Excerpt: Villa Anna, designed by Avanto Architects, sits on a scenic slope with stunning views of Lake Saimaa and the surrounding forest. It’s dark wood exterior, seamlessly extending across both walls and the steep roof, creates a cohesive aesthetic that blends with the natural landscape. In contrast to the bold, dark exterior, the interiors are minimalist, featuring pristine white surfaces that amplify the sense of openness and light.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] Villa Anna is situated on a slope and opens up to nearby Lake Saimaa and adjoining forest. The exterior is clad with dark wood paneling, even the steep roof is clad with the façade material. To contrast the exterior, the minimalist interior is all white, just the wooden floor adds some warm ambience.
The entrance area is lower than the steep roofed main mass so as not to block neighbor’s lake views. The lower building mass consists of an entrance hall and luxurious home spa with a big sauna based on the architects’ Kyly sauna concept. Kyly developed a traditional Finnish log sauna to an innovative construction using massive timber in a way that enables easy assembly, disassembly and reuse of the precious wood material and it won the Habitare competition for young designers in 2009. There is a Japanese style furo bath sunk on the floor next to the big wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling window that opens long views to the lake Saimaa.
The main building houses a very high and dramatic space with a kitchen, dining room and living room. The master bedroom and the room for the family’s child are situated on the ground floor. There is a guest room, a tv room as well as a roof terrace on top of the lower building mass on the first floor. Special care has been paid to all bathrooms that have floors made of wide planks too.
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