A couple of years ago, cousins Marie and Sara leased a brand new three-bedroom apartment on Suezinkatu in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki, from Avara. There is also a third flatmate living in the apartment. The apartment, found during the first spring of the COVID-19 pandemic, was leased without public viewing, but the fabulous apartment was impressive also on site.
“We have a sauna and a washing machine and all luxurious things that are not always present in student apartments. And the balcony is amazing,” Marie says happily.
The three women’s co-habitation has gone well. One of the most common reasons for problems are differing views of tidiness, so they wanted a clear solution to it. The flatmates have a cleaning list that rotates so that everyone cleans up something once a week, by Sunday evening.
“You always hear these horror stories about life as f latmates, but we don’t know anything about them. It’s just bliss for us,” says Sara, a fourth-year student of theology and development studies.
Sara and Marie wanted to tell us about their housing arrangement to highlight that living together with your friends while studying can be truly rewarding.
“At best, it can be like this: you get this kind of a wonderful apartment and always have close friends near you. Especially now during these remote times, it’s been a major thing,” says Marie, a fifth-year student of Russian and Estonian languages and literatures at the University of Helsinki.
An urban and tidy area – and a surprising landmark in their own housing company
Before Jätkäsaari, Sara lived in a studio apartment in Kruununhaka, Marie in a shared apartment in Pitäjänmäki. Sara was anxious about living in a small studio apartment during the pandemic times, and the area was too expensive. Pitäjänmäki was a temporary solution to Marie from day one.
The flatmates praise Jätkäsaari’s urban, modern and tidy area and say that they have really enjoyed living there. Local services include Citymarket and S-market grocery shops and a pharmacy, and Kamppi and Töölö, where student health services are located, can be reached quickly by tram, for instance. Occasionally, the flatmates use city bikes, they do not need a car of their own.
“We call this place a haven. It’s a wonderful home, in many ways. It has brought us a huge amount of joy”
The housing company also has a special feature that people come to see from afar: A pipe collection system for waste. The majority of wastes can be sorted into collection pipes, in addition to which the remaining waste fractions are collected in a separate waste room. Sara and Marie also considered it important to get additional recycling containers in their home.
“Every now and then, people come here to see the pipe collection system. My window offers a direct view to the pipe collection system of another building, and there is occasionally a huge crowd there, looking at it. This is clearly a progressive urban living thing,” Marie says, amused but satisfied.
“Once at the university, I came across my fellow students’ presentation on the pipe collection system, so it’s clearly a hot topic,” Sara adds, laughing.
