From the early 2000s, Helsinki‘s historic downtown Torikorttelit area gradually transformed from being the city’s staid administrative centre to the vibrant quarter it is today. Its cobbled streets are now lined with alluring indie shops, cafés and restaurants, which are a fav of both city dwellers and visitors alike. Situated right next to the Helsinki City Museum, the El Fant café occupies a 70 sqm. (754 sq.ft.) space on the ground floor of a historic mid-18th century building, and sees a renewed interior design by Yatofu, a design practice based in the Finnish capital and Shanghai. The chosen aesthetic is distinctly modern, but takes ample cues from the building’s storied neighbourhood and its newly gained vibrancy.
Interestingly, in an attempt to up the ante from a design perspective, the interior design intentionally balances the novelty of a unique interior concept and the Finnish heritage of local values and traditional materials. Upon entering El Fant, guests find themselves in the main area, featuring a sleek service counter crafted from galvanised steel with an embedded glass cabinet on one side, and a matching shelving and storage unit directly opposite. A sturdy communal table crafted from four-centimetre thick pine and dipped in a striking saturated red hue counterbalance the aforementioned volumes. Mind you, the use of pine as a long-lasting building material has been a long-revered practice in local craftsmanship.
For a large part of the café’s furnishings, Yatofu has collaborated with Finnish design practices Puutamo and Paja & Bureau. Matching solid pine dining chairs have been sourced from Finnish brand Vaarnii, while a series of red pine benches and natural pine stools were custom-made. A large adjacent room sees ample seating, consisting of low pine benches, in a bright red of course, paired with sturdy tables and chairs. Beyond the bar, a more intimate seating area can be found, similarly furnished, but here, the chairs have been replaced by stools. The menu at El Fant is anchored by specialty coffees from a curated range of suppliers and natural wines – obviously, there’s a wide range of other beverages as well – supplemented by an equally abundant number of lunch and brunch bites and dishes.
El Fant
Katariinankatu 3 (Torikorttelit)
00170 Helsinki
Telephone +358 44 2369953
Tue-Thu 10am-7pm
Fri-Sat 11am-9pm
Sun 11am-5.30pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
