Browsing by Author "Hurri, Mari"

Goals. This Bachelor’s Thesis’ goal was to examine conceptions of ideal home according to students living in Helsinki. My Thesis is related to a survey carried out by Helsingin Sanomat in fall 2016. The Thesis examines wishes regarding an ideal home’s size, number of rooms and need for extra space. This subject is topical because people in Helsinki are living in more cramped apartments compared to rest of Finland and living space has further decreased in recent years. At the same time even smaller apartments are being built in Helsinki. Previous studies show that wishes for living conditions are built on multiple factors. For example surrounding environment has even greater meaning in apartment choices, but the need for space in Finnish apartments is still obvious. Methods. My Thesis was conducted as quantitative research. Source material was the survey carried out by Helsingin Sanomat in fall 2016. There were 13 381 respondents by the set period of time. 4147 of the respondents were from Helsinki, and 623 of them were students. The survey was open to everyone visiting on Helsingin Sanomat web site, therefore the take does not represent the entire Finnish population and cannot be considered a statistically significant sample. The material was analyzed with SPSS and Excel utilizing descriptive statistical analysis methods, such as percentages, averages and frequencies. Results and conclusions. The ideal home for students living in Helsinki who participated in the survey was three rooms and a kitchen, with an average size of 78.3 square meters. Students’ wishes compared to their current apartment’s number of rooms and size were quite moderate, because according to the analyzed material their current apartment had on average two rooms and a kitchen and 52.6 square meters. Almost all of the respondents wished for extra space for their current apartment. The most extra space was wished for storage or wardrobe. The results could possibly be used to help plan apartments for students and young adults. From the perspective of home economics finding out the wishes for apartments helps to understand the changes needed in housing, and at the same time improves people’s everyday life and wellbeing.