Y installation – an equation of digital fabrication and handcraft
Y-team:
&' [Emmi Keskisarja & Janne Teräsvirta & Company Architects], Tommi Alatalo, Antrei Hartikainen, Kaleidoscope Nordic AS, Irmelin Rose Fisch Vågen
Lead Architects and Structural Design: Emmi Keskisarja, Janne Teräsvirta, Tommi Alatalo, Antrei Hartikainen
Assistant Architects: Silje Klepsvik, Miia-Liina Tommila
Project Initiation and Concept Development: Emmi Keskisarja, Silje Klepsvik, Miia-Liina Tommila, Irmelin Rose Fisch Vågen, Tone Berge, Janne Teräsvirta
Project Administration: Emmi Keskisarja, Miia-Liina Tommila
Contractor: Hienopuuseppä Heikki Paso Oy
Illustration: Vegard Aarseth
Laser-scanning: PhD Jorge Garcia Fernandez
Supporters: Finnish Cultural Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Asko Foundation, Greta and William Lehtinen Foundation, Norwegian-Finnish Cultural Foundation, Norwegian Foreign Ministry, Hoisko CLT, Fiskarin Laatupuu
An international team of architects and fine carpenters in collaboration with the Finnish National Museum brings modern architecture into the Seurasaari open air museum in Helsinki, Finland, for the summer of 2017. Y is erected in the historical Niemelä Tenant Farm courtyard and is open until 15.9.2017.
Y is an equation of temporality, time and provocative use of wood in the museum milieu. Niemelä Tenant Farm is an example of traditional Finnish vernacular architecture consisting of 13 buildings, brought to the museum island in 1909 from central Finland. The temporary piece forms a new social courtyard at the tenant farm entrance, as an addition to the existing courtyards for animals and humans. The installation seeks to encourage the visitors stay longer in the Niemelä by altering the familiar and permanent museum environment. Y provides a hypnotic meditation spot from where to reflect on the changing state of time.
Tradition is born out of continuation and the sharing of knowledge and skills - the conjunction of new and old. As Y is the mathematical symbol for the unknown, the installation Y points to the future and the possible outcomes of Nordic built heritage. In Niemelä, Y is a variable within the parameter of time.
Y combines digital fabrication with handcraft, inspiring and revealing the possibilities of wood in modern construction. It encourages cross-border collaboration between architects and carpenters, as well as the combination of traditional working methods of fine carpenters with digital design and production. Y is built with horizontal prefabricated CLT-elements interlocked by 568 timber wedges and is itself like a large wooden joint made of CLT.