Originally a home for horses, Punavuori Stables now houses humans. The conversion of this outbuilding dating back to 1906 has created 18 brand new apartments in central Helsinki while successfully retaining as much as practicable of the building’s equine heritage.

The first-floor dwellings, which are entered through an inner courtyard, run the full width of the building. Inside, two curved ramps lead to the second-floor foyer. One of the ramps has been topped with new concrete steps, while the other has been retained in the original wood finish and refurbished.

The team have gone to the trouble of retaining the original rough-and-ready surfaces, particularly in the foyer area, and treated them to a carefully executed restoration process. The spaces are laden with distinctive character and alive with layers of history. All the apartments here are built across two floors, which has allowed the designers to retain an existing mezzanine floor. The central space also features reclaimed and refurbished doors, windows, bannisters, stairs and even storage. Any new additions have been sensitively chosen with the utmost respect for the building’s past. The colour of the facade, too, is judiciously picked with careful reference to the surrounding buildings. The red used on the window frames is the original shade.

The new dwellings are all individual in character and come in a variety of sizes with floor areas ranging from 41.5 sqm to 95 sqm. Due to the rear-facing facade’s protected status, there has been limited opportunity for creating new window openings and skylights and internal windows have been added for natural illumination instead. In an exceptional move, new windows have been created in the firewall that opens out onto a neighbouring courtyard, with angled new walls built for them to prevent overlooking.

Punavuori Stables is a first-rate example of how, with careful design and execution, new uses can be found for old buildings with protected status without jeopardising their original character. This rare example of adaptive re-use would not have been possible without the sheer determination of the professionals involved. Punavuori Stables is the result of sustained effort by multiple parties, including the client, designers, specialists, builders and staff from the local authority’s building control department and Helsinki’s City Museum, who have all worked together with creativity and expertise to deliver something truly beautiful. This conversion into residential dwellings of an outbuilding that began as a stables and went on to serve as a shed represents a sophisticated approach to densifying the urban fabric of Finland’s capital city in a way that sensitively accounts for the layers of history present here.