House Lehtikivi

The house occupies a rocky, wooded hillside location on the rim of southern Finland’s Salpausselkä glacial ridge system. The building sits comfortably in the landscape, in harmony with the glacial boulders dotted there since the ice age.

The facades are clad in irregular width wooden paneling and coated in a charcoal black pine tar finish. The roof, in graphite grey steel, stretches onto the gable facades. The building’s dark colour scheme melts into the surrounding conifers.

The long, narrow building is oriented energy-efficiently towards the light. The fireplace room at the elbow of the building extends wall-to-wall through the middle of the house, forming a transitional zone between the bright living areas and dark sauna rooms.

The interior wood cladding is painted in breathing natural oil paint. The longitudinal exterior walls and transverse wooden I-beams of the roof serve as the load-bearing structure. The building has a suspended timber ground floor and is insulated with recycled wood fibre.