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Flexible living house design in Helsinki.
Flexible building in a changing world For Karin Krokfors, architecture is all about creating durable, humane and sustainable designs. She founded Karin Krokfors Architects in 1995 and has not looked back since. From public and residential architecture to urban design, spatial installations and renovation projects, the firm wants to be at the forefront of a new kind of flexible architecture. By Ndéla Faye | Photos: Karin Krokfors Architects
“Flexibility is of paramount importance to architecture as it allows a building to have long-term use and be enjoyed through generations,” Krokfors says. However, she stresses that flexibility does not mean dull or neutral design. “Flexibility and a strong identity are not mutually exclusive; they can support each other,” she points out. The overarching theme in the firm’s designs is sustainability. “On a global
scale, we’re living beyond our means. And with depleting natural resources, we need to be mindful of how much we waste – which is something that we incorporate into our designs by ensuring that our buildings will stand the test of time,” Krokfors says. As well as a number of international competition entries, Karin Krokfors Architects received an honourable mention in the
Urban design international ideas competition of Helsinki South Harbour.
104 | Issue 93 | October 2016
Helsinki South Harbour competition for one of their designs. They are about to embark on a large-scale apartment project and are currently involved in a number of landscape structures and small residential building designs.
‘Healthy’ building “When it comes to materials, we favour sustainable materials with a long lifespan that also age beautifully,” says Krokfors. The firm is at the forefront of innovation: for example, the Kellokas co-housing, situated in the historical old town of Helsinki, is self-sufficient in every way. “Kellokas gets its own energy supply for heating through earth heat and solar collectors, for example. We wanted to build a ‘healthy’ building: