At El Fant Café & Bar in Helsinki’s old town, an unapologetically modern aesthetic packs a punch
Sederholm House is the oldest building in Helsinki. A pastel blue former merchant’s home, it was built in 1763, and is flanked by a grand cathedral and the presidential palace. It has been a tobacco factory, a girls’ school and several restaurants, and today is home to the Helsinki City Museum in the heart of Torikorttelit, the city’s old quarter.
Head downstairs, however, and you’ll find a beacon of modernity. El Fant Café & Bar is the latest project from Yatofu Creatives, a design practice based in Helsinki and Shanghai. Here, the designers’ refreshing spin on ancient craftsmanship and traditional materials is getting it noticed. “For a small project, we’ve had a lot of interest,” says co-founder Yihan Xiang.
The brief for the space was loose: to create a welcoming community hub for locals and visitors. Xiang and his partner, Angela Lindahl, explored how design might elevate the traditional idea of a café. Since opening last October, El Fant has hosted DJ nights, book clubs, sake tasting evenings, mushroom workshops and everything in between.
“We knew from the beginning that we didn’t want to go for a classic café,” says Xiang. “This was to be somewhere contemporary for people to come together. We felt that this was the best way to keep this historic district alive.” A non-rigid attitude allowed the team to work with what they had. In 1901 the building suffered greatly in a fire.
There were few original features to work with aside from some rather low ceilings. Instead of trying to disguise these, Xiang and Lindahl emphasised them, creating a cave-like sanctuary. Inside, cool steel, granular soft pine and textured walls are inviting. The ice cream-like colour palette is inspired by the Nordic pastels used in the neighbourhood. Connection to the building’s locale is a recurrent theme.
Yatofu brought in young, local craftspeople to apply age-old methods. The focus was on process rather than a glossy end product. Xiang explains: “A more experienced maker might ask, ‘Are you sure that you want a finish like this?’ The younger generation has a different perspective, so we could be more experimental.”
The centrepiece at El Fant is a neon tomato-red table with matching benches. Yatofu worked with Puutamo, a carpentry outfit led by Eveliina Ylönen, to construct it using solid pine from Northern Finland. It was saturated with dye, so that the natural grain remains visible.
Pine is a misunderstood material, says Xiang. “People think that it is some cheap wood used for lake house furniture. Actually, it’s a practical material. It’s long-lasting and not expensive. It is soft, so it will get scratches in it, and maybe it’s not as fine-looking as other wood. But that makes it more down-to-earth, more chill looking.” Metal workers Paja & Bureau made built-in fixtures from galvanised steel, including shelving units and the bar counter.
And to complement the custom furniture, sturdy pine dining chairs were sourced from the Finnish brand Vaarnii. “Most of the furniture we’ve used is chunky, but it’s all movable. We didn’t use sofas or cushions, we used benches. You can move them around and they can change the function and shape of the space.” To accommodate the low ceilings, sauna lights were used as spotlights.
For Xiang, there is beauty in a rough edge. “You get so used to industrialised products that are made in factories, but there’s a lack of soul,” he explains. “Often, there’s a missing human connection. But in this project, we actually know which hands made them. And there’s an appeal to an unfinished feeling in furniture. It tells people more about the character of the piece.”
A sense of playfulness can be seen throughout the project. “We always look to create something eye-catching and unexpected. We believe that this kind of creativity is more important than style,” says Xiang.
El Fant’s ultra-modern aesthetic slots surprisingly well into the fabric of Helsinki’s most ancient streets. “Every few years, certain looks are more popular, in fashion and interiors. But if we solve a problem, or we create a meaningful story, that is long-lasting.”
Images by Aleksi Tikkala
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