Student-built Aurora log house to debut at Lempäälä Housing Fair May 19

Tampere vocational college Tredu says the Aurora show home will be presented to media on 19 May 2026 at the Housing Fair media day in Lempäälä. The single-storey log house was built collaboratively by students from more than ten vocational fields and is one of Tredu’s largest learning environments. It's a real home for real residents.

Built in partnership with Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK), architecture students handled the architectural design while engineering students managed structural and building services planning. Students Kaisa Sakki and Elli Saari said working on a live construction site was more motivating than classroom exercises.

Aurora is a one-storey, 163 m² house with a 150 m² living area plus 13 m² of storage and technical space. The log frame—made from 270×260 non-settling laminated spruce logs—was supplied by partner company Ollikaisen hirsirakenne. The house carries E-number 115, is rated energy class B, and uses district heating.

Participants came from property services, business logistics, earthworks, media, cleaning, horticulture, wood and arts & crafts, surface finishing, construction, interior design, electrical work, building services, technical design and security. Interiors were drafted using carefully chosen materials from IKEA and feature award-winning furniture pieces produced by wood and arts students: playful items inspired by old gym benches and traditional wooden toys, and a birch headboard made from a branched log.

Aurora will be open to Housing Fair visitors in Lempäälä from 10 July to 9 August 2026. The house demonstrates multidisciplinary vocational learning in a real-world setting and showcases how student collaboration can deliver an ecological, family-sized log home.