In pastoral Kontiolahti, 285 miles northeast of Helsinki, it’s a crisp autumn afternoon and Ulla-Maaria Koivula is dismantling a newly constructed beaver dam with a trowel and sickle. She’s the founder and CEO of the Palo Alto, California–based education technology company ThingLink, but since she returned to Finland with her family last year, maintaining the land where her grandparents once grew barley and rye has become part of her daily routine.

Surrounded by the homestead’s fields and the wild and rugged splendor of nearby Koli National Park, Ulla has regained a childlike sense of calm amid a worldwide pandemic. “This is the one root that I have had all through my life,” she says.

We walk deeper into the landscape, as a monolithic form slowly emerges from among the gently swaying birch and spruce trees. The closer we get, the more remarkable the structure’s presence becomes. Inspired by the Ice Age rock formations found throughout the region, the Meteorite, so named for obvious reasons, is a faceted dwelling designed by Kivi and Tuuli Sotamaa, the brother-and-sister team behind Ateljé Sotamaa.

The Meteorite’s black-tinted exterior provides a stark contrast to the warm, all-wood interior. “Everything on the outside is designed to dramatically stage the inside,” says Kivi. “It’s a mysterious object, and you don’t quite know what is going on within.” Part of the mystique lies in the deceptive nature of its size—the interior spans only 807 square feet of floor space, yet its total volume is 10,594 cubic feet.

The three-story home is built entirely from 272 prefabricated panels of cross-laminated, locally sourced timber—a sustainable material that lends itself to digital design methods and follows in the Finnish tradition of timber construction.

Its envelope contains no plastic or insulation; it’s simply two sheets of wood, and the air gap in between them helps to regulate indoor temperature even when the subarctic climate outside drops to single digits in winter. The “between space,” as Ulla describes it, also hides storage and the building’s technical systems, preserving the minimalist feel of the interior.

The Meteorite was originally envisioned as a guesthouse, but with the pandemic keeping them at home, it now serves as a more permanent, multipurpose space for Ulla, her husband, Jonathan Hull—who works for Facebook—and their three children. “The traditional separation of work and home has disappeared, and it’s beautiful that they are merged within this single building,” says Kivi.

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The interior of the Meteorite is a complex assemblage of spaces that revolve around a large atrium. The timber floors, walls, and ceilings perfume the air with the scent of spruce, and the interior is sparsely decorated with works by Finnish designers.

The structure’s height and open spaces provide the family members with enough privacy to focus on what they’re doing while remaining connected. “When you’re working and there’s something else going on at the same time in one big room, it can be very distracting—but the shift to interacting vertically gives everyone their own space,” says Ulla. When the kids are hanging out with friends on the third floor, they seem worlds away from a video conference taking place below.

“It is something that seems at home in the forest, but at the same time, it’s strikingly strange.”
—Kivi Sotamaa, architect

Upon entering the house, your eyes are drawn to the 102-square-foot skylight and the third-floor catamaran-style net, where family and guests can seemingly float amid the clouds or stargaze during long winter nights. Taking a first step onto the net is petrifying. There is a moment of dread, and then you feel its embrace as you lie 21 feet above the first floor.

The Meteorite’s 12 electrically heated windows are strategically placed to frame the forest and stage dramatic views of a nearby field. “When the landscape changes with the seasons, you can take it all in,” says Tuuli. “The whole building is like a theatrical performance.”

As the family has begun to explore the Meteorite’s potential, each person has gravitated to a particular area or two. Ulla likes to take her video calls next to the eight-by-nine-foot second-floor window, overlooking the field. Jonathan, a musician, has been setting up in various corners of the Meteorite to find the perfect acoustics for recording, and the children often spread out to various nooks and crannies or the net.

Although it currently functions as a place for remote work, Ulla suggests that in the future the Meteorite may transform into a gallery, or a performance space. “I would say this is, if not a prelude to a symphony, a prelude to something.”

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Ateljé Sotamaa

General Contractor: Joen Kodinrakentajat

Construction: Lahden Puurakentajat

Structural Engineering: Vahanen Group

CLT Manufacturing: Hoisko CLT

Cabinetry: Puusëpat

Lighting: Saas Instruments

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