AITTA collection in Kyminlinna
Kyminlinna is a place where history is easy to miss at first glance. Today, the landscape is open and green, with meadows, paths and even grazing cows giving the area an almost rural calm. Yet the visible ruins of Kyminlinna – the fortress, originally built between 1791 and 1795, still reveal the historic significance of the site.
ABAU DESIGN installed a series of AITTA benches along the area, and the project became an opportunity to let a familiar product respond more closely to the place around it.
The most distinctive feature is a new interpretation of the AITTA backrest. Instead of ending where the seat ends, the backrest continues beyond it, creating comfortable places to lean as well as to sit. It is a subtle change, but one that expands the way the bench can be used – whether for a longer rest or simply for leaning for a moment while taking in the surroundings.
For this project, the massive timber seats are supported by stone bases, giving the benches a grounded, natural presence within the landscape. The combination of wood, stone and dark steel feels robust and understated, giving the benches a natural place within the landscape while echoing the materials and character of the historic site.
The most site-specific detail appears in selected steel elements, where the outline of the Kyminlinna fortress has been cut into the surface. It is a small intervention, but a meaningful one. In a landscape where the history is otherwise revealed mainly through the surviving ruins, this graphic reference quietly reconnects the present-day environment with the cultural heritage beneath it.
Kyminlinna is a good example of how contemporary design can do more than simply occupy a historic setting. Through collaboration with the client, AITTA gained new functional and visual details that belong specifically to this place – while remaining recognisably AITTA in its solid construction, natural materials and simple design language.
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