The new building of the Finnish Design Shop, headquarters of the online retailer of Nordic design objects and furniture, was designed by the Avanto architecture studio. It includes a logistics center that delivers products to over a hundred countries, as well as a showroom and a restaurant: a success in which the pandemic played a key role, due to the forced closure of physical stores.
The design of the headquarters of Finnish Design Shop was quite complex for the architecture firm Avanto. The large building was designed based on strict requirements for the automated logistics warehouse with tight architectural constraints that did not allow for articulating the building with volumes or various roof forms.
You might also be interested in this project of a corporate building
The client wanted the building to represent the company's values: high quality design and ease of approach. The Finnish Design Shop project was inspired by the nearby forest, with facades constructed using a vertical three-dimensional pattern resembling tree trunks, allowing the giant structure to elegantly blend into the landscape.
The large windows of the building offer an unobstructed view of the surrounding forest. The facade is made of sandwich elements in concrete. The relief on the facade, although only 15 millimeters deep, changes depending on the angle of the sun, making the pattern more profound and three-dimensional.
The building was the first logistics building certified BREEAM Excellent (the second highest level) in Finland. This ambitious goal was achieved with the help of a life cycle assessment expert. The energy needed in the building is produced by geothermal heat powered by solar panels, and sustainability measures have been taken care of in all design solutions and construction works.
