Designing
human experience
Architecture shapes how we feel before we know why. A room can make us anxious or at ease, alert or contemplative, isolated or connected.
Together with visionary clients and skilled collaborators I design buildings, spaces, and objects where wellbeing is not an afterthought but the starting point; and where the values, visions, and stories of the people and organisations behind them become tangible through material, atmosphere, and form.
Houses
Saunas
Public Buildings
Interiors
Sculpture & Installations
Exhibitions
Furniture & Light
Tableware & Glass
I practice holistic artistic thinking, which does not limit its scope to individual buildings or objects, rather I focus on overall experience and everything involved in creating it.
ABOUT
Kivi Sotamaa
Architect-designer-artist-educator
Helsinki, Finland.
Kivi Sotamaa is a Finnish architect, designer, and artist who creates buildings, spaces, and objects that change how people think, feel, and behave. He co-founded Ateljé Sotamaa in 2005 and works across scale and media — from houses and public sculptures to furniture, tableware, exhibitions, and identities — for clients who value experiential design, critical thinking and craftsmanship.
His work has been shown at MoMA, the Venice Biennale, the CCA, the Vitra Design Museum, and the 21st Century Museum in Kanazawa, and is held in permanent collections in Montreal and Orléans. Earlier in his career, he co-founded the pioneering digital design collective OCEAN North, taught at UCLA and Ohio State, held the inaugural Cross Over Professorship in Vienna alongside Prix, Hadid, and Lynn, and founded the Aalto Digital Design Laboratory.
A recent focus is timber architecture, and combining parametric design with the Compagnons des Devoirs tradition of master carpentry. He is writing a book on architecture as human experience, supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
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University of Art and Design Helsinki. Royal College of Art, London.
Helsinki University of Technology -
World Expo Gold Medal.
Wood Architecture Award.
Guggenheim Helsinki Honorary Mention.
MoMA PS1 Finalist.
Venice Architecture Biennale.
Venice Art Biennale.
CCA Permanent Collection.
FRAC Permanent Collection.
Phaidon 10x10.
Finnish Cultural Foundation Grant Recipient. -
Founder and Director, Aalto University Digital Design Laboratory ADD
Associate Professor of Architecture, UCLA A.UDVisiting Professor of Architecture, Institute for Architecture, Universität fur Angewandte Kunst Wien.
Assistant Professor, of Architecture The Ohio State University, Knowlton School of Architecture
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Books
Manual of Biogenic House Sections — Princeton Architectural Press, 2023
Small Houses by Philip Jodidio — Thames & Hudson, 2023
The Philosophy of Dumbness — The Misfit, article by Kivi Sotamaa, 2022
MASSIVE ATTACK: IOA Sliver Lectures — Birkhäuser, 2015
The Snow Show — Thames & Hudson, ed. Lance Fung, 2005
10x10 Architects 2 — Phaidon, OCEAN North, 2005
New Scandinavian Design — ed. K. Nelson & R. Cabra, 2004
Is It All About Image — Wiley, interview by Laura Iloniemi, 2004
Developing Digital Architecture — Birkhäuser, 2004
Latent Utopias — catalogue ed. Hadid & Schumacher, 2002
A New World Trade Centre — Max Protetch Gallery, 2002
40/40 Finnish Architects — Rakennustieto, 2002
10x10 Architects — Phaidon, 2000
Hybrid Space — Thames & Hudson, 2000
Written by Kivi Sotamaa
Finnjavel — Theatre of Gastronomy — SAC Journal 4, 2018
Frozen Void: The Elegant Affect — AD 77(1), 2007
Mood, Atmosphere, Motion and Emotion — Arttu, 2006
Driven by the Sublime — NEXUS Architecture and Mathematics, 2004
Vigorous Environments — AD, with Michael Hensel, 2002
Urban Surfaces — Domus no. 822, 2000
Column series — Muoto magazine, 2003
International Press
Elle Decor Italy — Meteorite feature, 2023
Dezeen — Meteorite, 2020–23
Designboom — Kivi Sauna, 2024; Meteorite, 2020
Dwell — Meteorite, photo Krista Keltanen, 2020
Abitare 610 — Meteorite, 2021
CASAS Internacional 188 — Casas en Finlandia, 2022
Trä Magazine — Meteorite, 2023
Asun — Sotamaa & Koivula conversation, 2023
Elle Decoration UK — Meteorite, 2020–23
Esquire — Meteorite, 2020–23
Milk Decoration — Meteorite, 2020–23
ARK 6/2018 — An Atelier for the Digital Age, 10pp, by Mika Savela
PRAXIS 6 — Constellations in Practice by Greg Lynn, 2004
AD Architectural Design — Emergence: Morphogenetic Design, 2004
AD Architectural Design — Digital Tectonics, 2004
AD Architectural Design — OCEAN North profile by C. Hight, 2002
AD Architectural Design — Contemporary Processes, 2002
AD Architectural Design — Contemporary Techniques, 2001
Ottagono — article by L. Prestinenza Puglisi, 2003
Interni — Formations, Milan, 2002
L'ARCA — projects, Italy, 2005
Kenchiku Bunka — Issue 652, Japan, 2001
PEN Japan — interview, 2005
The New York Times — At Last, Buildings are the Stuff of Dreams, Herbert Muschamp, 1999
The New York Times — interview by Christopher Hawthorne, 2003
The Times, London — Out of the Forest and into the Barbican, Hilary Finch, 1997
The Interview Magazine — New Talents: Kivi Sotamaa, NY, 1999
Kauppalehti — interview by Senja Larsen, 2019
Helsingin Sanomat — multiple articles, 2005, 2012
Blueprint — Barbican Valo festival, London, 1997
AA Files no. 33 — Becoming Unlimited, Van Berkel & Bos, 1997
Archis — Chamberworks, Amsterdam, 1999
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Solo Exhibitions
UCLA A.UD Gallery — Double Edge, with Atelier Bow-Wow, Los Angeles, 2007
Fondazione Nicola Trussardi — Formations, Milan, 2002
RAM Gallery — Chamberworks, Oslo, 1998
Henie Onstad Art Centre — Urban Surfaces II, Oslo, 1997
Architectural Association — Urban Surfaces I, London, 1996
Group Exhibitions
Finnish Museum of Architecture — Hope from Wood, Helsinki, 2021–22
Venice Architecture Biennale — Italian Virtual Pavilion, CITYX Venice, 2021
ADD Gallery Guangzhou — 3D printed furniture, 2021
Shanghai Furniture Fair CIFF — ADD exhibition, 800m², with Steven Ma, 2020
Helsinki Design Week — Meteorite, 2020
AEDES Gallery, Berlin — 100 Experiments, 2019
He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen — Nordic Design, 2018
Helsinki Design Museum — Enter and Encounter, Finnjavel, 2017
Canadian Centre for Architecture — Archaeology of the Digital, Montreal, 2016
Shanghai MoCA — Design Colors Life, 2012
Habitare Furniture Fair — Ahead!, Helsinki, 2011
Artists Space Gallery, New York — Matters of Sensation, 2008
Chicago Art Institute — Figuration, 2007
MoMA, New York — Young Architects Program, Flowers for PS1, 2006
Center for Architecture, New York — The Fashion of Architecture, 2006
San Jose Museum of Contemporary Art — Blobjects and Beyond, 2005
21st Century Museum, Kanazawa — Polyphony, Spanish Dancer, 2005
Venice Architecture Biennale — Jyväskylä Music and Art Centre, 2004
Busan Biennale — Contemporary Art Exhibition, 2004
The Snowshow, Kemi — Frozen, with Ernesto Neto, 2004
Kiasma Museum — Sense and Sensation, Roosa installation, 2003
Steirischer Herbst, Graz — Latent Utopias, curated by Zaha Hadid & Patrik Schumacher, 2003
XIII Bienal de Santiago de Chile — Digital Architecture, 2002
National Building Museum, Washington DC — A New World Trade Center, 2002
Vitra Design Museum, Berlin — A New World Trade Center, 2002
Venice Architecture Biennale — American Pavilion, A New World Trade Center, 2002
Wexner Centre for Arts — Mood River, curated by Jeffrey Kipnis, 2002
Kiasma Museum — ARS 01, Helsinki, 2001
Kiasma Museum — Calvino Memos, Multiplicities, 2001
NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf — Living Bridges, 2000
American Museum of Natural History, NY — Capturing Time, NY Times Capsule, 1999
Estonian Museum of Architecture — Freeway, IV Nordic Triennial, 1999
NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf — Die Natur der Dinge, 1998
Architectural Association, London — Adaptive Technologies, 1998
Architectural Association, London — Urban Surfaces, 1996
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Current Collaborators
Risto Lähdesmäki Partner at Vivaret and brother from another mother. A force of life who makes everyone around him raise their game.
Jonathan Carle Partner at Vivaret and Compagnon master builder. The ingenious timber structures behind all our homes come from his hands and mind. Also makes an excellent paté.
Filippo Fabi My right hand for eight years and counting. A brilliant Italian architectural designer with an unfailing eye and a master's command of the Italian art of living.
Yrjö Sotamaa My father, professor, and chairman of Ateljé Sotamaa's board. He taught me to value beauty and design. He also taught me that good ideas always generate their own resources.
Ulla-Maaria Koivula Collaborator, innovator, entrepreneur, design thinker, risk-taker — an all-around brilliant and effortlessly elegant force of nature.
Antti Ahlava My partner at Kissing Helsinki. One of the most curious minds in Finnish architecture — a genius for urban design with whom I have collaborated on projects and competitions for decades. Rain, snow, or shine, Antti rides his bike everywhere.
Fredrik Lindberg My partner at Kissing Helsinki. A sophisticated architect, enthusiastic musician, and master of the trombone. Elegance in everything he does.
Past Collaborators
I have had the good fortune to work with wonderful, brilliant people from whom I have learned enormously.
Tuuli Sotamaa My sister and partner at Ateljé Sotamaa since 2005. We have collaborated on countless projects together — restaurants, pavilions, furniture, visitor centres. Today Tuuli focuses on exhibitions and events around nature conservation, and her beautiful animal artworks.
Michael Hensel Partner at OCEAN North. A rare combination of theoretical depth and creative intensity.
Johan Bettum Partner at OCEAN North. Sharp, rigorous, and endlessly inventive — a formative collaborator in the early years.
Pietro Barcaccia Long-time collaborator at Ateljé Sotamaa. Designer, craftsman, and master model maker who brings equal dedication to his work and to exploring the mountains and the good life of Italy.
Irene Pace Long-time collaborator at Ateljé Sotamaa. A terrific architect who also makes the best tiramisù I have ever tasted.
Gabriel Esquivel A generous, curious, and brilliant architect who has shaped countless young minds. My one-time business partner and co-organiser of the legendary Azul Rey conference in Mexico City.
Voices
His great strength is his eye. He has an amazingly sharp eye.
Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times
Kivi is a classic member of the Finnish architectural tradition. He has a tremendous instinct for buildings.
Jeffrey Kipnis, Ohio State University
They are without question the most couture of their generation and produce the most stunning and beautiful forms designed on a computer.
Greg Lynn, PRAXIS 6
There is a grace to Sotamaa's work, one that belies its subtle intelligence and considerable study. Sotamaa's best work slips into an effortless sensuality.
UCLA Staffing Committee
You are immediately in an open flow state where the common idea begins to develop and grow.
Ulla-Maaria Koivula, CEO ThingLink
Ventures
Vivaret
A design-build atelier dedicated to bespoke CLT timber homes. Founded by master builder Jonathan Carle, drawing on the Compagnons des Devoirs guild tradition.
Avantoa
Luxury sauna and wellbeing pavilions for discerning clients in Finland, California, and beyond. Each pavilion is a hand-crafted sanctuary.
Kissing Helsinki
Kissing Helsinki is a concept studio — an organisation that transforms opportunity into idea, idea into concept, and concept into living reality.
WRITING
Architecture as Human Experience
A forthcoming book exploring how buildings shape the way we feel, think, and relate to one another - weaving together design theory, European craft traditions, and three decades of building. Supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.