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News • Lappeenranta • Finland • 2012-05-15

Homes at the Lappeenranta Holiday Housing Fair to Be Heated by Joint District Heating Centre

The Holiday Housing Fair area in Lappeenranta, Finland is now under construction. The two-week fair, scheduled to begin after Midsummer, will introduce holiday housing in the close proximity of services and showcase a variety of holiday home alternatives built in a historically important location. Also featured will be a local district heating centre, constructed jointly by One1 Oy and Lappeenrannan Energia, which will distribute heat energy extracted from Lake Saimaa to holiday homes in the fair area. In total, nine homes will be connected to the heating centre.

“Over the years in which Holiday Housing Fairs have been held, energy issues have gained an increasingly important role. In Lappeenranta, we will introduce a unique way of generating heat for a holiday housing area. The fair’s houses have a joint thermal power station, whose hybrid unit produces 80% of the heat by means of several energy sources: geothermal heat from Lake Saimaa, solar energy and natural gas – which is used to even out consumption peaks in wintertime. The station also uses electricity produced from renewable sources,” says Heikki Vuorenpää, Fair Manager for Housing Fair Finland.

The fair features, in all, 17 newly constructed buildings, as well as a renovated sauna building beside Lake Saimaa. The new houses have no shoreline of their own, but they are all close to the lake. On the shoreline path, visitors can explore unusual saunas of various types, thanks to the ‘Sauna World’ portion of the Holiday Housing Fair. Examples of temporary saunas exhibited in the area are an egg-shaped sauna and a sauna designed by students at Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT).

Holiday Housing Concentrated Near Services

The theme of the fair is ‘holiday housing close to services’. Dense construction in the vicinity of services not only promotes a sense of community but is also ecologically sound: shops, restaurants and activities can all be found within walking distance. The fair site, in the Rauha area, is part of a larger resort, Saimaa Gardens, in which Lappeenranta wants to invest heavily. The diverse services in the area include spas, a multipurpose arena, a harbour for small boats and – a plan for the future – a shopping centre and a golf course.

“The area will develop strongly over the next few years. There are plans for a family adventure park, and a shopping centre of over 7,000 square metres is being constructed next to Holiday Club Saimaa,” says Deputy Mayor Kari Korkiakoski, who adds that an 18-hole golf course will also be completed in Saimaa Gardens next year.

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