FROM WOOD TO ARCHITECTURE |
Studio Silja Rantanen
Korjaa, Finland, 2001.
Design: Hannele Grönlund
is located on a lakefront site outside the centre of Karjaa, in the western part of Uusimaa Region. If comprises a light-colored horizontal plane with an elongated dark box resting on top. An austere and compact structure, the house is rooted in the wooded slope, and the landscape continues under and through it. The enclosed gable end does not reveal the interior. Once you open the unimposing box, you step into a room lined with light. The space is high and undivided. A few specific spots in the building are defined by a green and yellow block containing a toilet and a wash basin.
The floor plane, which for the artist is as valuable a working surface as the wall, continues without differentiation from the outside indoors and out again. One end of the floor plane is a loading bay, while the other end, overlooking the lake reaches out to the landscape providing a place for a moment of repose. Details have been avoided as they would interfere with work.
The timber material and the form of the building integrate the studio into the utilitarian farm buildings of the surrounding agricultural landscape. It is a workspace, too. However, the exterior coating of far with added black pigment has no precedent in the area's vernacular.
Photos: Liisa TakaSa, Jussi Tiainen, Rauno Träskelin