Constant motion

The designers of Rovaniemi Airport were inspired by the fact that the building would stand right on the very arctic circle. The architects studied the phenomenon exhaustively and learned that the line is actually constantly shifting to a greater or lesser extent.

“The idea came to us of a 40 metre long sliver of skylight placed at the point at the airport where the arctic circle fell when the airport was designed in 1990. The circle will reach that point again tens of thousands of years hence,” says architect Mikko Heikkinen.

Another indication of time and the movement of the Earth is embodied in a work by artist Lauri Anttila in which a reflection of sunlight on the terminal floor describes a figure of eight known as an analemma, which results from the movement of our planet.

These cosmic details soften an otherwise functional building that emphasises efficiency and clarity.

“An airport has an important logistical purpose – to get passengers quickly and safely from one mode of transport to another. Spaces should be easily adaptable to suit varying functions. Even Rovaniemi has its charter flights, its internal Schengen and non-Schengen flights, domestic flights... Everything has to work to keep the traffic moving but so that the passenger is not aware of any major changes.”

In fact Heikkinen calls an airport “a contrivance of opening and closing doors” which is much more difficult to design than, say, the average office block.

“At the same time an airport is much more than a logistics centre. It’s a place where peoples, tongues and cultures meet. There is parting and the joy of people re-uniting. An airport is constantly in motion in this sense, too; it’s like a huge stage where people part and say hello.”