Villa Sydän: Rajamäki Family Creates Three-Generation Home at Lempäälä Housing Fair

"We didn't just build a house, we built a home with a heart," says Minna Rajamäki. The Rajamäki family built Villa Sydän in Lempäälä so three generations can live together in separate units; the house is on display at the Lempäälä Housing Fair from 10 July to 9 August, YLE reports.

The layout balances proximity and independence. Minna and Mikko share one half with their 17- and 14-year-old daughters, while Mikko's parents, Olavi and Maria, occupy the other. The home is one of several show houses at the fair; earlier coverage featured a student-built Aurora log house at the event.

The design is flexible, allowing the older generation to downsize later, a daughter to try independent living in a studio apartment, or rooms to serve as a grandparent suite or reception space. It is low-maintenance by design: stone yards replace lawns and surfaces are easy to clean.

Mirkka Danielsbacka of the University of Turku notes that multi-generation households were common during Finland's agrarian era but declined after rapid urbanization and the growth of the welfare state. With services retracting and demographic pressures rising, families like the Rajamäkis answer practical needs while also exposing potential caregiving strains. Researchers at the University of Turku and the Institute for Population Research are studying multi-generation households using Statistics Finland's registers to learn who chooses this model and where they live.