At the Shanghai World EXPO 2010, one of the main messages from Finland comes in the form of six keywords: freedom, creativity, innovation, community spirit, health and nature.
The main purpose of the Finnish pavilion, Kirnu, is to present a vision of “good life” and to show how this is obtainable in 2010. One of the points, the architect of Kirnu, Teemu Kurkela, makes is that the pavilion is a miniature model of a functioning Finnish city and that everything is somehow connected to nature from the frame itself to all the details displayed.
This goes for the furniture as well and this is why the company PunkAlive was chosen to furnish the café of the pavilion. The relatively new brand which is just now trying to make its way into the Chinese market, will be displaying one of their product lines, Avanto.
“This is very important to us for two reasons. First of all, because we are proud that the Avanto collection has been chosen for this important event. That tells us that we are doing something right,” says Jukka Rissanen, PunkAlive’s Corporate Development Director. “And secondly, because it means a door to the Chinese market for us. Good things happen,” he says.
All materials within 100 km
It has been only two years, since PunkAlive decided to collect all their business under the same brand, but Rissanen and his team have worked as a subcontractor with the Finnish forest industry for over 20 years. They have a rare respect for the woods of Finland which shows in the production; All raw materials are collected within a radius of 100 km from the factory and the manufacturing site is located 1,5 kilometers from the factory to avoid long transportation.
“Our working methods are based on the concept of sustainable development. And I suppose we were chosen for this, because the design itself, especially the Avanto collection, follows the pure line design heritage of Finnish and Scandinavian design,” he says.
All furniture in the pavilion is in the café, which means thousands of people will be trying out the Avanto-pieces every day for six months.
“It will be presented to the world in a complete way,” says Rissanen.
For PunkAlive, the expectations are high, both to the outcome of the EXPO and to seeing the furniture functioning in the café.
Although the chairs and tables are Avanto-furniture, the specific pieces at the café are designed specially for the event. The color, height and other features have been individually chosen to match the interior of Kirnu.
Café serving reindeer
For the complete Finnish experience the café serves traditional Finnish food. The country’s easy access to clean water reserves gives a possibility to enjoy freshwater fish and this is an integrated part of the Finnish kitchen. Along with a particularly taste animal that is few other places than in the cold north or in front of Santa’s sled– reindeer.
On the menu in the café are therefore courses like panfried reindeer fillet with rosemary butter, barley and lingonberry sauce or Chateubriand fried with garlic and thyme, Finnish crepe mushrooms and blackcurrant sauce. For the dessert, there are classics like fresh strawberries or chocolate mousse.
All is, like the furniture, made with ecological ingredients and respect for nature.
