KOTATAKKI

Kotatakki (The Hut Coat) is a modular wearable shelter conceived and designed by Sanna Elina Ahtisaari.

Developed in the early 2010s, the work emerged from an interest in clothing, protection and the idea of carrying home with us. Alongside nomadic traditions and temporary dwellings, the project was influenced by Ahtisaari’s encounters with blue-tent communities in Tokyo parks in the early 2000s, where improvised shelters revealed both vulnerability and resilience.

Constructed from durable construction fabric, Kotatakki transforms into multiple forms: a short or long coat, a cape, a dress, a sleeping bag or a nest. Moving between garment, architecture and sculpture, the work questions where clothing ends and shelter begins, proposing home not as a fixed place but as something carried with and around the body.

Design Museum Helsinki, 2012.

Photo: Sirpa Räihä / Helsingin Sanomat, 11 November 2012