The Orchid House is an architectural pavilion for Arabianranta Park in Helsinki Finland. It stands on a rectangular concrete base with subtle topographical formations. The striated surfaces that create the space of the pavilion are made of thin, partially painted waterjet-cut sheets of aluminum. These individual sheets are connected to one another with arrays of tubes that as a whole become a swarm of ‘particles’ around the space. The striated aluminum surfaces are light and thus can be very delicately supported from the concrete foundation.

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The Orchid House is a space for wondering. The design deploys both the expressive powers of topological form as well as the impressionist powers of material- and optical effects. The forms are designed to instill a sensation turbulent movement around a central space. The various elements of the pavilion are organized so that they flow along this movement, against each other, and with each other, creating both a sense of dispersal and concentration, without ever settling into hierarchical relationships.The flowing, striated aluminum surfaces vary in thickness and are articulated with creases. The thinning of the surfaces towards edges causes them to fade away, rather than have a definitive boundary. The creasing does the same with lines. They begin and end through a gradient as opposed to having definitive points of termination. These are the lines of a sketch and surfaces of a painting rather than well defined graphics of a cartoon. Both of these ‘painterly’ effects lead the eye beyond the physical object rather than giving it an easily comprehensible direction to follow.

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The exotic exterior form seduces people into the vibrant interior, saturated with shadows, reflected light and colors. The environment on the exterior is filtered, distorted and magnified on the interior by the shiny striated skin. Any movement outside, such as sun and trees, animates the space. People moving through and around the pavilion color it with the clothes they wear. Experiencing the Orchid House by walking through it causes changing alignments of the striated surfaces and creates dynamic optical phenomenon such as moiré. Formations and patterns seem to emerge and disappear as the orientation between the beholder, pavilion and environment shifts.

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The effects in the Orchid House are meant to be too complex and ephemeral to decipher in order to foreground the affective powers of the design rather than its logical, ‘intellectual’ aspects. Although the pavilion is technologically sophisticated on a number of levels it does not tell stories of it design- or manufacturing process, nor does it communicate messages or meanings. It simply delivers atmospheric effects powerfully and effortlessly. The Orchid House creates first a sense of spectacle and bewilderment, and then, a state of distracted attention – a mood perhaps appropriate for enjoying the material world and wondering about our relationship to it.

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Principal Architects

Kivi Sotamaa & Tuuli Sotamaa

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