You gotta love Finland for how they use wood. I mean it’s just downright great. Wood as a material, not just a hidden away, cheap framing option? Profound. The Kamppi Chapel, located on the south side of Narinkka square in central Helsinki and designed by K2S Architects, stands as a refuge of calm and quite within the bustling city.
photographer © Tuomas Uusheimo
The building form is unique but possesses a spirit that enables it to fluidly incorporate with the cityscape. This form is created by a cnc-cut gluelam frame which is wrapped with sawn-to-order finger jointed spruce planks. Capable of being approached from all sides, the outer volume created between outer enclosure and inner sanctum is an intermediary which is home to potential exhibition space and chance encounters. The chapel space is itself accessible from only on point.
photographer © Tuomas Uusheimo
Within the chapel, light filters down walls of thick, curved alder planks which have been oiled, giving them warm, inviting finish. This is a space of calm, isolated from the exterior world. Keeping in this spirit, the furniture is resolutely ‘of the space’, being made also of solid alder and not of ‘something from without.
By:Matt Davis
photographer © Tuomas Uusheimo
