Villa Tuulentupa – Windblown

The site is in the immediate neighbourhood of the village of Iitti. It is a rocky tip of headland, where the family had spent their holidays during three generations. They decided to replace the existing summer cottage, built in the 1960s, with a new villa, which would serve as a place of relaxation and a generator of renewal and where they could meet relatives and friends. They also wanted to offer their foreign artist guests a unique experience amidst nature.

The main view from the house opens up to the lake. The exceptionally beautiful glaciated rocks of the headland – like backs of blue whales – descend to the lake, from which the sun rises in the morning and into which it sets in the evening. Stunted pines grow in a crescent of thin soil surrounded by big erratic boulders.

The morphology of the rocks is so strong that a rectangular plan was unthinkable. The organic design grew out of the rock surfaces.

The interior flows from the main space to the bedrooms and out to the free-form terraces that open in three directions. The house turns its back to the direction of approach and the neighbouring sites, opening smaller windows towards them, and embraces a terrace facing the lake. A person sitting on the terrace has a 360-degree view of the lake via reflections on the large windows.

The dominating facade materials of the steel-framed building are wood and copper. The dark copper merges naturally with the bark of old pines and the grey boarding with glaciated rock.

The interiors are marked by the pale ceramic tiling of floors and the fan-like birch battening of the ceiling, made as custom carpentry work. All fixed furnishings were custom made by cabinet makers mainly from walnut.