Rita Vaali

MITTUMAARI

The thesis Mökki – A Repository of Memories, is an interpretation of the designer’s personal observations of her family’s summer cottage, mökki, and of archive-sourced materials of Finnish summer cottages. Visual research of traditional, common summer cottages has functioned as a guideline in the thesis collection. Colourways from past decades, wooden surfaces and plastic objects offer the visual framework translated into Minttumaari, a collection of woven home textiles.

In her MA graduate collection of woven home textiles, Rita Vaali explores mökki —the Finnish summer cottage—as a kind of assemblage composed of nostalgia, traditional Finnish cottage culture, and memories of her family’s business running a cottage village from the 1970s until the 2000s. 

Vaali was inspired by the distinct visual language of traditional summer cottages, which tend to accumulate objects and memorabilia over time and across generations. Through her work, she also investigates the memories and layers of meaning embedded in a specific place. 

– Reflecting on nostalgic sentiments that surfaced while revisiting archives from our family’s rental cottage village — old brochures, articles, and photo albums — and spending time dwelling on-site, became an important part of my design process. Sensory stimuli like the scent of pine soap or the clay of the lakebed awaken involuntary memories, allowing brief glimpses into my childhood.

The background research of the cottage assemblage inspired Vaali’s collection of woven home textiles through colour, texture, and surface pattern design. Elements from the cottage environment — such as wood wall panelling, crocheted lace decorations, and the lake’s undulating surface — were translated into the weave structures and textures of the fabrics. The colours draw from the sun-tanned yellow pine, the saturated reds and blues of utilitarian plastics, and earthy hues.