Catalogue 22/Descending the Landscape

Part of Catalogue 22, Catalogue 22 on Google Maps

Descending the Landscape

Designer: Natalie Petricca
Degree: B. Architecture
School: Carleton University
Year: 2012
Location of Project: Rovaniemi, Finland
Project Status: Unbuilt

‘Descending the Landscape’ is a hotel, sauna and restaurant located in Rovaniemi Finland and designed with a sensitivity towards light, especially the Northern Lights, which became a guiding principle of the design. Each space was carefully designed so that from a specific angle the sky could be observed.

Site orientation allows visitors to encounter the most public space, the restaurant, first and then descend slowly down the landscape, with the spaces becoming more and more private. In the restaurant, each table has their own window that frames the natural landscape surrounding the site and the celestial phenomena. In the sauna, the Northern Lights can be observed while sitting in a reclined position, halfway through the sauna cycle. In the hotel room, the most private of all the spaces, the Northern Lights can be observed while lying in bed, with the beds being oriented so that the guests face North, where the most amount of activity happens. While the roofs are used to frame the Northern Lights, the walls are used to frame day light. In the shower in the hotel bathrooms, a small slit of light is positioned so that light cascades over the users body in the morning hours. In the sauna, meditation is separated into three distinct areas, with the most meditative space featuring small slits of light, the intermediate area having a view up to the Northern Lights i a reclined position and the most social space having a full view out to the surrounding landscape and out over the hotel rooms below.