New Tune – Competition Entry Project

The competition entry ‘Uusi Sävel’ (New Tune in English) proposes a fresh chord in the development of downtown Jyväskylä, the largest city in Central Finland. Designed by TIENO Architects together with Arkkitehtipalvelu, the scheme arranges two sculptural and solid masses at Hannikaisenkatu 27-29 into a composition with a modern and strong identity. Rather than overpower its surroundings, the proposal respects the current landmark, the Milton tower, and the scale of the existing city block.

Infill housing of this kind asks a great deal of its designers. A new residential building set into an established block has to balance density with daylight, privacy with public life, and a contemporary character with the rhythm of buildings that came before it. Here the new volumes reshape and activate the existing courtyard, introducing a new semi-public city square while still carving out a more private, west-facing garden for residents. That gradient from open square to sheltered garden gives the project a clear public-to-private hierarchy, a quality that good urban apartment design depends on.

Living in the heart of the city

The apartments are carefully designed to offer comfortable, high-quality living space in the middle of downtown Jyväskylä. Central-city housing has to work hard to feel calm and generous when it sits among shops, traffic, and shared courtyards, and the layouts here aim to give each home a sense of retreat without losing its connection to the active street. The slanted upper floors, often a constraint in a tight urban envelope, are turned into an asset: they are used to create luxurious two-story loft apartments that make the most of their unusual section.

The result reads as a considered piece of urban design as much as a single building, knitting new homes into the fabric of a Finnish city while adding a public space that the block previously lacked. Sitting in Jyväskylä, a city long associated with strong architectural ambition, ‘Uusi Sävel’ offers a confident proposal for how downtown blocks can grow denser and more livable at the same time.