Habitare’s themed exhibition

Habitare’s themed exhibition, Layers, to be created by the cosmopolitan design studio Yatofu

Habitare will feature an exhibition reflecting the 2024 Habitare theme of Layers, created by the Yatofu design studio Angela Lindahl and Yihan Xiang. The theme, Layers, highlights the layered and lived-in character of homes, spaces and objects, reminding us of the cyclicity of design, the revival of styles, and how the old and the new exist side by side every moment.

The premise of the exhibition is the revealing of layers

The premise of the themed exhibition, created by Yatofu, a design studio based in Helsinki and Shanghai, is the revealing of layers. “We want to reveal different layers – stories, periods, aesthetics and processes – and explore and understand them. It’s the same when you visit someone’s home and see different pieces, old and new, and you wonder what their story is and why they are there. So revealing layers is a kind of a sub-theme of the exhibition. We don’t just focus on the spatial experience or the look of the exhibition, but also on the content”, say Angela Lindahl and Yihan Xiang, the founders of Yatofu.

“We are going to ask a few designers and artists to come to the exhibition to show and peel back the layers of their work. At design fairs, you usually see finished products, but we also want to let visitors in on the design process and craft skills involved”, says Xiang.

In addition to the visual layers, Lindahl and Xiang hope that the exhibition will serve as a meeting place and a space for dialogue. Various artists, companies and independent creators can all find their own place there and share their work and their own visions of design – on different scales.

*Habitare’s themed exhibition, Layers, to be created by the cosmopolitan design studio Yatofu: “We want to reveal and to uncover layers.”*

Connecting cultures as Yatofu’s distinctive feature

The designers were originally drawn to Helsinki because of their studies at Aalto University. They were also attracted by the iconic Finnish designers, including Alvar Aalto, Tapio Wirkkala and Eero Saarinen, and intrigued by Nordic design and its strong focus on lifestyle and connection to nature. They have since made the city their home, and are keen to show what is currently happening in the local design scene.

Lindahl, a Taiwanese-Canadian, and Xiang, a Chinese, met each other while studying interior architecture at Aalto University. The two designers, who respectively studied in New York and Beijing, founded the Yatofu design studio in 2017. The company currently has offices in Helsinki and Shanghai, but it delivers projects to customers around the world.

Acting as a bridge between cultures and connecting cultures is Yatofu’s distinctive feature and natural niche. “In the beginning, we got projects from non-Finnish clients doing business in Finland and from Finns doing business elsewhere, for example, in China or North America. I think what makes us special is that we are always working with two very different cultures in two different environments”, says Lindahl.

Yatofu has also introduced new layers to Helsinki, its current hometown. The designers have left their mark on, for example, the Noodle Story restaurants, where, when you walk through the door, you feel as if you have stepped into another city and another country. “With Noodle Story, our concept was based around the activity of gathering around the dining table to share and exchange experiences. Something which is very common and authentic in Chinese culture. In our projects, we often try to find the key common and distinct cultural elements and place them in the forefront”, explains Lindahl.

Asian culture also features in the name of the designer duo’s company, Yatofu, which started as a joke. “We wanted it to reflect our values and philosophy, and we also wanted people to feel the Asian culture behind it. We were joking about how we both like to eat. Then we thought that, hey, what if we took the first letters of our names and added the word ‘tofu’. The name also reflects our attitude: we don’t take anything too seriously”, Xiang says, and they both laugh.

The creators behind the theme exhibition

Rudi Merz – Play in Progress

Rudi Merz is an iconic designer most famously known for his environmentally and form conscious furniture designs. In his most recent collaboration with his daughter, Laura Merz, Rudi has expanded from which he is most well-known and created an installation of interactive wooden toy pieces titled “Play in Progress”.

The installation consists of hundreds of unique, individually handcrafted wooden building blocks of different sizes and shapes, and wooden pegs in varying lengths. The blocks are made from off-cut wood (oak, birch, yew, pine, ash, alder, juniper, applewood, plum) leftover from furniture production.

Paul Flanders – Kudos Collection

Inspired by the Curly Birch as a perfectly imperfect source of wood material, Finnish American designer Paul Flanders wanted to explore the potential of using Curly Birch in its solid form. The result, Kudos Collection, is an ongoing series of woven wood works, in which slabs of carefully selected solid Curly Birch are interwoven with Oak; a metaphor for the unique interweaving cell structure of the Curly Birch tree.

Eemeli Sahimaa – Practice Of / What Would I Do Without

Eemeli Sahimaa is a designer/sculptor who works with traditional methods of handicraft and production. Inspired by his heritage and tools passed down through generations in his family, Eemeli’s journey in producing his pieces “Practice Of” and “What Would I Do Without” rely on a spontaneous sensibility towards seeking hidden forms that lie within scavenged pieces of wood, resulting in physical expressions that represent a specific time and place.

Lennart Engels – Sauna Stone Lab

Sauna Stone Lab is Lennart Engel’s material investigation into the lifecycle of Finnish sauna stones. Originally from Belgium, Lennart became fascinated by Finnish sauna culture and discovered the incomplete lifecycle and potential of disposed sauna stones. Through ongoing research, Lennart reimagines the used sauna stones from a new perspective, to be employed as a source for innovative and sustainable material development, allowing for the creation of a unique array of materials and objects.

Habitare’s themed exhibition partners