Mikontalo is a large student housing complex in

Hervanta Hervanta is a large suburb, or satellite city, of Tampere in Finland, located next to Hallila some 10 km south of the city centre. Home to a population of over 26,000, Hervanta is best known for its prefabricated blocks of flats. The total ...

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Its exact address is Insinöörinkatu 60, 33720 Tampere, Finland. With affordable rents, easy availability, and location near the Hervanta campus of

Tampere University Tampere University (, shortened TAU) is a Finnish university that was established on 1 January, 2019 as a merger between the University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology. The new university is also the major shareholder of Tampere U ...

, it is a popular dwelling for first year students and exchange students. Mikontalo was built during the period 1978–1980. Representing brutalism, it consists of 4 blocks with 12 floors where 767 dwellings are situated. Mikontalo offers for its inhabitants saunas (two per building), a free gym, public lounge with a TV-set, Nintendo Wii, Soundsystem, board games, coffee machine and microwave; laundry room (5 washing and 2 drying machines), cable TV, and connection to the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. The building went through major renovations from Summer 2007 until Summer 2009. During the renovation juliet balconies were added to some of the apartments. Also the façade panels were painted with bluish grey color, replacing red, orange and yellow colors.

Mikontalo Lights

In early December 2007, the D block of Mikontalo, while undergoing the reconstruction, was the scene of the Mikontalolights project. The object of Mikontalolights project was to create the world's physically largest colored graphics platform by using the

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mat ...

s of Mikontalo's D block as light

pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...

s. The platform was used for playing

Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appro ...

and other games and present demos created by the students of

Tampere University of Technology Tampere University of Technology (TUT) ( fi, Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto (TTY)) was Finland's second-largest university in engineering sciences. The university was located in Hervanta, a suburb of Tampere. It was merged with the University o ...

. The project climaxed on December 4 when the new lights of the building were lit. The goal was to gain global visibility for Tampere University of Technology and the rich student culture of city of Tampere. Mikontalolights was a part of the 42nd jubilee year of the Student Union of Tampere University of Technology. Mikontalolights was fully carried out by students who were willing to give their work contribution besides their studies. TOAS and the building contractor of Mikontalo Rakennustoimisto Palmberg Oy made it possible to accomplish Mikontalolights by providing Mikontalo as a platform for the project.

References

External links

Mikontalo page on TOAS
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Mikontalo on Google 3D Warehouse
{{coord, 61, 26, 47.40, N, 023, 51, 10.80, E, scale:30000_type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures in Tampere Student housing