Finnish studio MNY Arkitekter has completed Two Sisters, a timber holiday home in Salo that is designed to allow two siblings to live "together separately". To create a dedicated space for each of the two sisters, MNY Arkitekter divided the home into two standalone units joined by a central terrace overlooking the surrounding rocks and pine trees on Finland's west coast. The two units are joined by a central terrace "In many ways the site is one of typical Finnish inner archipelago terrain and vegetation, and one of the main goals was to preserve as many trees and visible rocks as possible ..read more

Promotion: long-running Finnish design fair Habitare will take place in Helsinki in September along with its returning trade platform Habitare Pro. Running for more than 50 years, Habitare is Finland's leading design fair and live creative event, providing a platform for the Nordic nation's designers and brands. The event will curate the latest furniture, lighting and accessories, as well as showcase material innovation. Habitare is a trade show that takes place each September The fair is now appealing to more international visitors as part of a drive to boost Finland's profile as a design de ..read more

Helsinki-based designer Joanna Laajisto has completed Popolo, a ski resort restaurant designed to be both cosy and practical for guests walking in from the slopes. The Studio Joanna Laajisto founder designed the pizzeria as part of Kultakero, a new hotel at the Pyhä Ski Resort in northern Finland. The interior pairs slate flooring with patterned timber wall panelling Her scheme features a floor made from irregularly shaped slabs of slate and wall panelling with distinct feather-like grain patterns. Other key details at Popolo include leather seating and copper lamps and candleholders, which o ..read more

Chunky misshapen stools and a lampshade made of wood shavings feature in this hand-carved timber furniture collection by designer Didi Ng Wing Yin, which is on display at Helsinki Design Week. The furniture forms part of Habitare, the annual furniture fair held during Helsinki Design Week. Didi NG Wing Yin has designed a collection of amorphous timber furniture Hong Kong-born designer and maker Ng crafted his amorphous pieces almost entirely out of wood as his "way of working a bit against traditional industrial design". "That's why none of the shapes are the same," Ng told Dezeen at Habitare ..read more

Wood will be the primary material used to construct this building for the city administration of Espoo, Finland, which is being designed by studios Cobe and Lundén Architecture Company. Named Espoo House, the 24,000-square-mere building is intended to pay homage to Finland's history of timber construction. The municipal building will house the city's administration and also be open to its residents. Cobe and Lundén Architecture Company have designed Espoo House The administrative building will be defined by its timber frame, which will be exposed internally and was designed by Cobe and Lundén ..read more

A Finnish huussi, or composting toilet, has been built in the centre of the country's pavilion at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, which aims at critically exploring the world's unsustainable approach to sanitation. Declaring the "death of the flushing toilet as we know it" the pavilion, called Huussi – Imagining the Future History of Sanitation, was designed by The Dry Collective – a group of architects, designers and artists, and curated by Arja Renell. The Finnish Pavilion is called Huussi – Imagining the Future History of Sanitation The project is a response to the theme of the 2 ..read more

Visitors to the Gösta Serlachius Museum of Contemporary Art in Mänttä, Finland, can relax in this lakeside sauna and lounge complex designed by Mendoza Partida and BAX Studio. The Art Sauna is the latest addition to the museum, which since its original extension in 2014 has sought to provide a visitor experience that brings together landscape, art and architecture. Art Sauna was designed by Mendoza Partida and BAX Studio Barcelona-based architects Héctor Mendoza and Mara Partida of Mendoza Partida, together with Boris Bezan of BAX Studio, won an international competition in 2011 to exten ..read more

Studios White Arkitekter and K2S Architects are set to turn an underutilised area alongside Helsinki harbour into a cultural precinct incorporating several historic buildings. Local practice K2S Architects and Sweden's White Arkitekter won the competition to revitalise the Makasiiniranta area on the city's South Harbour with a proposal called Saaret, or "The Islands", developed with the consortium Konsortium Gran. The Makasiiniranta site covers 83,000 square metres and will include a long-discussed museum of architecture and design, which will be the subject of a separate competition in 2023 ..read more

Avanto Architects and interior designer 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 ..read more

A vivid orange Helsinki subway seat and an iconic timber sauna stool are among the pieces in this exhibition of work by design duo and couple Antti and Vuokko Nurmesniemi. Various works by the late interior architect Antti Nurmesniemi and textile designer Vuokko Nurmesniemi are presented in this eponymous exhibition at Helsinki Design Museum, which charts the pair's work from the 1950s to the 2000s. An orange Helsinki subway seat is included in the exhibition. Photo is by Mari Kallionpää From kitchen crockery to colourful textiles, the Nurmesniemis created a broad range of designs together an ..read more