‘Meteorite’ designed by Ateljé Sotamaa is a holiday house located in seemingly remote Kontiolahti in eastern Finland.
Approached on foot through the woods – as preferred by the architect – it appears a mystical dark object among the trees. The inside of this ultra-modern, ecological, three-storey wood building, however, is another world of open interconnected rooms that integrate with the surrounding landscape.
“Meteorite is not a large house, but on the inside, it represents a completely new 3-dimensional open-concept way of organizing living space,” says Ateljé Sotamaa co-founder Kivi Sotamaa. “Unlike traditional houses where each room has a specific predetermined purpose, Meteorite’s architecture supports more dynamic relationships of its residents and a variety of life situations. Digital design and new prefabrication and construction technologies enable the creation of unique, aesthetically high-quality ecological wood buildings that add experiential value to their locations.”
Inside the house, there is light Nordic wood all around, no plastic anywhere in the structure, and nothing prone to moulding. The roof, too, is of solid wood, oiled to resist the elements and age beautifully. The large windows bringing in nature are all electrically heated.
"Every building materializes our relationship with the natural environment,” Koivula says. ”My inspiration to have a unique wood house built in this country sprouted from the rocky hills and rugged woods of Koli, rich in erratic boulders that also served Finland’s defense during the Winter War. Meteorite reflects the connection my soul has to Finnish nature, and looking through one of its large windows to the misty fields around takes me back to the calm days of childhood. We use the house as a creative space for remote work, hobbies, and hanging out together. In the old days, families gathered into a large horizontal kitchen space to be together; we now interconnect vertically with each other and with the surrounding nature. In this time and age with effective telecommunications and speed trains to the metropolitan region, this is a paradise for us to get settled into the good life.”
