Ateljé Sotamaa Interiors - Designing Human Experiences

AteljĂŠ Sotamaa

Designing Human Experiences

VOL03 INTERIORS

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PUBLICATIONS IN THE SERIES VOL01 INTRODUCTION VOL02 ARCHITECTURE VOL03 INTERIORS VOL04 EXHIBITION ARCHITECTURE VOL05 FURNITURE & LIGHT VOL06 PRODUCTS VOL07 ART & EXPERIMENTATION

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Content Introduction Ultima Natura Finnjävel Finnjävel Salonki Finnjävel Sali Fazer Shop Cafe Aalto IVA Hanaholmen Atelier House Ainoa Shop Saint George Dipoli ADD Lab K House Red Cottage Bookstore Contact

6 7 - 21 22 - 27 28 - 43 44 - 53 54 - 61 62 - 69 70 - 79 80 - 91 92 - 101 102 - 113 114 - 119 120 - 125 126 - 135 136 - 143 144 - 147 148 - 157 158 - 159 174 - 175

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Ultima Restaurant

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Ultima is a new restaurant in South Harbour, in the center of Helsinki. It is an experiment about changing peoples’ relationship to food through innovative cuisine, design and hyperlocal production of food.The chefs and owners Henri Alén and Tommi Tuominen are exploring the culinary applications of circular economy as well as the most innovative food and farming technologies today. At Ateljé Sotamaa we are exploring how architecture, design and art can be used to help people reimagine their relationship to food. The aim of Ultima is to shape the future by inventing it, through experimentation together with an audience. The challenge for design was to create a milieu, which spontaneously engages people in the process, inspiring critical and creative discussion.

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Interiors Here’s a bit of theory to help shed light on our thinking on design and how it can be used to enact cultural change one person at a time: ‘It is all about the relationship between the inner and outer worlds’ said the late New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp on numerous occasions. The German philosopher Thomas Metziner has said the same in more elaborate terms: According to him the brain ‘constantly hallucinates at the world, as a system that constantly lets its internal autonomous simulational dynamics collide with the ongoing flow of sensory input, vigorously dreaming at the world’(1).

In other words, we perceive the world through top-down models in our minds, which interact with bottom up stimuli from the world around us.

For example, when you think you see a table, you actually see just the prediction

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of the table in your brain. You know from past experience what it feels like if you touch it, what it sounds like if you bang on it, and what it is meant to be used for.

However, if some of the table’s qualities contradict the predictive model in your mind, those contradictions rise up in your consciousness, and cause you to explore the object and if needed, adjust your mindmodel of it. Top-down, prior knowledge (convention) is a pervasive feature of our perception. Mismatches between the top down predictions and actual sensory input are sensations, and they can be strategically used to trigger exploration. This process can fundamentally change our embodied knowledge, the way people feel, and think about the world. This is how we used art, design, architecture in Ultima to challenge convention and trigger cultural change.

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We deployed sensation in a strategic effort to change convention and encourage exploration of new possibilities. We designed Ultima as an ecology, where the sensations lie, not just in the objects themselves, but in the relationship of the objects to one another and their environment. The designs, which constitute the environment, operate like short stories, which allow people to weave together their own overall narratives. The general plot line is provided by us in the sense that entire milieu is designed to undermine conventions such as man-made versus biological and natural versus artificial. It is calibrated to create an overall experience, which is part animal, part machine and part nature. The restaurant works architecturally as a dramaturgical sequence, step by step transporting people away from the every-day world, deeper and deeper into what we’ve described as a happy, inspiring dream.

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Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

Ultima

Dreaming the Future Ultima is a new restaurant in South Harbour, in the center of Helsinki. It is an experiment about changing peoples’ relationship to food through innovative cuisine, design and hyperlocal production of food. The chefs and owners Henri Alén and Tommi Tuominen are exploring the culinary applications of circular economy as well as the most innovative food and farming technologies today. At Ateljé Sotamaa we are exploring how architecture, design and art can be used to help people reimagine their relationship to food.

The aim of Ultima is to shape the future by inventing it, through experimentation together with an audience.

The challenge for design was to create a milieu, which spontaneously engages people in the process, inspiring critical and creative discussion.

Here’s a bit of theory to help shed light on our thinking on design and how it can be used to enact cultural change one person at a time: ‘It is all about the relationship between the inner and outer worlds’ said the late New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp on numerous occasions. The German philosopher Thomas Metziner has said the same in more elaborate terms: According to him the brain ‘constantly hallucinates at the world, as a system that constantly lets its internal autonomous simulational dynamics collide with the ongoing flow of sensory input, vigorously dreaming at the world’(1). In other words, we perceive the world through top-down models in our minds, which interact with bottom up stimuli from the world around us.

For example, when you think you see a table, you actually see just the prediction of the table in your brain. You know from past experience what it feels like if you touch it, what it sounds like if you bang on it, and what it is meant to be used for. However, if some of the table’s qualities contradict the predictive model in your mind, those contradictions rise up in your consciousness, and cause you to explore the object and if needed, adjust your mind-model of it.

Top-down, prior knowledge (convention) is a pervasive feature of our perception. Mismatches between the top down predictions and actual sensory input are sensations, and they can be strategically used to trigger exploration. This process can fundamentally change our embodied knowledge, the way people feel, and think about the world. This is how we used art, design, architecture in Ultima to challenge convention and trigger cultural change.

We deployed sensation in a strategic effort to change convention and encourage exploration of new possibilities. We designed Ultima as an ecology, where the sensations lie, not just in the objects themselves, but in the relationship of the objects to one another and their environment. The designs, which constitute the environment, operate like short stories, which allow people to weave together their own overall 22

narratives. The general plot line is provided by us in the sense that entire milieu is designed to undermine conventions such as man-made versus biological and natural versus artificial. It is calibrated to create an overall experience, which is part animal, part machine and part nature. The restaurant works architecturally as a dramaturgical sequence, step by step transporting people away from the every-day world, deeper and deeper into what we’ve described as a happy, inspiring dream.

The space, which people first enter at the restaurant is where they can see their meal literally growing around them. We introduced innovative food production methods in surprising ways directly into the space, so that the chefs can experiment with them, and the audience experience them. The most striking feature in the first space, in addition to the open kitchen, is a vertical hydroponic wall we designed out of stainless steel so that it reflects the colors of the plants and renders the space into an impressionistic, magical garden. The wall fills the space with nuances of green, making the audience feel they are embraced by the plants around them. The foliage is echoed in the dotted, animated light, created by perforated aluminum panels and programmed lighting overhead.

The lighting shifts subtly as if a clouds were moving over the space, causing a subliminal sensation of being under a tree with sun shining through it. The hydroponic walls provide the chefs with greens when their flavor is at its most intense, and the system, which is engineered by Green Automation,circulates the irrigation water, reducing water consumption by 95% compared to conventional farming.

The furniture in this magical garden is informal and relaxed. It creates a comfortable, protective space from where people can safely take in the wonders around.

Sitting down their gaze first encounters strange lamps above the dining tables. Suddenly, something unexpectedly moves inside them. Shocked into a state of close attention people notice dozens of crickets happily singing and climbing around on 3D printed scaffolds, basking in the warmth of the lamp, enjoying drinking water and food from glass inserts perturbing the sphere. The crickets in the lamps create both an intriguing audiovisual spectacle, and an opportunity for the chefs to test how the feed influences their flavor. Inevitably, a conversation begins about crickets, food, food safely, culture, the future of food and so on.

This is our intent, by design, and gives opportunity for discussion between the audience members and the staff at the restaurant. It is an opportunity for telling stories to people actively asking questions. It is the beginning of the process of seducing people into rethinking their conventions about food.

The same sequence - atmosphere, object of curiosity, exploration, conversation - is repeated everywhere.

Interiors There are black glass sculptures, nicknamed Muspheres, which grow Oyster mushrooms from Helsieni in used coffee grains.

The mushrooms fruit through small holes in the glass creating naturally emerging baroque artworks, which change every day, until they are harvested and cooked in front of the audience in the open kitchen.

Other curious elements in the space are translucent columns inside which there are potatoes growing in nothing but air. These are aeroponic columns, which we designed to house potatoes and technology from Tyrnävän Siemenperunakeskus. They have mastered the aeroponic growing technique, which produces a tenfold yield with a fraction of space and water, as compared with conventional growing methods.

On the tallest wall in the space, there’s a large sculpture entitled Dandelion. It is made of the fragments of the broken Finnjävel dishes, kindred morphs of the leaves and dotted shadows surrounding them. The sculpture brings back memories of the previous restaurant we designed in this location for Alén and Tuominen.

Finnjävel focused on the history of Finnish cuisine, and we designed every single object for it using innovating combinations of traditional and digital craft. ‘Without understanding the past you cannot invent the future’ Chef Alén has said on numerous occasions.

Having first explored the magical garden and its Biodesign objects, the audience enters a dark corridor, a transitional space nicknamed Rabbit Hole, with interactive Voyager lights by Digital Sputnik. The lights play a sequence of effects, which relates to the movement of bodies through the space. The experience is designed to refresh peoples’ audiovisual palette, before, at the other end of the tunnel, they arrive to the Wunderkammer.

The Wunderkammer is lush space with a deep red wool carpet and round tables. In the ceiling, there is a giant Anima -chandelier made from carbon fiber rods and perforated 3D printed digital flowers, which cast intricate shadows on the walls of the room. The shadows bring back memories of the dotted lights in the garden space before, and simultaneously their spiderweb -like patterns create an atmosphere appropriate for the natural history museum –style exhibit of imaginary 3D printed hybrids of insects, crustaceans, plants and fruit, which are displayed in vitrines on the walls of the space. The Hybrids are an extension of the biodesign -theme and conceived to inspire re-evaluation of existing categories in a manner which is elegant and joyful.

Exiting Wunderkammer, the audience arrives to the main dining room, the climax in the sequence of spatial experiences. Here, the architecture seems to melt away, behaving in a manner which defies gravity and expectation. We laser scanned the existing historical space and designed large CNC (computer numerical controlled) milled sculptures, which were carefully inserted into the old architecture leaving a

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30mm brightly lighted gap between the old and the new. The fluid, polymorphic sensibility of the new forms creates a dialogue with the curvilinear heaviness of the old masonry building. The weightlessness of the sculptures is emphasized by the brightly lighted gap, which makes it seem that the forms hover in air. The light from the gap is daylight during the day, but when it is dark outside lights by Digital Sputnik, straight from the world of high end movie sets such as Star Wars Rogue One, create light effects such as sunsets, fires and being under water. These effects are also visible from the street at night, through a milky glass behind clear windows, rendering Ultima into a living breathing creature.

In the center of the main dining hall there will be a large suspended sculpture (still in production as this is written). The sculpture is a six meter long trace of a bunny-rabbit jumping though space. The sculpture seems to exist in a place between cartoon bunnies, the vertebrae of a scary dinosaur, and cinematic movement. The intent is to create an artwork, which is unexpected and open ended in interpretation, just as the future is.

The holistic, ecology of objects -strategy to design is extended to all detail including custom chairs.

They are designed to be light and comfortable. Their asymmetrical form encourages moving around for different seating positions (functional, ergonomic motive). It also creates an overall ‘humanistic’ mood by avoiding the effect of monotonous repetition, opting instead for subtle variation in form and color (relationship of object to object). Finally, the geometry of the top edge of the chair is affiliated with the domes of the historical space (relationship of object to environment).

Details such as 3D printed napkin rings, sculptural objects for serving food and Bird in Space -glass sauce boats extend the fluid architectural geometries into the space of the table.The objects are always considered as a part of an environment, an experience and a service. Fiberoptic, battery operated Light Ware lamps manufactured by Saas Instruments illuminate each table like stage, focusing the peoples’ attention to the real star of the restaurant, the food by the chefs.

Step by step, the audience been been lured into a ‘happy dream’ and their focus has been directed from the outside world to the Ultima environment, and gradually towards smaller and smaller detail, ultimately arriving at the food on the table.

Unlike Finnjävel, which was opened for two years, Ultima has no deadline. It is an open ended experiment. Our ambition in designing Ultima was to help the chefs Tommi Tuominen and Henri Alén create a project, which reaches cultural ‘escape velocity’ - a restaurant, which has so much cultural potential that it starts having a life of its own in peoples’ collective imagination. We worked to create a project, which invents the future by helping us dream it together.

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Natura Restaurant

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We have started a new exciting project designing Natura. It is an intimate, family run restaurant in heart of Helsinki serving modern and innovative food in friendly, “no fuss” atmosphere. Our approach to the design is straight forward and inspired by the use of ingredients and many textures in Natura’s cuisine. The first ‘1.2 -phase’ included the demolition of the old interior and the introduction of better acoustics, stylish kitchen, lighting and better air conditioning. We simply painted over the surfaces, leaving all signs of time and demolition process visible, and then lighted them in order to emphasize them. The new stainless steel kitchen and velvet couch were designed to add new textures to the already rich mix. Deep imperial yellow accentuates the entrance and back corridor. On the walls are natural sculptures, branches, twigs, stones covered with moss. The project will continue for the next couple years.. Little by little new furniture, architectural elements, clothing, dishes and artwork will be introduced as the restaurant continually evolves.

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Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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Finnjävel Restaurant

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A profoundly Finnish restaurant.

The restaurant is located in the South Harbour in central Helsinki. The space is comprised of two parts: a dining area, which is in a building built during 1830’s, and an open kitchen area with Chef’s table located in a 1980’s building. The two are connected by a passageway. We have approached the different nature of the existing buildings as potential for creating exciting atmospheric differences.

We have designed every possibility that people have for interaction with the restaurant; the interiors, furniture, tableware, cutlery, glasses, lighting and art, over 140 distinct objects in total. Our design, together with the service and music, sets the mood in which the unique food and wine is experienced. Together with the chefs, we have tried to create a total work of art.

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The Chefs and the Sommelier Restaurateurs and chefs Henri Alén and Tommi Tuominen are two of the most talented and innovative Finnish chefs of their generation. They have credentials from the classic Finnish fine dining restaurants as well as their own restaurants: Luxury bistro Muru of Henri Alén and Tommi Tuominen’s Demo which has had a Michelin star for nine consecutive years.

Sommelier and restaurateur Samuil Angelov is the Finnish sommelier with most international prizes under his belt. Like Henri Alén, he is a partner in the MuruDining hospitality group. Earlier Angelov has worked in several Finnish top restaurants, such as Savoy, Palace, Sundman’s and Kämp.

In addition to his distinct knowledge of wines and other beverage, he is known for providing refined quality service with friendly ambiance.

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Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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The design is based on the dramatic contrasts found in Finnish nature, extreme minimalism on one hand, and sparkling organicity on the other. The rich and contrasting objects enable the creation of an evening long dining experience with moments of quiet, wonder, and humor. And just as the chefs have searched the best in Finnish raw ingredients, we have sought out the best in artisans and craftsmen to realise our designs.

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SAC Journal 4

Culinary Lessons, The Space of Food.

Finnjävel was a restaurant conceived by chefs Tommi Tuominen and Henri Alén as a cultural act in the heart of Helsinki. Apart from the building that housed it, everything in it was designed by Kivi and Tuuli Sotamaa of Ateljé Sotamaa in the spirit of a Gesamtkunstwerk that staged food, the interior space of the restaurant and its objects in an intimate choreography for visitors to enjoy.

The restaurant, which was planned for a two-year lifetime and closed in April 2018, was an intervention in the culinary, social and cultural landscape of Finland. ‘Finnjävel’ (“Finnish Devil”) is a pejorative name Swedes gave to Finnish immigrants in Sweden during the 1950’s and -60’s. At that time, Finns mass-migrated to Sweden in search for a better future.

For Finns today Finnjävel means ‘sisu,’ a Finnish combination of stamina, perseverance and ambition, spiced up with a pinch of megalomania. The name was apt for a restaurant, which wanted to take the overlooked Finnish culinary culture with its unique qualities and elevate it to the level of high culture and fine dining.

The restaurant was located in the central harbour area of Helsinki, in a stone house built in 1830 when Finland was ruled by Russia. The building itself is listed but everything else we custom-designed for the restaurant: the organisation of the interior spaces, furniture, cutlery, dishes and lighting. The development of the culinary menu and the design were intimately related to one another. Every course on the menu had a plate, bowl or dish designed for it; or vice-versa, a course was inspired by a certain object.

Overall, we designed the interior and 146 objects for Finnjävel, all of which was made by Finnish craftsmen and companies using a mix of digital and traditional manufacturing techniques.

However, the goal was to design the interaction between the hosts, guests, and objects in relation to the gastronomical experience and not to deliver individual, industrial objects. With this design objective, bowls, water jars, flower vases, plates, wine glasses, silverware, furniture, lighting, and so forth were functional tools valued for their practicality as well as artworks admired for their aesthetic qualities. The beauty of the designs was a means for seducing visitors into considering Finnish cuisine as worthy of fine dining. Together with the chefs we placed our designs and the food in a carefully sequenced play with the diners who in the process subtly became changed by the culinary experience.

In this manner, Finnjävel foregrounded the importance of embodied experience, the fact that architecture must be physically experienced. The merging of food, design, architecture, narrative, and music created a mood and a physical, multi-sensorial experience.

The Finnjävel experience was not about just drinking and eating; it was about an embracing aesthetics - and about the chefs, sommeliers and waiters preparing the service from their hearts. The restaurant as a whole, its immaterial as well as material and human aspects, revolved around the experience of the guests. This was staged through the deliberate design of physical forms and relations between elements and the making and consumption of food - all of which gave rise to a concatenation of movements and gestures unfolding in accordance with the sequence of a meal. The aim was to change the way people felt and ultimately revitalize them.

The Finnjävel menu consisted of ten courses and lasted on average four hours. We likened a meal to a theatre performance and followed a dramaturgical approach to design everywhere. The key organising principle was choreographing the series of unfolding experiences for the guests. Each meal was inaugurated with a little figure of a glass devil glowing like a jewel on top of a small lamp embedded in the maple dining table.

When the service begun, the waiter would swap the devil for a fibre optic brass light, which illuminated the setting for the subsequent courses. Ten courses and extras would follow 15-20 minutes apart. With each course the table setting would change dramatically, creating a progression of aesthetic and culinary sensations. The music, that was composed specifically for the restaurant by Tuomas Kantelinen, would play in the background. It ranged from romantic to dramatic or humorous, adding to the experience like the soundtrack for a movie.

The design of the objects aimed at producing formal and aesthetic contrasts, which together with the food enabled dramaturgically transitions and counterpoints.

The chefs matched the sensibility of the design with the food and created sequences of similar, contrapuntal culinary sensations. The rust-glazed bowl would be the carrier for blood pudding; the glass bowl would make the colourful salmon soup magically levitate; the oval, vitreous porcelain plates would highlight the golden colour and linear form of a smoked herring; the deep black, glazed ceramics would turn a deconstructed Carelian Pie into a colourful painting; and the CNC milled wooden plates created an unusual haptic experience when eating the ‘priests house emergency’ dessert, a fine dining dish based on random raw material found in the kitchen.

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Finnjävel Salonki Restaurant

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Finnjävel is a cultural act in the form of a restaurant. We designed the first Finnjävel in 2016 for the historical Sundman’s building in Helsinki. The restaurant was planned for a two year life span and became a terrific success.

This is Finnjävel’s second coming. We’ve had the rare pleasure of bringing the restaurant back to life in a new form at a new location in Helsinki Kunsthalle. The new Finnjävel consists of two parts; the Salon, which offers a sophisticated fine-dining experience, and the Hall, which brings it down to earth.

Finnjävel celebrates Finnish cuisine, design and craftsmanship. The restaurant is designed in the spirit of a Gesamtkunstwerk that stages food, the historical space and its objects in an intimate choreography for guests to enjoy.

The Finnjävel experience is not about just drinking and eating; it is about an embracing aesthetics - and about the chefs, sommeliers and waiters preparing the service from their hearts. The restaurant as a whole, its immaterial as well as material and human aspects, revolve around the experience of the guests.The aim is to change the way people feel and ultimately revitalize them.

Interiors

Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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Finnjävel Sali

Restaurant

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Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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Finnjävel is a cultural act in the form of a restaurant. We designed the first Finnjävel in 2016 for the historical Sundman’s building in Helsinki. The restaurant was planned for a two year life span and became a terrific success.

This is Finnjävel’s second coming. We’ve had the rare pleasure of bringing the restaurant back to life in a new form at a new location in Helsinki Kunsthalle. The new Finnjävel consists of two parts; the Salon, which offers a sophisticated fine-dining experience, and the Hall, which brings it down to earth.

Finnjävel celebrates Finnish cuisine, design and craftsmanship. The restaurant is designed in the spirit of a Gesamtkunstwerk that stages food, the historical space and its objects in an intimate choreography for guests to enjoy.

The Finnjävel experience is not about just drinking and eating; it is about an embracing aesthetics - and about the chefs, sommeliers and waiters preparing the service from their hearts. The restaurant as a whole, its immaterial as well as material and human aspects, revolve around the experience of the guests.The aim is to change the way people feel and ultimately revitalize them.

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Fazer Retail

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The Fazer Shop was designed to give the company’s numerous brands a strong individual presence while creating a harmonious overall experience. The furniture was designed to frame the products beautifully, and to hold a large amount of them in order for them to always remain full, so shop feels deliciously abundant.

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Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

Cafe Aalto Kyoto Restaurant

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

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Interiors Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

82

Interiors

Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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IVA

Headquarter and Conference Center

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

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Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

IVA

Communicating Strategy Through Design This is the era of abundance, yet the world is suffocating in sameness. When there is history and a strategy that sets an organization apart, it must be told in a unique way. To implement a strategy you need a visual, spatial and haptic experience that delights, seduces and challenges people both inside and outside of the organization. This combination of emotional and intellectual response leaves a permanent mark, even changes peoples’ behavior.

In today’s world decoration is often mistaken for strategy. Design and architecture are most often used in their functional role with some added styling.

However, correctly deployed they are powerful tools for telling stories and increasing understanding through experiences. Many of our best known works are living proofs of this idea. Ambitious strategic design can visualize and conceptualize strategy in a manner which leaves a lasting memory.

The first step was background research. In the case of IVA the task was to find as much material as about it as possible; read about history, interview people, research articles, learn about activities. We collected all available information in order to form an understanding of IVA’s identity and voice, what it stands for and what its significance in the world today is.Based on the research, goals were formulated. We agreed with IVA that the aim was to create spaces that communicate and support IVA’s mission, vision and activities and to create an experience, which works on all of the senses, leaving a lasting memory of a 100 year young, dynamic, open and transboundary forum.

For more than 100 years IVA has been a meeting place for Sweden’s future, building bridges between the research, business and political sphere. The goal with the renewal of IVA’s spaces was to support the academy to continue for another 100 years.

The idea of only using branding in the conventional sense of the word - graphics, posters, text, images - expecting that people will read and incorporate the material while visiting a space does not work.

The answer is far more complex. Architecture and design have their own disciplinary techniques, which communicate and affect our experience on numerous levels simultaneously. Architectural design uses atmosphere, organization, form, materiality and representation in order to communicate with people.

Atmosphere is to architecture what a soundtrack is to a movie. It affects our feelings without us being aware of it. It can be used to reinforce or challenge conventional behavior, suggest new ways of being in the world or simply to nudge towards something desired. Think about replacing the soundtrack of a horror film with that of a comedy. Or what if you transplanted the atmosphere of a nightclub to a courthouse? The effect of atmosphere on social and institutional space would become apparent.

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In the case of IVA, the task was to design a social and political space, which is in line with the values and aims of the organization. IVA as an institution is both historical and forward looking, active and visionary.

It is a social hub for political, business and science leaders. At the headquarters on Grev Turegatan color, light, acoustics and furniture were used to create pockets of spaces with distinct atmospheres within the otherwise sprawling spaces of the historical building.

These pockets generate a nuances of social atmospheres for different kinds of encounters and variety of activities.

Organization is a key ingredient of architecture and it has impact on experience. Just as in theatre, architecture requires the careful staging differences in order to create experiences. Organization is key to staging the unfolding of experiences within a building.

It is the dramaturgy of how one spatial experience follows and stages another. Calm before the storm, for example.

In the case of IVA’s we designed spaces for sensible contrasts, which enable dramaturgically considered transitions and counterpoints: History versus future, open versus secluded, white versus red. Our design for IVA creates a sequence of unique experiences as the visitor moves through the building.

An architectural space could be described in terms of its atmosphere, organization as well as the ecology of objects which occupy it. Furniture is often considered as singular objects rather than as elements within in an ecology of objects. In reality, each piece of furniture in a space acts like chapter in a novel. The whole story emerges only from the collective relationships between the objects and their environment.

In the case of IVA the furniture, both new and old, as well as other designed objects are integral parts of an architectural environment and an overall experience.

Their form and arrangements are used to create a variety of atmospheres and social spaces.

The Happy Chair, for example, is designed to engender a playful, relaxed mood and a protective private space around each person. The design is driven by performance simultaneously in the social, theatrical and ergonomic sense of the word.

Strategies can be turned into unique experiences which matter to people. IVA is an example of how design and architecture can be used, in addition to their practical role, as a method for communicating strategy and making a point in today’s noisy world.

Interiors

Hanaholmen Hotel

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Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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Interiors Background. Hanasaari was created in 70’s as a total work of art. Its design, especially the interiors, which our father Professor YrjÜ Sotamaa designed, were inspired by nature, art, and the culture of Finnish design.

The ambition was to create an innovative and contemporary, yet intimate and warm environment. The formal language was modern but the choice of materials such as wood, granite, and bespoke fabrics, and colors and hues of red, brown and orange, were natural and warm, unlike in most international modernist architecture.

It is inevitable that with the changing of time, buildings and their occupants must evolve in order to survive. The most important aspect

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of any historically significant building is that it remains alive and thriving in terms of its use. Bookstores and libraries must meet the challenges of digitalization. Cultural centers and hotels must update in order to accommodate changes in culture. The entire building of Hanasaari Cultural Center will undergo full renovation in the near future, and the updating of the Hanasaari hotel has taken place in anticipation of the renovation, almost entirely using freestanding bespoke lighting, furniture and textiles, all of which can be used before and after the building renovation has taken place.

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We believe that Hansaari should be strongly Nordic and international. We believe that the Cultural Center must appeal to peoples’ emotions and deliver authentic, meaningful experiences, which relate to its mission, content, history and location.

Our ambition in updating the Hanasaari Hotel has been to create a contemporary version of the idea of a building as a ‘total work of art’. Our ambition has been to create design which endures time, both in terms of quality and aesthetics. The innovative, cultural, comfortable, and intimate atmosphere of Hanasaari has been the most important organizing force for our design. Every room has been designed like a little poem where different elements and material play off one another, the building and the surrounding landscape in order to create flickering associations, interpretations, and inspiration on many registers simultaneously.

Design, Art, Nature, and Culture of Innovation: In order to create a ‘total work of art’, we have created over twenty different bespoke furniture with the help of digital design and manufacturing technology, such as 3D printing. Instead of using off the shelf design furniture found at every ‘design hotel’, which get updated on fast cycles, we developed designs as if they were site specific artwork, to last over time.

The furniture is high quality in terms of craft and materials, it is culturally relevant, and technically progressive. The materials have been chosen so that the furniture ages beautifully. As in the original design, we’ve drawn inspiration from nature, art and Nordic tradition. The materials used are natural, and include some of the same reds, oranges and browns as the original interiors.

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Interiors

Atelier House Private Residence

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A House For the Good Life.

A New Concept For Wooden Housing Within the Digital Paradigm.

The Atelier House is digitally designed and manufactured building. Each house is a unique variation of the type, designed based on people’s dreams and needs.

There are over forty variations on the design, which can be used as a point of departure when designing Your own unique house.

Interiors Evolving Community Each Atelier House is a unique version of the type, designed for its inhabitants. A community of Atelier Houses is collection of nuanced differences, rather than radical differences or monotonous repetition.

The Atelier House design strategy enables an evolution of the community over time, instead of the execution of a one time rigid plan, resulting in a richer, more layered collective in the manner of old villages.

The technologies embedded in each house can be networked in order to create a smart collective, which optimises waste management and energy consumption, and enhances the social sustainability and social life of the community.

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Interiors

Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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Interiors

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Interiors

Ainoa Shop Reatail

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

Saint George Hotel

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Dragon’s Belly is an unrealised design for the lobby of the new St George luxury hotel in Helsinki. Ultimately the hotel opted for a conventional lobby with a suspended Ai Weiwei sculpture.

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Interiors

Dipoli

Headquarter

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Interiors

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Aalto-yliopisto / Hallitustila 1.krs / Lämpömiehenkatu 2, Espoo 4.11.2010

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ADD Lab

Work Space and Production Space

Interiors

Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

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Interiors Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced

digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

K House

Private Residence

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Interiors

Technical Description Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

– brother and sister – and an international staff of

architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

Red Cottage Private Residence

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

Interiors

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Interiors

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Ateljé Sotamaa is Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa – brother and sister – and an international staff of architects, designers, and artists based in Helsinki, Finland.

Ateljé Sotamaa is driven by a fascination with sensation - how people experience design.

The studio combines experiential design with criticality and responsibility.

In order to make experiences seamless the studio designs projects holistically - across scale and media.

Ateljé Sotamaa has pioneered the use of advanced digital technologies in order to create unique design with an economy of means.

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The Academic Bookstore Retail

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An Urban Cultural Institution The Bookstore is located a very central and urban site. The interior of the Bookstore is inherently public and urban, organized on three floors around a large interior Piazza.

The renovation and reinvigoration project strategically emphasizes the urbanity of the various interior spaces of the bookstore, conceptually entitled the Piazza, the Passage, the Playground, the Media Facade, and the Street Corner. The aim of the reinvigoration effort is to build on the urban nature and high design quality of the original, historically protected building, in order to create a vibrant, commercially successful, contemporary cultural institution.

The Bookstore desires to reinvigorate itself and emerge even stronger as a cultural institution which offers unique experiences, a new beacon of innovation, with a new way of experiencing books. The Bookstore will exceed all expectations. The ambitious goal of Helsinki, to become a major brand within the cultural circle in the world, grant the unique opportunity to incorporate culture with books in a revolutionary new way. Having the Bookstore behave like a traditional “bookshop� is no longer the primary objective – it is much rather a necessary asset in achieving the grand idea: Turn the Bookstore into the cultural meeting point of Helsinki and Finland, or even Scandinavia.

Create the ultimate bookstore globally, which constantly inspires and updates its customers.

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- Clients, Exhibitions, Publications, Contact

Selected Clients

Selected Exhibitions

IVA The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering, Fazer, Finnjävel, Muru Dining , Cafe Aalto, Hanaholmen Swedish Finnish Cultural Center, Finnish Sommelier Association, Grand Champagne, Finpro, Academic Bookstore , Stockmann, Aalto University, ADD Aalto Digital Design Laboratory, The Design Museum Helsinki, The Barbican Center, Fondazione Trussardi, 21 st Century Museum for Contemporary Art, Wexner Center for the Arts, Marimekko, Art and Design City Arabianranta, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art.

Museum of Modern Art MoMA New York, The Venice Architecture Biennale, The Venice Art Biennale, Vitra Design Museum, Chicago Art Institute, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, He Xiangning Art Museum, Kiasma, Henie Onstad Art Centre, Center for Architecture NY, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, San Jose Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan Biennale, Steirischer Herbst, National Building Museum Washington DC, Wexner Centre for Arts, Architecturverein Tirol, Forum Kultur und Wissenschaft Germany, American Museum of Natural History, Architectural Association, Henie Onstad Art Center, Artist Space NY, XIII Bienal de Santiago de Chile.

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Selected Publications

Ateljé Sotamaa

The New York Times, The London Times, Phaidon 10X10 Architects 1, Phaidon 10X10 Architects 2, International Design Yearbook, The Interview Magazine Ottagono, Domus, Interni, CA Press, PRAXIS 6, PEN Japan, AD Architectural Design, New Scandinavian Design, 40/40 Finnish Architects, Forum, L’ARCA, Hybrid Space, Blueprint, AA Files, Kauppalehti, Helsingin Sanomat, Muoto, Finnish Design Yearbook, LOG 13, Wood With A Difference catalogue, All Design Magazine, Pro Interior, Nexus Architecture and Mathematics, Innovation, Developing Digital Architecture, The Fashion of Architecture, Tank, Kenchiku Bunka, Archis.

Väinämöisenkatu 19 A 3 00100 Helsinki Finland www.ateljesotamaa.net

Interiors

SROIRETNI 30LOV

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