Finnish airline Finnair has unveiled new lounge areas at Helsinki Airport, envisioned by native designer Joanna Laajisto to mix Nordic type and luxury.
Laajisto led the conversion of the airport’s former congress centre to present Finnair a extra beneficiant lounge providing for first- and business-class travellers flying throughout the border-free Schengen Space.
Her scheme showcases Finnish designers and types from previous and current alongside others throughout the Nordics, aiming to create a way of understated luxurious.
“At present’s luxurious is about purposeful and calming areas the place you’ll be able to spend a second surrounded by understated, elegant design,” mentioned Laajisto.
“Our objective was to create areas that permit travellers to chill out and let their shoulders drop.”
The palette combines mushy shapes, a mixture of heat tones and deeper color shades, granite stone surfaces and loads of pure wooden.
Echoing the curved furnishings, Laajisto designed new ceilings that take cues from aeroplane cabins, bettering acoustics whereas providing a larger sense of intimacy.
“We launched softness by way of shapes and supplies to create a pleasant and welcoming ambiance,” mentioned Laajisto.
“We wished to make the Finnair model seem softer, so the white shade is hotter than the everyday Finnair white and we launched texture with materials, wall components and Finnish stone,” she instructed Dezeen.
The hand-carved wood Traces desk by Finnish designer-maker Antrei Hartikainen marks the doorway to the principle lounge space, which is open to enterprise class travellers and Finnair Plus Gold members.
A curved wall of iridescent tiles leads by way of to a extra unique space for Platinum and Platinum Lumo cardholders, framed by heavy, sound-absorbing curtains. Each tiles and curtains match the deep blue tone of the Finnair emblem.
The lounge is split into three zones: an ethereal cafe serving foods and drinks, an informal living-room-style area stuffed with relaxed seating, plus a examine and work space that includes soundproofed cubicles and bar seating.
Standout furnishings items embody Thomas Sandell’s Goma bar chair designed by Finnish model Made by Selection, Louise Liljencrantz’s Margas LC2 lounge chair by Danish model &Custom and the Biennale stool by Kari Virtanen for Finnish model Nikari.
The design additionally features a collection of Artek’s Sixties Karuselli chairs, retained from the earlier lounge, which have been reupholstered to look pretty much as good as new.
“We wished to introduce the lesser-known selections from Finnish design together with the classics,” Laajisto mentioned.
These are accompanied by lighting designs such because the Nineteen Fifties Cobra wall lamp designed by Greta Magnusson and produced by Danish model Gubi and the w163 Lampyre designed by Inga Sempé for Swedish model Wästberg.
“We paid particular consideration to the lighting to make it mushy and comfy, however to offer gentle the place it was wanted,” added the designer. “I consider a superb atmosphere wants gentle and shadow in good steadiness.”
Laajisto received the Finnair fee after topping a design competitors held by the airline in 2023.
The designer has labored on quite a few high-profile tasks in Finland, together with the Finnish Design Store headquarters and the Helsinki retailer of vogue label Nanso.
Finnair beforehand revamped its lounges for non-Schengen flights, which opened in 2019.
The pictures is by Mikko Ryhänen.
