Unexplained window breakages pose safety risk in Espoo wooden apartment block

A wooden high-rise apartment building in Espoo’s Tapiola district has experienced unexplained window breakages since 2023, creating a safety hazard for residents and passersby, Yle reports.

The 13-storey building, owned by the Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region (Hoas) and completed in 2021, has seen ten windows shatter over three years. In some cases, glass shards have fallen to the ground, though no injuries have been reported.

Hoas will install safety cables on all windows in July and August to prevent excessive inward opening. A comprehensive inspection of the building’s roughly 600 windows begins on 13 July, involving structural engineers and the window manufacturer to determine whether the issue stems from installation errors, product defects, or the wooden frame structure itself.

Hoas managing director Matti Tarhio acknowledged that residents had not been sufficiently informed about the risks. He advised against playing near the building until the cause is identified.