Finnish designers Aleksi Hautamäki and Milla Selkimäki spent at least five years searching Google Maps for an island and eventually they found a roughly five-acre island in Finland. The couple bought the property in 2018 and transformed the rocky, uninhabited property into a remote getaway called Project Ö.
The couple sold their Helsinki apartment to help fund the project. They built a compact retreat that runs largely off-grid, using solar power and seawater filtration and later on, the property became a rental that was listed for as much as $2,400 a night, according to Business Insider.
According to the report, Aleksi Hautamäki and Milla Selkimäki were having a tough time to buy a property and they eventually decided they wanted an island of their own. Finding one through conventional property agencies proved difficult because islands rarely come onto the market. So, Aleksi resorted to Google Maps. “It was a long, slow process,” Hautamäki told Business Insider.
After about five years of searching, they found Skjulskäret, a five-acre island on the edge of Finland's Archipelago National Park and they sold their Helsinki apartment to fund the project
The island had pine trees, rocky shorelines and several small peninsulas extending into the sea and one of its bays also offered a natural location for a dock. The couple bought the property in 2018. To help pay for the purchase and construction, they sold their apartment in Helsinki and moved into a rental apartment. According to Business Insider, the overall purchase and build-out cost about 1 million euros.
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A small island became their design project
Aleksi is a spatial designer, while Milla is a graphic designer and creative director and the duo used their professional experience to design the retreat themselves. The couple took inspiration from traditional Finnish buildings found throughout the archipelago. They also wanted the structure to blend into the rocky surroundings instead of dominating the landscape.
The result was Project Ö, a property made up of a main cabin and a guest house connected by wooden walkways. The retreat includes:
- A main living and sleeping cabin
- A guest house
- Indoor and outdoor kitchens
- A sauna
- Outdoor dining areas
- A terrace
- A private beach
- A natural hot tub
- Solar power
- Seawater filtration
