Jukka’s longtime dream of his own wilderness cabin comes true: “Weekends feel longer here”
The Lapland wilderness is Jukka Rantakupari’s spiritual home. His longtime dream of building his own modern wilderness cabin has come true. Now, his family of five, who are enthralled by the magic of the wilderness, spend their time among pine forests, fells, and beside a small lake.
A girl gently strokes the horse’s muzzle and climbs onto its back. The horse stands motionless—it is, after all, carved from birch. The wooden horse was made at ten-year-old Maija’s request and is the joint handiwork of her and her father Jukka.
We’re in Valkiavaara, Tervola, in Southern Lapland’s uninhabited wilderness. Before us lies a sparkling small lake, and several buildings dot the landscape: the modern wilderness cabin of Jukka and Maarit Rantakupari with its outbuildings.
The forested plot has been in Jukka’s paternal family for decades, and it has been a beloved spot for excursions. Living in the city, the family, like previous generations, is accustomed to using the place for relaxing, picking berries, and hunting game. The silent landscape, giant wild blueberries, ancient stone fields, and the fell made an everlasting impression on Jukka as a child.
“Even then, I thought this was a magical place. As I grew older, I decided that someday I’d have my own wilderness cabin here,” Jukka says.
However, the dream of his own cabin didn’t become a reality until decades later.
The sound of hammering echoes in the yard. Jukka has started his carpentry early in the morning, and the new storage building is gradually taking shape. Every morning, Jukka brews coffee in a pot and fills a thermos for the whole family.
The young horse groom has disappeared from the yard into the cabin. Jukka has begun heating the sauna, as he does every day at the cabin. Kalle, the eldest of the children, rides into the yard on a four-wheeler.
Beside the terrace is a large, steaming hot tub, but the women of the family, Maarit and Maija, head to the lake for a swim.
“When we were building the cabin, one of the first things we got was the hot tub. We got to work on the construction uninterrupted because Maija practically lived in the tub,” Maarit recalls.
“When we were building the cabin, one of the first things we got was the hot tub.”Jukka Rantakupari
The spring-fed lake isn’t exactly warm in summer, but in late autumn, it’s ice-cold. Maija removes her bathrobe and, after a couple of attempts, jumps into the water with a splash. Then it’s Maarit’s turn. In winter, there’s an ice hole for swimming, which especially Maarit uses frequently.
“We have a sauna every evening and take our time with it. It’s a special family moment,” says Maarit as she goes to warm up in the sauna for a bit.
Between his carpentry tasks, Jukka sets a salmon to smoke. Before the family makes their way onto the sauna benches as evening falls, it’s time for dinner.
When the storm Mauri was raging in Lapland in the 1980s, felling millions of cubic meters of forest, Valkiavaara was also affected. After that, Jukka’s father, Hannu, had a road built over the fell, making access to the place easier.
A bit under ten years ago, Jukka bought the plot from his father. A couple of years later, when he and his father were clearing the last stretch of road to the lakeshore, Jukka had already chosen where the cabin would be built.
The cabin was supposed to be an electricity-free wilderness retreat. However, the autumn darkness changed the plans. One weekend, Maarit’s mother came to help with grinding tree stumps, and the family camped on the plot with tents and a caravan.
“We were spending the evening in the campfire hut. When the fire went out, we realized how pitch-black it was. Even though the tent was only a few meters away, we couldn’t see it. We had to feel our way around to go and find lamps,” Jukka recalls.
“When I wake up, I can see the lake directly through the cabin’s large windows.”Jukka Rantakupari
Jukka designed the first version of the cabin’s floor plan himself. The final drawings were made by architect Pekka Salmi, whom Jukka knew through work. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) was chosen as the building material, which the architect recognized for its useful possibilities.
The architect used Jukka’s layout and made some refinements: he designed large windows for the façade and the sauna, and changed the cabin’s ridge to be at a 45-degree angle to give it a sail-like shape. The other buildings in the yard also have the same kind of slanted roof.
“It was a jackpot to have Pekka involved in the project. Now, when I wake up, I can see the lake directly through the cabin’s large windows. I wouldn’t have thought of that myself,” Jukka praises.
For the cabin, they used spruce felled from their own forest. Jukka had the logs sawn and left them to dry in stacks. In the spring, he took the dried rough planks to Lappia Vocational College in Kemi. There, they were processed into CLT elements with the help of students and three volunteers.
“We worked at the school for a week until the panels were ready. First, the planks were planed. Then they were glued and pressed into three crosswise layers,” Jukka explains.
The following week, the CLT elements were cut into the correct shape with a machine, sanded, and packed. Finally, the package was transported to Valkiavaara.
“The wood made a little detour in Kemi and then returned to the plot. Some of the trees were felled right at the spot where the cabin now stands.”
“Weekends feel longer here. My mind settles into the right mood as soon as I start heating the cabin and the sauna.”Jukka Rantakupari
The elements were put up in a day with the help of a local truck entrepreneur. For the façade, Jukka made a frame where the electrical wires run. He nailed beautiful horizontal live-edge boards to the cabin’s exterior, which were given a weathered gray tone with iron sulfate.
For electricity, large solar panels were installed on the walls of the house and outbuilding, one facing the morning sun and the other the afternoon sun. Jukka placed the batteries in the outbuilding.
“It wasn’t practical to put the panels on the roof because there can be a couple of meters of snow there in winter. Sometimes I’ve come to the cabin by snowmobile in July; that’s how snowy this area is.”
Often, the interior design of a cabin is left to the women. However, the interior of this cabin is designed and partly made by Jukka himself.
“I’ve let Jukka design everything because this is his important project, a dream of decades,” Maarit says, adding that she wouldn’t change anything Jukka has designed.
“It’s turned out so wonderful!”
The Rantakupari family feels that building the cabin has enriched the lives of their entire five-member family. They make the less-than-an-hour trip from Tornio to Valkiavaara every week, often multiple times.
Jukka spends up to 40 weekends a year at his cabin, and Maarit is there nearly every free weekend as well.
“Weekends feel longer here. My mind settles into the right mood as soon as I start heating the cabin and the sauna,” says Jukka.
CLT: a breathable material
Cross-laminated timber (CLT) was chosen as the building material for the cabin. Working in the construction industry, Jukka was familiar with the product. Since the cabin was intended for year-round use, the materials needed to withstand large and rapid temperature fluctuations. The building material also had to be healthy, ecological, and fire-safe.
CLT panels are breathable because the structure absorbs and releases moisture evenly. The cross-glued solid wood layers balance moisture movement even during significant temperature changes. When the cabin is heated quickly from freezing to a comfortable living temperature, hardly any moisture forms.
“Even in winter, the building or bedding doesn’t feel damp on the first day of heating,” Jukka says.
CLT also enables modern construction because the elements are processed with millimeter precision, and frames or moldings are not necessarily needed.
“We were fortunate because it turned out that at the nearby vocational college, I could make the CLT elements from my own wood with the students,” Jukka says.
Lappia Vocational College has Finland’s first CLT element production line.
