Residents at SATO senior homes building take up #valohaaste

The clubrooms and windows of rental home provider SATO's buildings will pour light into the darkness of November and December when residents join forces to take up the #valohaaste Light Challenge of Lux Helsinki.

The light installation at Kauniinilmankuja 3 in Vuosaari is on display until 17 December.

SATO has partnered with light festival Lux Helsinki for the second year running and is arranging light art workshops at ten of its buildings so that residents may get together to create decorations and installations for their windows. The idea is not only to spend time together and to delight passers-by but also to encourage other SATO buildings and buildings in their neighbourhoods to take up the challenge.

Among the first to respond were the residents of the senior homes building on Juorumäenkuja in Puotila, who gathered in the building's clubroom around a table heaped with Christmas goodies as well as piles of scissors and tissue paper in a rainbow of colours. Building resident Pirkko Kuokkanen deftly cut paper into a candle to adorn the building's front door, where it will glimmer with the lights from inside the building.

For Eevamarja Kontturi, this was the first time in quite some time since she did arts and crafts. It has not been her habit to put up self-made decorations on her windows but now she created a total of six pieces.

"What a paper-cutting artist the world has lost in me!" Kontturi quips.

It's all about bringing people together

Not all residents at the Juorumäenkuja building took scissors in hand, preferring instead to catch up with neighbours and just enjoy their company. Which is perfectly fine, because the Light Challenge is all about bringing joy to everyday living and bringing people together. SATO hopes to encourage its residents to be good neighbours and to do things together as a community.

"Social contacts and community have a marked effect on wellbeing. The Light Challenge offers a wonderful way for neighbours to get together in the darkest months of the year. We are pleased that the residents at so many of our buildings have taken up the challenge to bring light to their home buildings and their home town. Hopefully this experience will encourage them to go on engaging with their neighbours," says Miia Eloranta, Director of Marketing and Communications at SATO Corporation.

In the last two months of the year, SATO will be arranging communal events at many of its buildings and challenges everyone to create light art together with friends and neighbours.

Some SATO buildings already have their light installations on display. The façade at Kauniinilmankuja 3 in Vuosaari, for example, sparkles in all the colours of the Northern Lights until 17 December. In the run-up to Independence Day on 6 December, buildings at Merituulentie 38 in Espoo, Snellmaninkatu 23 in Helsinki and Ketarantie 26 will be festooned with our national colours of white and blue.

In mid-January, SATO will award gift certificates to three of the most memorable images shared using the hashtag #valohaaste. Participating installations do not have to be big or complicated for a chance to win; instead, the most interesting and memorable images will be selected.

For more information please contact:
Miia Eloranta, Director of Marketing and Communications
phone +358 201 34 4497 or +358 50 441 4221, miia.eloranta@sato.fi

More information about the light installations at SATO buildings
www.luxhelsinki.fi