JUURILLE

Interior Design 2019

Juurille- which in Finnish means Back to the roots is a proposal for the Finnish Kuusijärvi cafè. The project intends to enrich the experience of Finnish nature through the creation of a restaurant building, a rental office and conference space, and a sauna building

The project was developed during my Erasmus+ at the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland. Project in partnership with Katariina Siitonen and Henna-Mari Missonen for our Interior Architecture course in collaboration with the Kuusijärvi cafè. Supervised by Annalena Lahtinen.

Kuusijärvi is located in Vantaa, Finland, and it is the port to the Sipponkorpi national park. Here numerous outdoor activities such as skiing, berry picking ice swimming, and camping can be done.

Nature has always been at the core of Finnish culture and heritage. The forest is the place to calm the mind, seek wellbeing, find food, wander, clarify thoughts- a place to find one’s self. It is a home where one can always go back to. Often, living in cities distances us from the true essence of life, and we might need a reminder on how to re-connect with nature and traditions.

In our project, we want to enrich the Finnish culture of skiing, berry picking ice swimming, and camping through the creation of three Laavu buildings- in Finnish tradition, Laavu is a shelter found in natural environments.

Each building serves a different function: the main laavu is a restaurant. It offers a café, a dining space, a workshop space for visitors to learn traditional recipes and, a fireplace lounge facing the beauty of the Kuusijärvi lake.

Sauna and ice dipping is one of the most common activities among Finnish people. To open this experience to locals and visitors, we decided to create one mixed sauna that faces the Kuusijärvi lake.

This Rental office and conference room laavu is essential for businesses and explorers. All the equipment to fully experience the wonder of Finnish nature, such as camping equipment, can be rented in this space.

The conference room is completely accessible for presenters and team members.

Skills: In this project, I contributed to the research and concept development phase, InDesign presentations and Photoshop postproduction, and the creation of the logo, and the Archicad and Rhino 3D modeling.