AAI Housing Solutions Lecture: ILO Architects

The AAI are thrilled to host Helsinki based practice ILO Architects for the final lecture in our Housing Solutions series, an exploration of qualitative issues in contemporary housing, showcasing a selection of international & Irish case studies in affordable, cooperative, experimental and social housing.

With thanks to the Trinity College Dublin School of Social Work and Social Policy for their collaboration on this series.

ILO Architects is a Helsinki-based architecture practice rooted in user-centered and radical thinking. Founded in 2019 by Pia Ilonen and her long-standing colleagues, the office specializes in transforming public buildings and developing raw-space housing projects, based on the open building approach.

In this concept, residents are given the freedom to infill largely unfinished units, raw spaces, according to their own needs and resources, which may evolve over time.

All completed raw-space building projects to date have been developed under Helsinki’s Hitas system, a now-discontinued city regulation that limited the initial sale price of apartments to keep them below market level and more accessible. In the case of raw-space housing, the resale value was not regulated, since each apartment was uniquely developed by its residents.

At the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, Freespace, Pia Ilonen was invited to the international exhibition to present the concept through the first case study house Tila.

In this lecture, ILO Architects’ Irina Garnets will present their raw-space housing projects and discuss the conceptual framework behind them. She will explore how this approach shifts the architect’s role from author to mediator, enforcing user agency.