The new Dance House Helsinki is being built at the northeastern end of Cable Factory, while the old factory building undergoes a major refurbishment.

The new building will house a large dance hall, an event square, work and social spaces for employees and performers, and the Dance House restaurant kitchen. Pannuhalli in the old factory building houses the small stage and the 3rd floor in wing A a rehearsal studio with social facilities.

The refurbishment of the old factory building means that the eastern side of Cable Factory's inner courtyard will be roofed and turned into Cable Factory's new lobby area. It will serve all current operators in the premises. The museums and Sea Cable Hall (Merikaapelihalli) will have new entrances in the courtyard.

The decision to build Dance House Helsinki is based on a needs assessment of the dance field commissioned by the City of Helsinki. Dance as an art form hasn’t had an all-year location, and especially a bigger stage is much needed. In addition, the Dance House as a platform is able to support the development of the production structure within the field of dance.

The civil engineering work began on 7 October 2019. The aim is that the construction work will be completed in autumn 2021.

Since June 2019, the old factory building at Cable Factory has undergone logistical changes while the training hall has been built on the 3rd floor of the Cable Factory's wing A.

The ground construction work began in October 2019 and is expected to continue until the end of February 2020. The actual construction of the new building will begin in early 2020, and the roofing of the Cable Factory's courtyard will begin in summer 2020.

The carcass work of the new building will continue until autumn 2020, after which the construction of the roof and facades will begin. The remainder of the time is used on interior work and technical installations. The project will be completed by the end of 2021.

The Dance House Helsinki is being built by Kiinteistö Oy Kaapelitalo, which administers Cable Factory and Suvilahti cultural centres.

The cost of the project was estimated at EUR 40 million. The project costed 42 million euros.

The Dance House is funded by The Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (€ 15 million), the City of Helsinki (€ 9.95 million), the Ministry of Education and Culture (€ 7.25 million), and Kiinteistö Oy Kaapelitalo (€ 7.8 million).

The building project is not a public project because the developer Kiinteistö Oy Kaapelitalo is not a contracting entity.

As a result, the procurement units (City of Helsinki and Ministry of Education and Culture) will not provide more than 50% of the project value.

This stand is based on reports by City of Helsinki legal services (pdf), PTCServices (pdf) and the law firm Hannes Snellman (pdf) (in Finnish only) and commissioned by Kiinteistö Oy Kaapelitalo in 2016.

Work on the site is mostly carried out on weekdays between 7 am and 6 pm. Evenings and weekends only when needed. Exceptional arrangements will be announced in advance at House for dance, by email to the tenants of Cable Factory as well as through paper bulletins put up on doors and corridors of the property.

The cultural centre will continue to function normally during construction. However, the construction work will mean changes in the logistics and routes in and out of Cable Factory. The work causes noise, which can occasionally disrupt the tenants and visitors. When the frame of the new building is up, work will move inside the building reducing possible noise problems.

The construction project will inevitably mean some disturbance and noise in and around Cable Factory. We are aiming to minimise any adverse events through pre-planning.

During the construction period, Cable Factory will host public events as usual.

The factory's access and loading routes will change with the construction project. See the current access and loading routes.

It is likely that there will be water, air conditioning and power outages during construction. These breaks are always announced in advance on House for Dance website, by email to the tenants, as well as through paper bulletins put up on doors and corridors of the property.

As the Dance House Helsinki’s construction work begins, the parking spaces on the east end of Cable Factory's inner yard will be removed. Eight around-the-clock pay and short-term parking spaces will remain in the courtyard, but these will be removed by the summer of 2020. The two handicapped parking spaces in the courtyard will remain in use throughout the project. Read more about Cable Factory parking.

The City of Helsinki will convert the parking space right outside the Cable Factory museum entrance into a park area before the completion of the project.

The park area is part of the construction site. During the end phase of the project, the city will renovate the park. The project will reduce the size of the park.

In connection with the project, the eastern side of Cable Factory's inner courtyard will be roofed as the new main lobby area of the Cable Factory. It will serve all current tenants and users of Cable Factory.

New entrances to the museums and Sea Cable Hall are built in the courtyard. In addition, a ramp will be built from the roofed courtyard to the basement, which will provide comfortable “dry feet access” to all of the factory's different locations.

The lobby area is also home to a Dance House restaurant’s terrace. The lobby serves as an event space and offers a space for example for large installations.

Dance House Helsinki will have two stages: Erkko Hall with 700 seats in the new building, and Pannuhalli Stage in Cable Factory, which will have 250 seats after the renovation is completed. Both stages are flexible so the position of the auditorium can be changed.

In the new building, there will be an Event Square, which serves as a foyer for the public as well as a venue. A club will be opened in the basement of Pannuhalli. The lobby space between the current Turbiinihalli and Pannuhalli is refurbished into a restaurant, which seats about 60 people. In addition, Dance House's new building will house the restaurant's kitchen, performers' foyer and dressing room as well as office spaces for staff.

The rehearsal room on the 3rd floor of Cable Factory's A wing was opened in November 2019. The room will have direct access to the other premises of the Dance House.

Dance House Helsinki is the first venue in Finland dedicated to dance. The opening season will take place in autumn 2022. Read more tanssintalo.fi.