bohemian “Villa Villekulla spirit” typical of the area. The main building, which hugs a small green hill, stands on the same spot where an old, dilapidated house once stood. A garden building functioning as a music studio borders the yard and lot, providing privacy for the garden. The beautiful, old, and lush vegetation already present on the plot was carefully preserved during construction.
The main building follows the geometry of the plot, is two stories high, and has a hipped roof. Its corners and recesses form sheltered outdoor terraces with different characters, opening to various directions. The ground floor houses the entrance hall, utility room, technical room, bathroom, sauna, and a small guest room. A special feature of the first floor is the view from the windows onto a smooth rock surface, already exposed when the old house was demolished. The second floor contains the living room, kitchen, three bedrooms, and a bathroom. From the second floor, long and bright views open through the treetops and over the roofs of the surrounding buildings. The single-story garden building includes a studio space suitable for music production, a small toilet, and a storage room. Its landscape window opens toward the green hill and lush vegetation of the yard.
The buildings are made of solid CLT (cross-laminated timber) structures and use fan-assisted natural ventilation. The main building has a ventilated crawl space; its façades are clad in vertical boarding painted dark green with linseed oil paint, and the roof is zinc sheet metal, which will be painted dark grey in a few years. The garden building’s façades are painted black with traditional tar paint and it features a green roof. The natural material palette continues inside, where light spruce surfaces and dark red terracotta tiles create a cozy, earthy atmosphere. Geothermal wells were drilled on the plot, and solar panels will be installed on the roof of the main building in the future.
