Finnish airline Finnair has unveiled modern lounge areas at Helsinki Airport, envisioned by native designer Joanna Laajisto to mix Nordic fashion 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 inside 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 practical and calming areas the place you’ll be able to spend a second surrounded by understated, elegant design,” stated Laajisto.
“Our purpose was to create areas that permit travellers to chill out and let their shoulders drop.”
The palette combines supple shapes, a mixture of hot tones and deeper color shades, granite stone surfaces and loads of pure wooden.
Echoing the curved furnishings, Laajisto designed modern ceilings that take cues from aeroplane cabins, enhancing acoustics whereas providing a better sense of intimacy.
“We launched softness by means of shapes and supplies to create a affable and welcoming ambiance,” stated Laajisto.
“We needed 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 parts and Finnish stone,” she advised Dezeen.
The hand-carved picket Traces desk by Finnish designer-maker Antrei Hartikainen marks the doorway to the primary lounge space, which is open to enterprise class travellers and Finnair Plus Gold members.
A curved wall of iridescent tiles leads by means of to a extra unique space for Platinum and Platinum Lumo cardholders, framed by massive, 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 off-the-cuff living-room-style area full of relaxed seating, plus a research 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 sequence of Artek‘s Sixties Karuselli chairs, retained from the earlier lounge, which had been reupholstered to look nearly as good as modern.
“We needed to introduce the lesser-known selections from Finnish design together with the classics,” Laajisto stated.
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 supple and cozy, however to offer lithe the place it was wanted,” added the designer. “I imagine a very good atmosphere wants lithe and shadow in good stability.”
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 initiatives 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.
