Transforming the Kuopio School for the Blind into Housing

The project for the Kuopio School for the Blind transforms the former school grounds into a vibrant city block of wooden housing. The starting point for the new construction is the scale of the block’s historic school buildings, the surrounding urban structure, and, the very variable typology.

A Wooden Block of Housing with a Diverse Range of Apartments

The new buildings in the block have a wooden structure and the facade material is also wood. The color scheme varies from one building to the next taking its que from the surrounding park and the neighborhood nearby. Behind the old manager’s house, in block B, a small apartment building peeking out from behind the manager’s house marks the end of Vuorelankatu. The dark colored building figure blends into the landscape, and thus does not stand out too much.

The apartment typology in the block is diverse. It consists of apartments of different sizes that are centrally accessible via stairwells with elevators. There are also multi-level townhouse apartments with their own entrances, and apartments located in low-rise buildings without elevators. The single-level apartments have their own access or a shared cold staircase. The common areas shared by the entire block are located on the ground floors of the buildings. In addition, there are shared storage areas in the basement of the buildings.

A Village-like Block in Dialogue with the Surrounding Landscape

The apartments generally open to the south and west. The townhouse apartments on the ground floor have their own courtyards while the apartments in the upper floors feature glazed balconies. The staggered composition of the buildings makes it possible to offer versatile and multi-directional views in the apartments.

All the buildings are placed in such a way that the old and valuable trees on the plot, especially old pines, could be preserved as widely as possible. The area next to the school buildings, on the side of Vuorelankatu, will be kept undeveloped. The park-like milieu will remain intact. The parking is connected along the route that runs through the plot. It is divided into smaller entities making it possible to preserve areas of trees in between. The yard area is kept as natural as possible. The parking area and other access routes are either gravel, paved with a grass seam, or otherwise permeable.

The ensemble of the meandering buildings bordering the courtyard creates ideal conditions for a communal village-like environment. It is a block with a strong identity characterized by its wooden architecture. It enriches the whole providing a new layer that is in harmony with the historically valuable environment of the area.