Michael Perlmutter
The clients for this seaside vacation home in Kirkkonummi, Finland, wanted a kitchen that was practical, elegant, and out of the way. But they didn’t want the room cut off from the amazing views of the site’s rocky headland.
Architects Pekka Helin and Mariitta Helineva came to the rescue, placing a galley-style kitchen near the center of the boomerang-shaped floor plan. “It has a different hierarchy than kitchens in our other residences,” Helineva acknowledges, but that’s what the clients wanted—a kitchen that “fades away in the background.”
To that end, the duo designed the space to follow the curve of the home’s rear exterior wall, using the curve to conceal appliances and prep areas and to direct attention to the seascape beyond its borders. The room’s placement just inside the main entry also facilitates quick dispersal of groceries—an important program point for “very orderly” homeowners, Helineva explains.
The look may be quiet, but the design certainly isn’t bashful. Cast-in-place concrete on the exterior wall and ceiling collaborate with the exposed wood framework to “create a receptive surface for the play of light,” says Helineva. A pale gray glaze minimizes the concrete’s heaviness. Brushed aluminum cabinet and drawer fronts also help lighten the mood, and thick oak countertops, window casings, and floors add warmth.
