Avanto Architects and Joanna Laajisto have designed a logistics centre for retailer Finnish Design Shop that features warm timber, a foraged-food restaurant for staff and visitors, and views of the surrounding forest.
Located on the outskirts of Turku, west of Helsinki, the logistics centre is the hub for storage, management and dispatch of products from the Finnish Design Shop, which says it is the world's largest online store for Nordic design.
The company needed a new logistics centre after a period of high growth, but founder and CEO Teemu Kiiski also aimed for it to be a meaningful place for employees and visitors.
The Finnish Design Shop logistics centre is located in the Pomponrahka nature reserve in Turku. Photo is by Kuvio
Employees of the logistics centre can enjoy plenty of light and forest views as well as warm timber environments and a restaurant run by Sami Tallberg, an award-winning chef who specialises in foraging. The Finnish Design Shop had first explored whether it could convert an existing building in the Turku area, but, finding nothing suitable, chose to build on a site in the Pomponrahka nature reserve, where the surrounding forest would provide a calming work environment and reflect the appreciation for wood in Nordic design.
To undertake construction there responsibly, the Finnish Design Shop says the builders saved as many trees as possible and landscaped the area with natural forest undergrowth and stones excavated from the site.
The entrance feat...