When seen from the street, the house is located behind a rocky hill. As one approaches the house, its white free-form wall comes gradually into sight. The main entrance on the second floor is reached along gently sloping stone-paved stairs and a steel bridge. The living room and the dining room, as well as the library, the kitchen and the master bedroom are located on this floor. The ground floor, which contains the children’s rooms and the garages, is accessed from the courtyard, beneath the main entrance. The basement contains the sauna, a lounge with fireplace and gym facilities.

House Moby Dick House Moby Dick

The white wall with narrow windows protects the house from curious onlookers and divides the lot into a semi-public entrance area and a private courtyard garden.The entrance space consists of a three-storey high steel staircase that winds from one floor to the other. There is a large roof light above the staircase. A two-storey high conservatory next to the kitchen joins the top floors.

The free-form ceiling on the second floor complements the space entity of free forms created by the white wall. Partition walls are straight-lined.The balcony of the master bedroom faces the morning sun, while the joint balcony of the living room and the library gets the afternoon sun. There are also two outdoor terraces.

Structures

The steel columns located on the external wall lines as well as the steel beams supported on them form the loadbearing frame of the building. The outward inclining, curved external wall is made of dimensionally accurate LVL studs as a non-loadbearing structure.

The columns are circular steel profiles (D=140-159 x 6.3-8 mm). The beams in the intermediate floors are welded steel beams with a holorib composite slab cast on top. The top floor is of steel and timber construction.

House Moby Dick

A special feature of the house is the cantilevered terrace part suspended with tension rods from the steel beams of the top floor. The terrace floor is supported on impressive, outward inclining steel columns. The horizontal forces created by the inclination of the columns are transmitted over to the foundation with diagonal tension rods mounted inside the wall. The cast-in-situ intermediate floor slab forms a plate that divides horizontal loads between the stiffening walls.

The ceiling on the second floor is built of overlapping birch plywood boards which facilitate the free form that curves in two directions.

The internal staircase was realised as a steel enclosure, with top surfaces covered by oak boards. The railing in both the staircase and the entrance bridge is made of steel wire. The stairs are supported on the steel bridges that are covered by sandblasted glass.

The frame of the fireplace in the living room is of steel, the fire chambers are of sealing compound and the outside surface of brushed aluminium sheet.

Floor area: 400 m2

Summary
Architect Arkkitehtitoimisto Nurmela Raimoranta Tasa Oy, Prof. Jyrki Tasa, architect SAFA
Contracting Company Helsingin Miltor Oy
Engineering Company Sami Lampinen
City Espoo
Country Finland
Region Europe
Climatic Condition Temperate
Housing Type Single family
Key information
Number of storeys 2
Living area (m2) 400 m2
New-build home yes
Location of steel solutions
Balcony yes
Beams yes
Columns yes
Types of steel used in the building
Long carbon steel yes
Metallic coated flat carbon steel yes
Organic coated flat carbon steel yes

docHouse Moby Dick, Espoo, Finland

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