**3. Research methods**

This study was carried out mainly as a literature review including international peer-reviewed journals and similar research projects, supported by materials collected during "Effects of wooden buildings on neighborhood-level" at the Tampere University—a project that is part of the Ministry of the Environment's Growth and

#### *Wooden Facade Renovation and Additional Floor Construction for Suburban Development… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101620*

Development from Wood support program involves cross-sectional data from the Pukinmäki-Savela (postcode 00720) area in the City of Helsinki, Finland [58]. The focus of the project was to study the attitudes of residents and users of a neighborhood toward wooden buildings and to use this information in the planning and infill construction of urban areas. One potential method is the construction of additional floors to suburban apartment houses, as an ecologically sensitive engineering solution to support the decarbonization of buildings and a zero-energy building approach.

It is worth mentioning here that Pukinmäki is a district in the northeastern part of Helsinki. The area was added to Helsinki in 1946, and the first few apartment blocks were built in the 1960s. Most of the apartments are from the 1970s and 1980s. On the other hand, Savela (**Figure 4**) is a residential area in the Pukinmäki district. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Savela was under threat of partial rezoning and segregation of single-family homes in the city as green space. However, over time, the area turned from a detached area to an apartment area, with mostly low-rise apartments built in the 1980s and 1990s.

The sample, 800 Finnish-speaking people aged 18–69 in the area, was chosen randomly. A total of 243 responses were received for the entire survey, corresponding to a response rate of 30%. The survey data generally represented the population of the selected area, but there were also minor differences in representation among background variables such as gender and age. For example, in terms of gender, 54 and 57% were female, 46 and 43% were male in the whole population and sample, respectively. On the other hand, in terms of age groups, the older population was slightly overrepresented, while younger respondents were slightly underrepresented; in the whole population and sample, 20 and 30% were aged 60–69, and 25 and 15% were aged 18–29, respectively. As regards education level, high school and university graduates constituted 73% of the entire population; this rate was 90% in the sample group.

Focusing on facade renovation and additional floor construction, the survey was divided into five main parts. The first part was about background information, and in the second part, the participants were asked about their opinions of timber in buildings. The third part was about the dwelling preferences (number of floors, facade material, etc.), and in the fourth part, the opinions on the wooden Eskolantie apartment houses were asked. In the last part, six different renovation alternatives were

**Figure 4.** *Pukinmäki—Savela area in the city of Helsinki (Finland).*

#### **Figure 5.**

*Residents' perception of wood in (additional) construction, wooden facade renovation, and wooden additional floor.*

presented, and the residents' opinions on wooden additional floor construction and facade renovation were asked.
