Villa Koppar by Collaboratorio: A Prefab Haven Rooted in Finnish Nature

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Amid the serene pine forests and rocky shoreline of Kopparnäs, Inkoo, just west of Helsinki, stands Villa Koppar — a striking synthesis of ecology and craft. Designed in 2023 by Collaboratorio, the Helsinki-based studio led by Kristiina Kuusiluoma and Martino De Rossi, this family home reimagines what prefabrication can achieve when technology and empathy align.

The home’s prefabricated timber-straw walls, rammed earth floors, and spruce-clad exterior form a tactile, low-carbon architecture that breathes with the rhythm of its natural surroundings. Villa Koppar is both a technical achievement and a soulful response to its site — a home that feels timeless, contemporary, and utterly human.

Building with Nature, Not on It

The concept behind Villa Koppar emerges from a deep dialogue between earth, light, and landscape. Surrounded by windswept pines and the quiet presence of the Baltic, the site invited a design that would sit gently on the terrain while providing refuge and warmth against the Finnish climate.

Collaboratorio’s guiding idea was to create a home that feels grown, not built — one that ages gracefully, rooted in material honesty and environmental responsibility. “We wanted the house to disappear into the landscape over time,” says Kuusiluoma. “The more it weathers, the more it belongs.”

Spatially, the project inverts traditional domestic hierarchies. The living areas and sauna occupy the upper floor, opening onto a broad terrace that captures panoramic views and southern light. Below, bedrooms and private spaces extend into the garden, connecting directly to the terrain. This top-down organisation enhances privacy while allowing the upper level to function as a light-filled social heart.

Prefabrication as Precision Craft

While the house’s organic presence suggests a handmade approach, Villa Koppar is built with cutting-edge prefabrication technology. The structure is a hybrid system, combining rammed earth floors with EcoCoon’s prefabricated timber-straw wall panels — 146 m² of them in total.

Technical Overview

• Location: Kopparnäs, Inkoo, Finland
• Architects: Collaboratorio (Kristiina Kuusiluoma & Martino De Rossi)
• Year of Completion: 2023
• Manufacturer / Prefab Provider: EcoCoon
• House Surface: 180 m²
• Panel Area: 146 m² of prefabricated straw-timber walls
• Structure Type: Hybrid – rammed earth floors + prefabricated straw walls
• Exterior Cladding: Spruce boards
• Roof: GreenCoat steel roof coated with Swedish rapeseed oil
• Assembly: Prefabricated offsite, assembled onsite
• Photographers: Simone Bossi, Niclas Mäkelä

The EcoCoon panels were fabricated offsite under controlled conditions, ensuring precision, airtightness, and insulation performance. Once transported to Kopparnäs, the panels were assembled onsite in a short construction phase that minimised both waste and environmental disturbance.

The rammed earth floors — made with compacted layers of natural soil — act as structural slabs and thermal mass, absorbing warmth from the home’s geothermal heating system and slowly releasing it throughout the day. Together, these systems reduce the home’s energy consumption to passive-house levels while maintaining a warm, breathable interior climate.

Primary Materials

• Straw Wall Panels (EcoCoon): Renewable, carbon-sequestering, and highly insulating; encapsulated within timber frames and finished in natural clay plaster.
• Rammed Earth Floors: Regulate humidity and temperature, reducing reliance on mechanical systems.
• Spruce Cladding: Locally sourced and left untreated to weather naturally into a soft silvery grey.
• GreenCoat Roof: Steel coated with Swedish rapeseed oil — a bio-based alternative to conventional fossil coatings, offering durability and recyclability.
• Clay Finishes: Used internally to create a breathable, toxin-free surface and subtly modulate daylight.

Each material was chosen for its renewability, local origin, and sensory quality. The straw panels provide insulation while acting as a carbon sink; the rammed earth stabilises indoor conditions; and the bio-coated GreenCoat roof ensures longevity without petrochemical finishes.

Spatial Experience: Where Tactility Meets Tranquillity

Inside, Villa Koppar offers a serene, almost monastic atmosphere — a palette of textures and tones that evoke the Finnish forest itself. The architecture does not impose; it frames experience.

Light shifts slowly across clay walls, filtered through large openings carefully positioned to balance openness and intimacy. The scent of spruce mingles with the mineral coolness of rammed earth, creating an interior environment that feels both grounded and restorative.

Spatial Highlights

• Upper Floor: Open-plan living, kitchen, and sauna areas that extend toward a sunlit terrace — a seamless transition between inside and landscape.
• Ground Floor: Private bedrooms with garden access, offering calm and direct contact with nature.
• Sauna: Positioned for panoramic views, merging wellness and landscape immersion.

The collaboration between architects and clients was notably close — a process of shared discovery that, as the architects describe, blossomed into friendship. Every design decision, from the orientation of the terrace to the tactile feel of the clay plaster, reflects a collective commitment to slow, meaningful design.

As one visitor noted, Villa Koppar feels “not so much designed as cultivated — a home that breathes, listens, and evolves.”

Lessons from the Finnish Forest: the Future of Prefab and Design

Villa Koppar represents a paradigm shift in how prefabrication is understood. It challenges the binary of “industrial versus artisanal,” showing instead how digital precision and human sensibility can coexist.

The project demonstrates that industrialised construction can embrace local materials, biogenic systems, and regional vernacular — a vital direction for future housing models in northern climates. Its hybrid structure could serve as a prototype for scalable yet site-specific design that respects both ecology and emotion.

In Collaboratorio’s hands, the modern prefab elements, more than a product, become a landscape experience, an exploration of how to live meaningfully with nature rather than apart from it.

The home embodies a new Nordic sensibility: modest, enduring, and environmentally attuned. It stands as a beacon for a future in which architecture becomes not only low-impact but deeply restorative — a built expression of coexistence.

Photography by Simone Bossi and Niclas Mäkelä

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