Out from the woodwork: Design Capital Pavilion, Helsinki, Finland designed by Pyry-Pekka Kantonen with other students and staff from the Alto University.
An elegant response to the hype of London's Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion comes out of Alto University, Helsinki. The Pavilion represents a genuine piece of research from the University's Wood studio. It also explores something of what it means to be Finnish, where working with, living in buildings of, or just enjoying timber, is arguably in the national psyche. The architectural design of the Design Capital Pavilion is by a talented student Pyry-Pekka Kantonen who, working with fellow students from the Wood Studio including: Markus Heinonen,Marko Hämäläinen, Janne Kivelä, Wilhelm Kosonen and Inka Saini created this exciting project under the tutelage of Pekka Heikkinen.The pavilion has been given a prestigious location between the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum, and is intended to celebrate World design Capital Helsinki 2012.The construction is based on a triangular grid that organises the plan as well as the structure. The roof grid and columns are made from 18mm thick beech faced ply covered with a transparent polycarbonate cellular board. In all the Pavilion covers and area of some 470 square metres.The columns of the roofed area are set on thick plates placed on the gravel base. Each column is a six pointed veneer plywood box structure. Each fin of the column is fixed together horizontally with rods. The box structure consists of core latices made of structural timber, and 18mm birch faced plywood.
