The City of Oulu has had very clear plans from the beginning for the housing fair, and the co-operation between the city and the housing fair corporation, as the two organisers of the event, has worked well. This year Oulu also celebrates its 400th anniversary and the housing fair is one of many special events marking the occasion. It is open from the 15th of July to the 14th of August at the harbour of Toppilansalmi Strait. Anyone not from Oulu may be more aware of the housing fair than the city's anniversary, but upon arrival in Oulu they will soon learn about the city's celebrations.

“We expect 150.000 visitors at the maximum”, Raija Ahtola-Marks explains, “of which probably some will be foreigners, mainly those living in the area or summer tourists.” Finland is the only northern European country where a housing fair is organised annually.

The location of the housing fair at Toppilansalmi Strait is a good example of compact area design in a bigger city, and Mrs. Ahtola-Marks hopes that it will become a genuine part of Oulu after its permanent inhabitants have moved in. The area has been designed with great care and is very good for living as it includes a park and recreational areas for families. The buildings are very modern and could be called the forefront in architecture at this point in time and experts were responsible for the design as well as for actual building work. Nevertheless, the project offered those people who bought a property in the area the opportunity to co-operate with the experts and let them realise their dream house. The fair's organisers gave the architects and builders the freedom to plan and realise their projects in the area.

Half of the plots for one-family houses are already sold. The price is not higher than anywhere else downtown and is between 45 to 65 Euro per square metre.

Posters for the housing fair, which can be seen all over town, announce “Suuria Tunteita” – great emotions. When asking Raija Ahtola-Marks why there may be great emotions she explains that the buildings of the housing fair break with old traditions and show a new style of house, especially one-family houses. “Unfortunately the typical Finnish one-family house is just a block and does not look very fancy. The housing fair will show modern, exciting alternatives and people will realise that these houses do not cost more than the old-fashioned ones. They may say ‘Hey, I can have a house like that!' and will think about building a house differently after they have visited the fair.” The one-family houses at the housing fair represent a new style. They look like town houses and are made of a variety of materials, including wood, brick and stone. They are built in a way that the materials of the houses forming one unity are the same. Colour is also very important and complementary to the materials. The order of the materials and colours is from light towards dark, for instance, first in a row are wooden houses, followed by brick and then stone. Four houses are built around a little square so that there is a common place for all inhabitants to meet. Cars can drive through but there are no parking places on that square. “The street going through all the blocks looks rather narrow because the fences around the plots are one metre sixty high and blocks the view from passers-by”, Mrs. Ahtola-Marks reports. “The houses and their plots open up towards the outside and the green.” The fair's theme of light is represented in the building materials, the colours and the huge windows of the houses.

It is certainly going to be very interesting to see visitors' reactions to the new style shown at the housing fair. It is also a very inspiring event for Oulu's 400th anniversary.