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TAGASI
Helsinki’s Tervasaari island was for centuries associated with tar and its storage. Both Finland and Tervasaari were the centre of the international tar trade. When industrial production declined, the two-storey log storehouse was left without a use. Now it has been repurposed for the restaurant TAR, reviving the significance of the historical locale, tying the old building with contemporary details and connecting Tervasaari with the city centre.
The architectural part of the renovation project was by AOR Architects and the interior architecture was designed by Tarmo Piirmets in collaboration with AOR. Three building volumes, each with their own personality, were knit into a single whole in the course of the project. The historical storehouse, a modest kitchen block and an outward-oriented restaurant pavilion with a clearly recognizable form were restored. All of the volumes are compact in scale and adhere to the restrictions imposed by the location itself and history of the island. The result is a building that does not dominate but melds into the coastal milieu.
The interior architecture for the restaurant stems from the tarry and smoky history of the island. Dark surfaces, deep timber tones and shadowed textures are reminiscent of heated wood and tar that once coated the structures of the building. A contrast is struck by warm patches of light and reddish accent tones that give the interior a human softness. The combination adds up to an intimate, modern and clearly Nordic atmosphere.
