ville mäkelä portfolio
As a child in school I was supposed to build a miniature ship out of wood and paint it in a desired manner. My ship then told me it didn’t need any additional color. It wanted to show all the different shades of its wooden character. It wanted to show how it had grown strong. It wanted to show how inperfections make us what we are. So I listened. Now, at 28, I continue to pursue this idea and try to listen what the materials and the things themselves have to say. And stay true to them. With love, Ville
Ville Valtteri Mäkelä 1.10.1992 ville.v.makela@tuni.fi +35840 551 7314 Nuijatie 19 a 1 33710 Tampere Finland
experience Arkkitehtitoimisto Ahonen & Kangasvieri Oy | assistant designer august 2018-present Tiili ry | architecture education for elementary schoolers a course held in 2017, participation 2019-present Workpower Oy | construction worker summer 2017
education Tampere University | bachelor of architecture 2015-present Tampere University of Technology & Aalto University | automation & built environment 2012-2015
language Finnish | native English | fluent Swedish | intermediate
it Adobe ArchiCAD AutoCAD Office SketchUp
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gramofon | spring 2020 r e n o v a t i o n Tuomiokirkonkatu 19, the old suit factory, is a valuable piece of cultural history in Tampere. The idea of this project was to enrich the growing area’s character with a space for cultural activity and gathering. The plan also features commercial and residentials functions that further link the building into the surrounding area. The aim was to bring culture, its makers visible in public and create an inviting place for all to enjoy culture and participate in making of it. Materials absorb the age of the building. Therefore an important part of the project’s architecture was materiality and the structures through which the age of the building with its many phases was decided to show.
niiaus | spring 2018 h o u s i n g The old factory block of Klingendahl has a major role in its urban context in Tampere. Designing a contemporary housing building in a sensitive national landscape requires subtlety. Respecting the existing built heritage thus became an essential part of the process. Between the building and the street an urban space is formed that revitalizes the pedestrian level. The architectural motifs take inspiration from pre-existing environment. The materials and the beam-pillar based grid both evolve from the closeby factory architecture.
sähkÜtalo | spring 2020 p u b l i c The new research hub commemorates the knowledge and the implementations made by science. Visibility and transparency are the foundations of the scientific method and thus they also became the starting point of the project’s architecture. The architectural whole aims to convey the joy of making science by bringing together the more public character of the new building and the existing technical qualities of the campus. Visibility of research is achieved by transparent materials and spatial arragement to create an interactive connection between science and the visitor.
connections
volume horizontality
topography
joining
urban space
core
suoja | spring 2017 p u b l i c CafĂŠ Suoja works as a haven for the mind. Its purpose is to serve tranquil atmosphere and an astonishing lake view on the best spot of the town. A guideline for the design was a story formed by interesting spatial transitions and framed views. The character and the mass of the floating building takes its form from the silent water and tries not to be monumental.
identity | autumn 2019 u r b a n t h e o r y The premise of this project was that every place and area can have a strong identity. After researching any place or area we can create tools for strengthening identity and simultaneously creating wellbeing by connecting the factors of identity formation and the contents of identity. The effects of identity on well-being are plentiful and diverse but complicated. The most direct effects are on social, mental and existential well-being. These are most often phenomena that result inside the collective communities or in the individual experience. The effects can also be indirect. For example if an appealing identity attracts more inhabitants that may eventually result in better services for the area. Architecture and its identity are rarely being considered in terms of science and analytical thinking. I think they deserve it.
The most basic quality of identity is differentiation – something is different than something else, answering to the question: “Who?” Meanings and their representations such as different kind of symbols are what identity is defined by. That answers to the question: “What?” These are the two levels that Amos Rapoport claims every identity is made of. Identity also develops and changes through time so it needs to be maintained - that gives us the third vital level of existing identity, action. Here the performance of the tool is being demonstrated on four different kind of areas.
The base of all identy is the individual experience and its formation. Individual identification is therefore the connection between the individual and a place or a group, for example. Place identity, as a theoretical concept in social and phenomenological studies, is most often considered as an individual perception. If an individual develops a deep connection to a place and its identity place attachment can be spoken of.
Local and areal identities consist of several individual experiences which are shared. The shared quality of the meanings are the basis of collective identities. However an individual place identity and a collective local identity cannot be clearly separated. Every identity group also has its inner and outer appearance depending on the perspective of the viewer. The image or a brand of a place can be an outer form for example.
self portrait | 2016 graphite & charcoal Finding the right way to portray how I felt about myself took a while. At first I was supposed to draw a straight-forward nude portrait that would capture some form of honesty. Albeit daring, I ended up thinking it would not be interesting enough. After numerous pretentious composition ideas I followed my instinct and produced this kind of a thing without any further meaning whatsoever. Although I’m still not quite sure what the thing represents, I have grown to think that it managed to capture some kind of existential essence of my persona in a way that a rational process never could have.
photography 3 5 m m f i l m For a long time I had been capturing my surroundings and its fascinating details with a mobile phone. Inspired by many friends I ended up buying a cheap second-hand film camera last year. Nowadays I don’t go anywhere without it and shooting film has truly affected the way I look at things. I’m interested in portaying the relationship between human and nature but I also enjoy investigating the reflections of the assumed reality we live in.