Hurmaava lähiö. Energiatehokas lähiökorjaaminen -hankkeen loppujulkaisu

The urbanization of Finland was based on suburbs of apartment buildings. Nearly half of the Finnish apartment houses were built in the 1960’s and 1970’s. These apartment houses were originally planned to be used only 30 years. 40 to 50 years time has passed and there are about half a million apartments like these in the need of different kind of technical repairs. Thus the moment of rehabilitation of the suburbs is now, at the latest. There lie possibilities in this large task of the built environment. As part of the international collaboration for mitigation of the climate change, Finland is committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to a sustainable level. By 2050 80% is aimed to be cut off from the level of 1990’s. If suburbs are repaired to become even a little bit more energy-efficient and supportive to sustainable lifestyles, this action has meaning for these national aims merely due to the great amount of suburbs there are to be repaired. The culture of dwelling has changed in 40 years. We need different apartment sizes and types than before. The housing market is lacking many types of urban dwelling such as variations of detached houses in an urban environment. New housing types that are not available elsewhere can be developed in suburbs in pursuance of their renovation. Project ENTELKOR, i.e. "Energy efficient rehabilitation of suburbs of concrete element apartment buildings", has started to map these possibilities of suburb renewal by asking: What has not been explored so far? The search for new research subjects was combined to traditional long term research and development work. This gave birth to four themes: recycling, energy, ecosystem of the city and strategies.