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Hanasaari Swedish Finnish Cultural Center
Hanasaari Swedish Finnish Cultural Center
Helsinki, Finland
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Other Projects by Ateljé Sotamaa
Hanasaari Swedish Finnish Cultural Center
Helsinki, Finland
Firm
Type
YEAR
2014
Photos
Background. Hanasaari was created in 70’s as a total work of art. Its design, especially the interiors, which our father Professor Yrjö 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 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.
Aims and ambitions. 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. We aim for the Hanasaari hotel to deliver an intimate cultural experience, not a cold commercial one.
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.
The furniture creates sensations on multiple registers. The cultural center has a unique location by the sea, with every single hotel room having a view to the sea. The updating of the hotel rooms re-orients furniture in the rooms in order to emphasize the direct visual experience of the surrounding nature. The social space of the rooms has been redesigned by positioning the seating areas near the entry and the more private sleeping areas near the window.
Both nature, and art resonate in the designs, which are a continuation of ideas that are important to modern art, and Nordic design culture. In order for a moment of sensation to turn into a continuous experience of intellectual intrigue, good artwork has to invite a multiplicity of aligned interpretations without ever settling to one reading. It has to oscillate.
Beehives and Alvar Aalto’s classic lamp is evoked by the 3D printed Bekupa LED lights, which are tucked away in the corners of the rooms, as if busy futuristic bees had built them there. The 3D printed Starfish lights, each one unique individual, cast light patters on the walls evoking the ethereal underwater world of the surrounding Baltic Sea. The Hanaholmen Sofabed finds its kindred morphs in the constructivist paintings of Sam Vanni on display at the hotel, and our childhood home. It is made from rectangular modules in nuances of grays with an accent of deep orange, and changes in configuration as the sofa unfolds into a bed, like a three dimensional, kinetic painting. The sharp and sculptural Birch wood Isla tables draw from rock formations, and works of artists such as Matti Kujasalo. The Mumbai Light is on one side smooth and black, and on the other side there is a void of golden hand forged brass. The form is a kindred morph of a hanging Weaver Bird’s nest, or a sculpture by Constantin Brancusi. Yrjö table has an irregular leg which branches around organically like a tree, or a 21st century version of Buckminster Fuller’s spaceframes. The Kenrokuen Table twists off the ground exposing its ‘roots’ like the old trees in Hansaari island or the famous Japanese tree garden, and bears resemblance to Yrjö Kukkapuro’s Haimi chair legs – part of in Hanasaari’s original furniture collection.
The designs invite touching, and foreground both visceral and haptic experiences, which you cannot download. Forms and materials have been combined in order to create ‘magic’ sensations - fluid digital form with rough hand forged hammered brass, or smooth forms of glossy brass ‘kissing’ soft Italian leather, for example.
The making of. Digital technology and craft. Hanasaari has always stood for innovation, and in that spirit we set out to make most use of available digital design and manufacturing techniques in the design process. We worked particularly closely with Aalto University’s digital design laboratory ADD in order to explore the use of 3D printing in the design and manufacturing of the furniture. 3D printing enables small series production, customisation, uniqueness and complexity, qualities which we desire for the Hanasaari ‘total work of art’.
3D printing was used in its conventional sense in the design process to prototype forms and work with manufacturers such as I.S. Mäkinen with the Hanaholmen Sofabed or Puutyö Rajala for the wood furniture, but more importantly, it was used to directly produce a collection of unique lights in collaboration with SAAS Instruments Ltd. The 3D printed lights are each one a unique individual. In the future, the process will be used as a method of inviting Finnish and Swedish designers contribute their own designs to the collection. 3D printing also gives a possibility of creating designs related to a particular event at Hanasaari.
Most extensive use of 3D printing was made in the creation of the molds for casting of formally complex metal components, such as the brass alloy legs for the Sira Chair, and Jeff Lounge Chair, in global co-operation between Finland and India. The metal casting with the help of 3D prints was coordinated by Nimish Pahwajar, and done by craftsmen in Mumbai, who have generations of experience in their trade but are to a large degree illiterate. The technology allowed us to communicate with them directly by sending a 3D file to be printed in Mumbai, or by sending a 3D print done at ADD. 3D printed forms enabled a unique communication and collaboration through objects, benefiting both parties. The production of parts from the Hanasaari furniture collection in India became, to everyone’s surprise, a private development project. It gave meaningful well paid work for skillful Indian craftsmen, and us an opportunity to manufacture high craft furniture in limited series. It was a perfect combination of high tech, high education design work done in Finland, and traditional craft work done in India. It made the project uniquely Nordic and international.
It is inevitable that with the changing of time, buildings and their occupants must evolve in order to survive. The most important aspect 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.
Aims and ambitions. 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. We aim for the Hanasaari hotel to deliver an intimate cultural experience, not a cold commercial one.
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.
The furniture creates sensations on multiple registers. The cultural center has a unique location by the sea, with every single hotel room having a view to the sea. The updating of the hotel rooms re-orients furniture in the rooms in order to emphasize the direct visual experience of the surrounding nature. The social space of the rooms has been redesigned by positioning the seating areas near the entry and the more private sleeping areas near the window.
Both nature, and art resonate in the designs, which are a continuation of ideas that are important to modern art, and Nordic design culture. In order for a moment of sensation to turn into a continuous experience of intellectual intrigue, good artwork has to invite a multiplicity of aligned interpretations without ever settling to one reading. It has to oscillate.
Beehives and Alvar Aalto’s classic lamp is evoked by the 3D printed Bekupa LED lights, which are tucked away in the corners of the rooms, as if busy futuristic bees had built them there. The 3D printed Starfish lights, each one unique individual, cast light patters on the walls evoking the ethereal underwater world of the surrounding Baltic Sea. The Hanaholmen Sofabed finds its kindred morphs in the constructivist paintings of Sam Vanni on display at the hotel, and our childhood home. It is made from rectangular modules in nuances of grays with an accent of deep orange, and changes in configuration as the sofa unfolds into a bed, like a three dimensional, kinetic painting. The sharp and sculptural Birch wood Isla tables draw from rock formations, and works of artists such as Matti Kujasalo. The Mumbai Light is on one side smooth and black, and on the other side there is a void of golden hand forged brass. The form is a kindred morph of a hanging Weaver Bird’s nest, or a sculpture by Constantin Brancusi. Yrjö table has an irregular leg which branches around organically like a tree, or a 21st century version of Buckminster Fuller’s spaceframes. The Kenrokuen Table twists off the ground exposing its ‘roots’ like the old trees in Hansaari island or the famous Japanese tree garden, and bears resemblance to Yrjö Kukkapuro’s Haimi chair legs – part of in Hanasaari’s original furniture collection.
The designs invite touching, and foreground both visceral and haptic experiences, which you cannot download. Forms and materials have been combined in order to create ‘magic’ sensations - fluid digital form with rough hand forged hammered brass, or smooth forms of glossy brass ‘kissing’ soft Italian leather, for example.
The making of. Digital technology and craft. Hanasaari has always stood for innovation, and in that spirit we set out to make most use of available digital design and manufacturing techniques in the design process. We worked particularly closely with Aalto University’s digital design laboratory ADD in order to explore the use of 3D printing in the design and manufacturing of the furniture. 3D printing enables small series production, customisation, uniqueness and complexity, qualities which we desire for the Hanasaari ‘total work of art’.
3D printing was used in its conventional sense in the design process to prototype forms and work with manufacturers such as I.S. Mäkinen with the Hanaholmen Sofabed or Puutyö Rajala for the wood furniture, but more importantly, it was used to directly produce a collection of unique lights in collaboration with SAAS Instruments Ltd. The 3D printed lights are each one a unique individual. In the future, the process will be used as a method of inviting Finnish and Swedish designers contribute their own designs to the collection. 3D printing also gives a possibility of creating designs related to a particular event at Hanasaari.
Most extensive use of 3D printing was made in the creation of the molds for casting of formally complex metal components, such as the brass alloy legs for the Sira Chair, and Jeff Lounge Chair, in global co-operation between Finland and India. The metal casting with the help of 3D prints was coordinated by Nimish Pahwajar, and done by craftsmen in Mumbai, who have generations of experience in their trade but are to a large degree illiterate. The technology allowed us to communicate with them directly by sending a 3D file to be printed in Mumbai, or by sending a 3D print done at ADD. 3D printed forms enabled a unique communication and collaboration through objects, benefiting both parties. The production of parts from the Hanasaari furniture collection in India became, to everyone’s surprise, a private development project. It gave meaningful well paid work for skillful Indian craftsmen, and us an opportunity to manufacture high craft furniture in limited series. It was a perfect combination of high tech, high education design work done in Finland, and traditional craft work done in India. It made the project uniquely Nordic and international.
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