Puukuokka Block 1 ready

OOPEAA is happy to announce that the first block of the Puukuokka Housing complex is ready!

This week the residents will start moving in into their brand new apartments.

Puukuokka is the first eight-storey heigh wooden apartment building in Finland.  Developed in collaboration with Lakea, it is an energy-efficient trio of multi-story timber-framed flats in the Jyväskylä suburb of Kuokkala, neighbouring the Kuokkala church also designed by OOPEAA.

Puukuokka pilots a low-cost, low-risk financing model for homebuyers. After renting a flat for 20 years, the occupant becomes its owner. Before moving in, the future owner pays a modest down payment (7% of the home´s value). The remaining sum is covered by a State-guaranteed bank loan. The occupant pays off the loan in form of rent over a 20-year period, after which the flat becomes his or her own. The sale price is negotiated and agreed on when the lease is signed.

At the moment we are working on the design of the Puukuokka blocks 2 and 3 which will be built over the next year.

Please take a look at some of the first images, taken right before the completion of the first of the three buildings of Puukuokka.

Photocredit: Mikko Auerniitty