Location: Helsinki, Finland

A single piece of an artisan’s wood shaving so thin that the beauty of its grain can be seen through light is our source of inspiration. We marvel at the way it curls, unwittingly trapping space, balancing on its own mass to weight ratio. Showing the same warmth and grain on both sides, the wonder of the wood shaving became our foremost inspiration.

The single wood shaving is morphed into a form encompassing the site. Starting at one end, it flows as walls enclosing spaces, trees, splits into layers to create canopies, cascades along the waterfront, wraps around public spaces, loops over to form the galleries before spiraling down to form the multi-purpose hall.

The birch forest that we propose is to show where wood is from, how it is cultivated, how it grows and matures into trees. Eventually, how it supports wildlife and how it enters the material world.

Project status:  Competition in 2014