Sámi Cultural Centre Sajos is located in northern Finnish Lapland. Sajos is the centre of culture and administration for the Sámi, the only indigenous people in the European Union.

The cultural centre is shaped to resemble a cross. Functions are concentrated in their respective wings, leaving a vast, flowing space in the middle. The most notable of these functions are the Sámi parliament hall and an acoustically flexible auditorium capable of housing both cinema and concerts. Sajos also accommodates a multipurpose hall, meeting rooms, restaurant, library, archives, audio-video studio and editing facilities, classrooms and offices.

The load-bearing structure is mainly concrete cast-in-situ to facilitate the complex geometry. The facades are composed of vertical planks, which give the building a monolithic character but also varying degrees of transparency depending on the viewing angle. All timber used for facades is spruce, treated with iron sulfate. The building is equipped with a water-mist sprinkler system to compensate for the remote location and the abundant use of wood.

Wood also plays an essential role in the building’s interior. The smoothly curving walls of the auditorium and the parliament hall, which outline the space of the main lobby, are clad in horizontal, specially treated pine boards for a feel of a handcrafted object. Correspondingly, the inner surfaces of the parliament hall and auditorium get their visually and acoustically distinct characters from the subtle use of wood.