Puuhi Community Space Featured in ArchDaily

The Puuhi Community Space by OOPEAA in Soini welcomes the new year with a beautiful winter landscape covered in fresh white snow. With its fireplace ready to warm up the space to create a cozy atmosphere, it awaits a time when it is possible to gather together again.

To kick off the new year 2021, Puuhi is featured in ArchDaily. You can read the full article HERE.

Initiated by the villagers, Puuhi is a space for shared activity for the people of Soini. Designed as an off-grid building with no electricity it has a fireplace that can quickly warm up the open space of the wooden building with high ceilings. It has been intentionally designed so that it can be kept cold in the wintertime when not in use and can then easily be heated with a stove whenever there are activities.

The goal was to create a socially and ecologically sustainable wooden building of high architectural quality using local materials and drawing from local skills and resources. Anssi Lassila of OOPEAA, a native of Soini himself, was asked to design it, and the final buildingis a result of a seamless collaboration between him and a skilled local builder, Aki Alatalo.

The name, ‘Puuhi’, refers both to the word for a drying barn in the local dialect as well as to the purpose of the building as a place of many activities (puuha = activity). Puuhi is like a large farm shed. To accommodate the many different uses of the building, it is realized as one completely open space. The high ceilings of the wooden building provide for excellent acoustics for concerts and performances. The large front window gives the interior space a lot of light and creates a seamless connection between the interior and the exterior. The veranda and the yard further extend the space available for events.

Puuhi is located on a small farm near the Lake IIroo in Soini in the Finnish Ostrobothnia. The traditional red croft from the late 19thcentury on the farm was restored with volunteer labor and the new Puuhi building was built to replace the old sauna that was beyond repair. Drawing from the local tradition characterized by a sense of modesty and pride, the dark, sculpted shape of Puuhi stands in stark contrast to the old red croft. Together they form a place that lends itself to a broad range of activities from informal gatherings to performances of music, theater and art.

For a fuller description of the project, see HERE.