There is a constant shortage of affordable creative workspaces in the capital. The old high school in Vuosaari, which is due for demolition, offers such spaces for ten euros per square metre.
Right next to Vuosaari metro station, Columbus shopping centre and Vuotalo cultural centre, Vuosaari Old High School has found new tenants.
The building will be used for the last time in the spring semester of 2021. Now a high-rise building is planned for the site, but until then the premises have been rented to the Tilajakamo cooperative.
Tilajakamo, for its part, rents out the premises of the old high school building to various creative industries. The premises are home to a samba percussion group, visual artists, a Japanese textile designer, a Senegalese musician and several bands.
– We would love to take more tenants here. The strange thing about the place is that, although the location is good and the metro station is next to it, for some Helsinki residents this is too far and out of the way.
Empty buildings for artists’ workspaces
The operation model of the tenant chamber is interesting. There are constantly buildings in various parts of Helsinki waiting for repair, new use or demolition. Two to five years can easily pass between permit issues, bureaucracy and a suitable time, and the buildings are mostly empty during the waiting period.
Tilajakamo tries to make use of this time in between by renting out buildings to people in the cultural sector as work spaces. The rents are kept low because the premises are not in good condition and the cooperative does not seek financial profit from its activities.
– There is quite a lot of demand for reasonably priced workspaces, and at the same time, the city has a lot of empty properties that they themselves do not use effectively for such purposes, Lehtonen sums up.
You can rent a study room from Vuosaari high school for around ten euros per square meter. The price is affordable, but the premises have their shortcomings: the building has suffered from indoor air problems, and it is already known that the premises will be used by the cooperative for barely a couple of years longer.
In the fall, the cooperative turns ten years old. During that time, premises have already been rented from the former hospital in Lapinlahti, the old University of Applied Sciences Metropolia property from Bulevard, and two already demolished office buildings in Kallio.
According to Lehtonen, many things have changed in ten years, but from the moment a property that is still vacant is found, it takes an unnecessarily long time to put it into use.
Now, however, the development and enhancement of the temporary use of premises is included in the city’s real estate strategy, which can help operators like Tilajakamo.