Puu-Vallila. The little wooden paradise.

As the November rain has taken over Helsinki and I am consuming countless cups of tea to cure my cold, it is time to dig out some of the pictures I took last month while everything was still sunlit and full of life. One of the places I went to was Puu-Vallila which forms a part of Vallila, a neighbourhood just north of central Helsinki. Mainly built between 1900 and 1920 for the working classes, this district precisely reflects my definition of an inhabitable environment that is capable of generating happiness and contributing to the wellness of its inhabitants.

Puu-Puu-Vallila, which translates as Wooden Vallila, is exactly what its name suggests – a small district consisting of only two-storey high wooden houses. However, the entire neighbourhood of Vallila is dominated by tall apartment buildings, most of which also date back to 1920’s and 1930’s. These developments were created in order to provide the working-class families with dwellings that would help to improve their living conditions and to establish a safe and strong community. How much of that was actually achieved is another question, but there is certainly a sense of unity which remains in Vallila even today. The names of the architects behind all these designs are certainly notable as well – Armas Lindgren (Finnish architect who worked with Eeliel Saarinen and taught Alvar Aalto), Jussi Paatela (Finnish architect who has designed many hospitals accross Finland), his brother Toivo Paatela, and Karl Hård af Segerstad (the Helsinki City Architect from 1907 until 1921).

The little wooden houses are well-hidden behind their tall neighbours that belong to the Nordic Classicism. Placed tightly next to each other, they form a distinct notion of a ‘district within a district’. And less than a minute after leaving Mäkelänkatu, where the large apartment buildings are raising up from the ground so densely that there is not even a space for a grain of sand to fall, you suddenly get a feel that you have left Helsinki behind and are now entering a small old village.

There is genuinely nothing that compares to a wooden house in my eyes. A unique relationship has evolved between humans and trees, as a result of wood being possibly one of the most versatile organic materials which has been present in our daily lives since the beginning of civilisation. Maybe it is the long history, or maybe the fact that tree is, after all, also a living being and therefore similar to us in many ways, but there is an undeniable invisible force that draws us to it and relaxes the mind once in its presence. Being well-aware of the psychological impacts wood can create, I was not at all surprised to find myself feeling much calmer and happier as soon as I was surrounded by these colourful houses.

Like any building that belongs to Nordic Classicism, these dwellings are very minimalistic, regular and straightfoward, but their appearance is far from dull and boring. The dormer windows cutting through the gambrel roof slopes add a vivid and engaging character to each house, while the boldly coloured wheatherboarding creates that final touch of uniqueness.

Although I just described these houses as minimalistic, once you start to examine them more closely, a number of elegant and delicate details reveal themselves. One of them being the house numbers. Instead of using the flat boring signs that the majority of buildings tend to have these days, here black triangular prisms are attached to each façade. With the house number being engraved on both of the rectangular faces that protrude from the vertical surface, it is easily noticeable from a greater distance, regardless of the side from which you approach the building. But, most importantly, these three-dimensional metal designs help to preserve the overall atmosphere of the past century which still lingers on these streets.

When I mentioned that Puu-Vallila has got all the elements which, in my opinion, define a truly successful and desirable environment for living, I was referring not just to the fact that all the dwellings are made out of wood but also to the level of greenery which encloses and interweaves with this area. Being positioned side by side in a continous line along the streets, these houses are sheltering gardens and internal courtyards of various sizes behind them. In such way, even though the occupants are located in a very central and urban neighbourhood, they still have got their own green spaces where to retreat, without having to actually leave the city. Although it was not the intention to design Puu-Vallila as a garden city, its outline appears to be following somewhat similar principles to those used to design Puu-Käpylä, another wooden district in Helsinki which was built around the same time and for the same purpose as Puu-Vallila (however, Puu-Käpylä is an actual example of a garden city, or rather – district). Here these courtyards and gardens might not be very large and might not receive an adequate amount of sunlight during the day for the people to grow enough food that would allow them to become completely self-sufficient. Nevertheless, they are perfectly suitable for social gatherings or any outdoor activities which would strengthen the sense of community among all the inhabitants.

It is certainly difficult to perceive all the details and peculiarities of a place where you have never lived and where you are just a temporary visitor. Had I met someone who has occupied one of the houses in Puu-Vallila for years, maybe I had just heard stories about how difficult it is to maintain a comfortable temperature inside the house during the summer and winter extremes, or how annoying are the problems caused by all the insects, without even mentioning anything about that psychological nonsense I just described so passionately in 700 words. But seeing that all of these houses are still inhabited, seeing the gardens filled with so many tables, chairs and flower pots, and seeing how well looked-after all the façades appear, I get the feeling that it really is a place which people are happy to call their home.