Emmi Keskisarja

Architect Emmi Keskisarja pursues to combine precision with passion in order to create intuitive, inspiring spaces, and environments that are sensual, eloquent and equal. She combines trans-disciplinary collaboration with contemporary digital tool set in her architectural practice supported by her academic work. Keskisarja’s curriculum includes studies in complex geometries and advanced material use, artistic initiatives as well as realized pieces of architecture. Her work has been exhibited around the world, most recently at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014.

Emmi Keskisarja’s international breakthrough project was Dragon Skin Pavilion that was created in collaboration with Pekka Tynkkynen and LEAD (Laboratory for Explorative Architecture and Design) and built for the 2011–12 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture. The pavilion is an architectonic art installation that explores the possibilities of space, tactility and the use of new materials, such as thermoformable plywood. Non-ruled, double curved freeform structure uses gravity as a driver for its shape, creating a self-supporting, lightweight skin of wood.

In Dragon Skin, by using one single mold, all plywood panels are bent into the same single curved shape and slotted into place with a simple sliding joint without using any drawings, glue or screws. The dimensions of the shells are selected to avoid material loss. The duality of the pavilion is present in the rhythm of different inside and outside surfaces. Whereas the outer surface creates an aggressive although lightweight shell, the inside composes a softer and protective space. The combination of new materials and contemporary digital design and fabrication methods enables an accurate construction process without the need of skilled labor or conventional on-site communication methods like plans or drawings.

Emmi Keskisarja’s ongoing projects include Välke parking facility for the town of Mikkeli in Finland, where the aim is to create a fluid kinetic façade. She is also part of a young Finnish-Norwegian architect collective Kaleidoscope whose inclusive method of developing all ideas and drawings together plays an important part in her creative practice. Kaleidoscope was awarded the first prize and commission in Europan 12 competition for planning and adapting the abandoned hospital area Dikemark in Oslo, Norway.

www.emmikeskisarja.com