Le Cabanon| 2025 | Renovation

LE CABANON
Location: Heidingsfeld, Würzburg, Germany
Client: Private
Status: Commission 2025, under construction 2025
Program: Renovation of an existing building with an apartment and garage from 1963-1964
Use: One-room apartment with a new kitchen and renewed bathroom
Size: 37 m2 (building) + 37 m2 (garage)
Site area: 2000 m2
Gross floor area: 36,79 m2
Floor area: 28,47 m2
Materials: Terazzo, linoleum, ceramic tiles, wood
Design: Juhani Karanka / FIN-GER Architecture

LE CABANON is a delicate renovation project aimed at upgrading an existing building from 1963-1964 to modern standards of living. The original one-room apartment is above a garage, and has still most of the 60's materials and details intact. The renovation will include adding a new kichen, renewing the existing bathroom and interior surfaces while keeping as much as possible of the original materials and details in place. This approach is important, as the client has dementia, and his memories are dependable on these objects. Interestingly enough, we can save and reuse most of the existing, and only renew the basic technical installations and some of the surfaces that simplz have come to the end of their lifecycle.

LE CABANON is inspired by a small, minimalist cabin designed by Le Corbusier in 1951. Located in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on the French Riviera, it served as Le Corbusier's personal retreat and is considered to be a forerunner to the "tiny house" movement.

Aurora | 2019

AURORA | Würzburg | Germany | 2019 | Studio Karanka
Interior design in Nordic style for a private apartment in a 1960s residential building. White walls with a Pacific Blue accent, German full oak furniture combined with Finnish design and lamps by Alvar Aalto, Eero Aarnio and Sekto.

FIN-GER | 2014-2015

FIN-GER | Würzburg | Germany | 2014-2015 | Studio Karanka & Matthias Braun
Concept, brand and interiror design for FIN-GER Finnish-German Concept Store in a 3 meter wide and 4 meter high shared creative space at Bürgerbräu Old Brewery.

Romulus | 2014

ROMULUS | Helsinki | Finland | 2014 | Studio Karanka
Interior design for a private hipster apartment in a 1920s courtyard building in Kallio, Helsinki. As all the windows open up towards northeast, the natural daylight plays an important role. The white and monocromatic colours (light gray á la Carl Ludwig Engel) emphasize the Nordic mood all-year round. For this interior design, only one A3-sheet of paper was needed. The hand-drawn sketch included the ideas, dimensions, materials, and details that the workmen used for the renovation work. Oh, and a small smudge from the Silvaner white wine spilled over during the hectic sketching session together with the owner of the apartment. Now the sketch is framed and on the wall in the kitchen as evidence that things can be made simple.

Nemo | 2013

NEMO | Helsinki | Finland | 2013 | Studio Karanka
Interior design for a ground floor apartment in a Jugend Style residential building by architect Sigurd Frosterus.

Tieto | 2008-2009

TIETO | Tampere | Finland | 2008-2009 | Atelier Karanka & Tamminen
Monochromatic, multistorey bookshop interior for the Building Information Ltd (Rakennustieto).

Origami | 1996-1997

ORIGAMI | Tampere | Finland | 1996-1997 | Atelier Karanka
Interior design for the main marketing and exhibition space at the Neopac Metsä-Serla cardboard factory. The invited competition was won with an idea of using the factory’s own products - corrugated cardboard - as the surface material. A wide range of different cardboards were used, fineliner for details, heavyload for walls, and water resistant pizza-packaging for the kitchen. Also some furniture, light fixtures, objects, vitrines were produced following the same principle. And all were fixed to the background veneer boards with double-sided tape! As an architectural contrast to the rational factory building, the intimate, warm interior was a positive surprise to personnel and visitors alike.

Urrila Residence | 1986-1988

URRILA | Tampere | Finland | 1986-1988 | Atelier Karanka
Interior design and renovation of an original Jugend Style apartment for a private family. The design approach was to follow architect Birger Federlay‘s footsteps, and "let him guide the pen on paper". The finished interior compliments the exterior of this beautiful residential building (Tuomisen kivimuuri / Stonewall of Tuominen, 1914) by Federlay which is located next to Lars Sonck‘s Tampere Cathedral.