Studio Finna wants to evoke emotions

Designer duo Hanna-Kaarina Heikkilä and Anni Pitkäjärvi have been working together under the name Studio Finna since 2014. Their repertoire ranges from product and furniture design to projects relating to interior and architecture. The duo will spend November–December 2019 in residency in New York to gather inspiration for a new collection.

Studio Finna, formed by Hanna-Kaarina Heikkilä and Anni Pitkäjärvi, designs products independently as well as for companies such as Hakola, IKEA and Ferm Living. Recent projects include installations for the Artek store in Helsinki and for the Ziro Festival of Music in India. The pair describes their field of work as multidisciplinary due to their diverse educational backgrounds.  

Heikkilä studied and worked with architecture before receiving a degree in design. Pitkäjärvi’s background is in industrial, furniture and spatial design. Where Heikkilä is the risk-taker of the duo, Pitkäjärvi contributes a realistic, engineering point of view. Studio Finna aims to solve problems and create objects that will stand the test of time.

The designers are inspired by the overlooked details in their environment. This includes art – often in the form of sculpture or jewelry – but also materials and other notions of everyday life. The core of their practice is in creating pieces that become keepsakes; either because of their functionality or because an emotional bond is formed with the product. 

Heikkilä and Pitkäjärvi arrive in New York for a two-month residency period to work on the project ‘Feel the Beat’. They will seek inspiration around the city and keep track of their feelings and sensations, as well as details and materials they encounter with the aim of creating a mind map that eventually translates into a collection.

“Traveling and facing a new cultural context automatically makes us reflect deeply upon the new temporary habitat and its essence. Those observations are later used as valuable reference points in production.”

During their residency, Heikkilä and Pitkäjärvi will host a workshop on color for children at the Scandinavia House on November 30. Register here.

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