So here’s a handful of pictures that I and one of my siblings took there... just to give you a glimpse of what to expect. (There’s lots to see and this is by no means an exhaustive tour – just an “appetizer” of sorts.)
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This year’s fair is being held in Vaasa (Wikipedia) – in the Suvilahti district, to be exact. The fair just opened a couple of days ago and will close on the 10th of August.
If you’re interested in going, you can either arrive in Suvilahti by your own car or take a train or a bus to downtown Vaasa and then walk to the Central Market Square, where the free, non-stop Housing Fair shuttle bus will take you to Suvilahti. (See the link list at the bottom of this message for more information.)
Several smaller housing fairs are held each year in Finland, but if I’m not mistaken, this one – organized by the Finnish Housing Fair Co-operative – has traditionally had the greatest number of visitors.
The fair exhibits comprise mostly of two-story homes built near the waterfront. They’re not exactly townhouses or terraced houses, but most of them have no front yard and are located right next to the sidewalk, even though the area is clearly residential/suburban, set aside and not a part of any kind of downtown street grid. The houses are, generally speaking, only separated from each other by narrow patches of lawn, patios, driveways and terraces.
One of this year’s themes is energy efficiency. The newly-built fair area gets its heating mainly from the sea via a geothermal heat pump system and two fan-like spreads of geothermal tubing. You can also expect to see lots of narrow staircases, various kinds of balconies, multilevel terrace areas, maze-like floor plans, different variants of saunas, jacuzzi, and bathrooms, the latest in kitchen appliances and home automation, etc.
These are probably not the kind of homes you could buy/build/decorate/equip the way they’re represented in the fair unless you’re in the upper middle class or a wealthier income class. (Some of the exhibited homes are apartments in block houses, but even those are rather fancy ones.) The materials, household appliances, lighting and audio/video systems etc. seem to be from the higher end, more expensive, and more flashy and gimmicky stuff than the usual standard of living in Finland, and the furnishing, furniture, and decoration are straight from the glossy home decoration magazines. (But “fake”, of course, in the sense that they’re mostly the visions of hired interior designers created for the purposes of this exhibition and not necessarily anything that the house-owners will actually use when they move in after the fair is over.)
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I liked the waterfront aspect (what is there not to like!) and the “non-Finnish” (more like Central/Southern European!) feel of the narrow streets and the closely knit buildings. Many of the homes are really quite nice, disregarding some of those gimmicks that have gone a bit overboard, such as building a third floor only for the jacuzzi! At the same time, however, I can’t help but feel a bit claustrophobic about the mostly very smallish rooms and narrow staircases. The houses are neat and tidy, all right, but at least some of them appear to have been built for hobbits!
That said, there are lots of creative design details (glass walls, indoor balconies, terrace-like balconies going around a corner of a house, odd nooks and corners, living rooms with a high ceiling, indoor windows, and even a wooden “lighthouse” tower to keep you entertained while touring the exhibits, and of course many of those homes could be built to a lesser spec if you’re not made of money.
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So was it worth going there? In my opinion yes, even just for the experience alone. It was interesting to see fancily equipped/decorated homes and some of the latest trends in construction, home automation, saunas, lighting, heating, etc. But if you prefer something cheap, simple, straightforward and traditional (not to mention big rooms, wide staircases, and wide corridors!), these high-tech fancy pansy design doll homes with their maze of dozens of small rooms and minuscule staircases may not be your thing. Still, I’d think there’s probably something for everyone.
Going through all the exhibits during one day is possible if you don’t waste too much time at each individual site. You’re most likely going to get blisters on your feet from going up and down all the stairs, though. (I know I did.)
More information:
- Housing Fair 2008 in Vaasa
- Themes
- Opening hours
- Arrival
- Tickets
- Map of the fair area (There are 45 homes/locations to see plus various exhibitor tents and stalls)
- Introductory pages on all exhibited homes
- The official Housing Fair (Guide) website, main page
- The official Housing Fair Co-operative website, main page
- The Housing Fair pages of the City of Vaasa
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