A home at the edge of the world The history of dwellings is as long as human history. The Susiluola (Wolf’s Cave) found near Kristiinankaupunki shows human settlement in Finland to be as old as 100,000 years. Prehistoric people needed a safe den for much the same reasons as modern people need one and are assumed to have learned den-building techniques from animals. Over the millennia, a huge variety of dwelling types have developed - cave-dwellings, grass and mud huts, igloos, tepees, yurts, peat and canvas cabins, and cob, log, stone, and brick houses. Finnish dwellings have always been made of wood. From black-house to smart-house Life on Earth has always been a struggle against severe conditions and natural forces, forcing dwelling places to be changed often to adapt to hunting and gathering, a nomadic life, the changing seasons, natural catastrophes, tribal territories, and threats of war. In modern industrialized countries, the old enemy, nature, has been nearly conquered. The main threats to people and their homes are now other people, through crime, violence, wars, and pollution. 20th century optimism in development radically altered housing in the wealthy, urbanizing industrialized countries, bringing new dwellings, technology, and comforts to almost all of society. The well-off are delighted by spacious, safe private houses, built in a large garden, flooded with sunlight, furnished with natural materials, equipped with all mod-cons, in which, like prehistoric man they can sit by a fireplace and gaze on natural greenery through walls of glass. Many are born without a home Every second, four new children are born into the world, some finding a home in a barrio plagued by disease and social misery or in a slum crushed by lack of space. The world’s more than six-billion population is increasing rapidly, choking the large cities. Right now, over 21 million people live in refugee camps. The models of the first half of the 20th century for the industrial mass production of dwellings and cities have given homes to hundreds of millions, but, as quantity overcomes quality, comfort and environmental quality have been forgotten. The question now is how to give the planet’s huge population durable, healthy, well-lit, and comfortable homes near to recreation areas. Do architects still have an optimistic ideology and belief in the future, like the early 20th century visionaries? Change in post-industrial society’s housing ideology In 20th century Finland, people moved from the country to apartment blocks. Finland now has about one million dwellings in apartment blocks, one million in detached houses, and about 300,000 in terraced houses. In Finland too, an ideal family was created to fit the social norms of the first half of the 20th century, leading to uniform, standardized, easily replicable, industrial models for housing. In modern, multi-value society, individuals want to realize themselves very differently. The archipelago of prefab-unit housing projects attracts no-one. Singles seeking an urban life are moving to the centres of the larger cities, where there are few small dwellings, while most families want to live in detached houses. Globally, a private house in a garden is a rare luxury, but up to 55 per cent of Finns live in small houses. Finland is Europe’s most sparsely populated country, with an exceptional amount of space and nature. Spacious areas of detached houses are, however ecologically dubious, expensive, and are impractical for services, social structure, infrastructure, and traffic. New forms of dense garden-city areas, areas of small houses with linked yards, and 90-120-square-metre detached houses would be workable in suburban areas. They would permit compact urban, detached-house style living, giving most people a direct link to their own little garden. This number discusses small-scale dwellings, and presents recent architectonically interesting Finnish detached houses, leisure dwellings, and saunas. Come in!   1.2.2001 Harri Hautajärvi