New Standards presents the history and legacy of Puutalo Oy (Timber Houses Ltd.), a Finnish industrial enterprise that was established in 1940 to house war refugees and expanded quickly into a worldwide exporter of prefabricated wooden houses. The exhibition is Finland’s presentation for the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, held from May 22nd to November 21st, 2021. This site presents the exhibition and a possibility to contribute to the Puutalo story.

Guided tour of the Pavilion of Finland

The Story of Puutalo
1940–1955

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Old black-and-white photo, two small wooden houses with gardens, three women. — Women plant potatoes in the Nekala area of the city of Tampere. During the war period every family sought to produce at least a part of their own food through gardens at home. Photo © ELKA

420,000
refugees

During the second world war, Finland faced a daunting refugee crisis when more than 11% of its citizens were forced to flee their homes along the eastern border. In 1940, the urgent need to resettle 420,000 people brought architects and industrialists together to form the pioneering industrial partnership.

The Puutalo consortium was established by 21 Finnish timber companies in order to coordinate the design and production of wooden houses, but it also created a model of manufacturing and construction that helped to modernise Finland’s building industry.

MARTTILA, HELSINKI
FINLAND
1941–1943

Old black-and-white photo, five wooden houses along a small gravel street, Finnish flag up in a flagpole. — Photo © ELKA

Frosty ground, a man in the garden of a blue wooden house. — Photo © Juuso Westerlund

Collage of two photos. On the left a dining table full of books, papers and plants, a red paper star hanging at the window. On the right a girl with a red Christmas hat sitting in a green chair in a room with green wall-paper. — Photo © Juuso Westerlund

8,800,000 m²

Puutalo means wooden house in Finnish, and timber construction makes good use of the nation’s most abundant natural resource. With forests covering more than 76% of the Finnish land area, Puutalo elements were manufactured in a distributed network of factories around the country and shipped in packages that included everything necessary to assemble the houses. In total, Puutalo produced almost nine million square meters of buildings, around 120,000 houses, over a 15 year period, helping to define a new standard of living in the post-war era. Puutalo houses were designed by some of Finland’s leading mid-century architects, but the modest exterior of these homes belies the sophistication of their manufacturing, assembly and spatial organisation.

Old black-and-white photo. In the background an army of small wooden houses, in the front stacks of wooden elements. — Stacks of pre-cut material stand ready and waiting for assembly in northern Colombia. Some 1500 houses were built in the city of Barranquilla from 1955 to 1956 to accommodate working class citizens. These Puutalo homes can still be found throughout the Simón Bolívar neighborhood today. Photo © ELKA

The promotional film Nyt valmistamme talon (Now we build a house) produced by the Puutalo corporation in 1948 demonstrates the construction of a single-family house type OK-105 'Tikka'. This exhibition house was erected temporarily in a park area in the centre of Helsinki. The film is in Finnish language with English subtitles. © Yle – the Finnish Broadcasting Company

Barranquilla
Colombia
1955–1956

A perspective line drawing of a small wooden house. — Image © ELKA

Orange house with big trees in front, white shutters. Evening light, man standing at the doorway. — Photo © Juuso Westerlund

Collage of two photos: a bird in a cage in a blue room on the left, a man in shorts and tank top in a room with pink curtains on the right. — Photo © Juuso Westerlund

30+ countries

From 1940 to 1955, Puutalo shipped buildings to more than 30 countries around the world, quickly becoming one of Finland’s most widespread architectural exports. The flexibility of the building systems used by the company allowed for significant variations in design, and different models were tailored to a wide range of climates, functions and cultural conditions.

Due to Finland’s geopolitical position, the Soviet Union received the largest amount of Puutalo houses, while substantial numbers went also to Germany, Poland, Israel, Colombia and the UK. The export of wooden houses allowed Finland to import goods such as coal, iron, wool, lard, coffee and tobacco. The exhibition documents this history of production and exchange to reveal the contribution that the company made to Finland’s international reputation for design and manufacturing.

Old black-and-white photo, wooden elements being lifted from a train to a ship. Harbour crane in the background. — Panels manufactured in Puutalo corporation’s factories are loaded on a ship in the South Harbour of Helsinki in the 1950s. Photo © ELKA

Aarhus
Denmark
1946–1948

Old black-and-white photo. Two wooden houses, a lady with a child in her arms in front of one. — Photo © Århus Stadsarkiv

Collage of two photos, red lounge chair with a dog and stool with a cat on it, wooden armoire, photo frames on the wall, tall plants. On the right a child riding a play horse, a small blue wooden house in the background. — Photo © Juuso Westerlund

Old black-and-white photo. A living-room, windows behind an armchair with a lady and a child, two decorative lamps, wooden lacquered desk, oriental carpet. — A mother poses with her child in their new home produced by the Puutalo corporation. The interior is typical of middle-class ideals in Finland during the 1940s. Photo © ELKA

80 years

In addition to creating an immersive exhibition experience, the New Standards project aims to research and document the design, development and cultural legacy of Puutalo housing. As part of this effort, a series of case studies show how these modest houses have evolved in response to a variety of climatic and cultural conditions as well as the changing needs of many generations of residents.

Today, after almost 80 years, many of the homes built around the world by Puutalo are still occupied. They continue to represent a model of mass housing that raised living standards through quality design while at the same time leaving space for difference and individual expression.

Gable of a small ochre yellow wooden house.

Gable of a small dark-grey wooden house.

Gable of a small orange-yellow wooden house.

Facade of a small dark-blue wooden house.

Facade of a small turquoise wooden house.

Facade of a small bright-red wooden house.

Facade of a small cream-colour wooden house.

The New Standards project continues to document existing Puutalo buildings around the world. The façades here are found in Finland, Denmark and Colombia. Photos: Philip Tidwell.

The world of Puutalo

As a global pioneer in the prefabrication of timber structures, the Puutalo corporation spread wood from Finnish forests across the globe in the form of schools, hospitals, dormitories and single-family homes, thousands of which remain in use. Using original company documents from the Central Archives for Finnish Business Records (ELKA) in Finland, the New Standards project is working to locate and document project sites in an online map.

Explore the countries of Puutalo imports by clicking the dots on the map. You are also invited to submit information for existing sites and new locations that have not yet been documented. Welcome to the world of Puutalo!

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Texts © Laura Berger, Philip Tidwell, Kristo Vesikansa
Contemporary photography © Juuso Westerlund
Archival images © Central Archives for Finnish Business Records (ELKA)
Aarhus archival image © Århus Stadsarkiv