Artisan Roots, Entrepreneurial Spirit: Reddymade's Kaija Wuollet on the Power of Design, the Importance of Listening, and the Value of Collaboration

By Julia Gamolina

Kaija Wuollet identifies as a maker trained in architecture and urban design. A new Principal at Reddymade, her approach is deeply rooted in a vision of city-building, underscored by meticulous craftsmanship and a conviction that thoughtful design can enhance everyday life. Drawing inspiration from her Finnish heritage, Kaija possesses a profound connection to nature and craft, fueling her passion for the design and creation of objects, spaces, places, and experiences. An urbanist and entrepreneur at her core, she is deeply invested in the sustainable growth of cities and fostering a sense of community and place. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Kaija talks about the meditative practices that refresh her, the truth behind fearlessness, and her relentless imagination, advising those just starting their careers to continue to challenge themselves.

JG: Tell me about your foundational years — where did you grow up and what did you like to do as a kid?

KW: I grew up outside of Minneapolis in a neighborhood with a mix of immigrants, young families and folks that had lived there when it went from farmland to the city grid. I grew up in a large family, speaking Finnish at home, and playing all kinds of creative games with my many siblings.

One of these games became a strong foundation for how I move through the world and my practice. We called it “business community”. We would spend a week setting up our businesses, which would be anything from an art gallery, to a toy store, snack shop, post office, bank, etcetera. My brother would hand draw themed checks! We’d buy and sell goods, send mail and write checks for days on end, modifying the game with technological advancements over the years, using printed money eventually to replace our hand drawn currency. It was organized, playful, creative and collaborative. And the key was community.

This game gave me an optimistic look at creating systems. My creative flair was embraced, even celebrated, in my formative years. And with neighbors who also spoke different languages, ate different foods — I felt safe in my identity — embracing my Finnish taiteilija, or artisan roots, and my American entrepreneurial spirit.

“Leikimökki. Me, hanging from the rafters, on my first built work, playhouse for then 3 year old niece, Olivia, built with my brother Pekka, from mostly salvaged and recycled material, and some fresh paint.” Courtesy of Kaija Wuollet

How did you choose where you studied architecture?

I began my studies at University of Minnesota, through a program that allowed me to attend the university and take college courses as a senior in high school. At the University, I studied French and took math and physics within the engineering department, along with one architecture drawing class. The drawing course proved to be the most spiritually invigorating and challenging course I had taken to date, so architecture became my chosen path. When I officially started my college studies the following year, I enrolled in the architecture program. Although I enjoyed my studies — both physics and drawing — I soon became restless.

In 2005, I went to Detroit for a weekend trip, and ended up spending time wandering the city. It was an incredible city with a complex history of racial and economic inequity, yet it had remnants of Victorian architecture and historically significant buildings, many of which stood empty, with boarded up windows. Despite this, there was soul in the city, an undeniable energy, yet somehow hidden and mysterious, an underground pulse. People with incredible stories, that if you gave them space, they would share tragedy and grief with sincerity and truth, and their experiences in the fight for equity and justice, with reverence and pride. I moved to Detroit a few months later, and eventually landed at the University of Detroit Mercy, where I would complete my Master of Architecture degree. For a city that was built for two million people, but by the time I moved there had lost more than half its population, it was a place that taught me so much about the power of design, the importance of listening, and the value of collaboration.

How did you get your start?

After finishing my studies at UDM, I started a practice — Laavu — and for nearly a decade, designed spaces, places, objects and experiences of many scales all over the city. In the early years of my practice, there weren’t many traditional clients, so I did what I knew best: I imagined, I corralled collaborators, I traded, I built. I co-founded a makerspace called Ponyride, a non-profit organization, where I learned to weld and build furniture. I was also a partner in a bagel shop. We at Laavu also worked with Shawn Wilson and Big Sean to Re-imagine the Boys and Girls club of Southeast Michigan as a space for design innovation — with a recording studio, barbershop, a makerspace, and video game design studio.

We also worked on city-wide issues. We were commissioned by the Detroit City Planning Department for an effort called Pinkzoning, which our team renamed as Mixtape zoning. We worked to re-imagine the city’s dated zoning codes to allow more flexibility and support the many small businesses that were starting to open along the many commercial corridors.

In general, we worked with small developers to re-imagine and revitalize neighborhoods, often creating plans and ideas, exploring different housing types, and then finding the funding and partners to bring the projects to life. This entrepreneurial approach allowed us to be imaginative and not tied to client briefs. We convened conversations about the future of the city, with neighbors, business owners, developers, creatives and city officials. And our seat at the table at city hall allowed us to influence the systems that created roadblocks — because we had been through it — and understood intimately what the issues were. It was a delightful, imaginative, community rooted design approach that required grit, hard work and a community spirit. My Laavu years in Detroit continue to influence my professional path today.

“When I made the decision to join Reddymade, this was a gentle receiving of energy that I know I’ve been building towards. The past six months have been especially peaceful, trusting the framework that I’ve built for myself, and allowing the opportunities that arose, to take hold, and grow.”

— Kaija Wuollet

How did you eventually get to Reddymade? What are you focused on these days?

I made a personal decision to move to NYC in 2019, and joined WXY architecture + urban design, as Director of City Building, where I shared the ethos of design equity in public realm work. Over the next four years, I worked on projects ranging from architecture, urban design and planning with clients such as Amtrak, Empire State Development, the City of Dallas, New York City Health and Hospitals, New York Power Authority (NYPA), and NYC’s Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environment.

I met Suchi Reddy, founder of Reddymade, before moving to NYC, through some of my clients who had become dear friends who are mutual friends of Suchi’s. We had brunch one Saturday morning and we had one of those rare soulful connections. I was moving to NYC just a few months later, and we ended up living within a mile or so of each other. In 2020, during the pandemic, Suchi became one of those important pandemic friends. We would meet for a socially-distanced walk, market visit, or a coffee — we even took a road trip to visit our mutual friends in Vermont. We’d often meet and share notes on life, on work and on ideas. Then earlier this year, I joined Reddymade as a Principal. The process was organic and thoughtful and although our paths in architecture both have roots in Detroit, we didn’t get to know each other until we were both in NYC.

What are you most excited about right now?

I’m excited about this new chapter at Reddymade. Suchi and I share a love of making and a commitment to building a more equitable world. We also share a design approach — intuitive and organic — and an ethos centered on equity and design justice. We come from different backgrounds, grew up and trained as designers at different times, but respect and hold space for our different perspectives.

On the drawing board, I’m excited about a home that I’m designing in Paraty Brazil. I do not speak Portuguese, so drawings have been particularly important in the design process, along with learning directly from the builders, about local materials and building methods.

Interior view of Detroit Blows Salon in Detroit, a Laavu project, featuring custom designed shelving and wood mosaic tiles. Photography by EE Berger.

Gold Cash Gold restaurant interior, a Laavu project in Detroit that Kaija designed incorporating salvage lathe for the ceiling tile and bar front, beautiful color glass inserted historic factory windows, and reclaimed gym flooring saved from school that was being demolished. Known as the Ima restaurant today. Photography by EE Berger.

What have you also learned in the last six months?

In some ways, I've always been good at manifestation work — of building the skills required to build a business, design buildings and urban environments and imagine a future world. What is more challenging for me is to quiet into a receiving space. To allow the manifestations to take hold and to grow. Over the last year I've been preparing for this new chapter, by reflecting on my career to this point, my personal life and the many joys and challenges in both. When I made the decision to join Reddymade, this was a gentle receiving of energy that I know I've been building towards. The past six months have been especially peaceful, trusting the framework that I've built for myself, and allowing the opportunities that arose, to take hold, and grow.

Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?

The biggest challenge for me has been finding a gentle balance between my work, my artistic pursuits, my personal interests, and my friends and family. As creatives, we pour our souls into our work, and it’s just as important to fill back up, and this requires commitment to creating that balance.

Part of the challenge of balance is being a woman practicing in this space. Even as the number of women in the field of architecture and urban design is increasing, there is still a stark imbalance at leadership tables. Many people may see me as a confident, thoughtful person, who’s able to hold myself together in those leadership spaces. And generally, I am. But this did not happen without a lot of intentional work, continual management, and incredible mentors with whom I check in quarterly, seek counsel and trade notes.

I’ve managed through disappointments and setbacks by leaning on my support system and leaning into my lifetime of movement practice and sauna. I was a distance runner and played ice hockey for decades, and throughout my university days — this practice kept my spirit up, my body moving, and fed my competitive spirit. After many hockey injuries I hung up my skates, and almost a decade ago, I started training as a heavy lifter in the gym. This journey increased my confidence not only in the gym, but in life, giving me the confidence I need to show up in my design world.

Sauna — the only Finnish word in the English language — is my place of solitude, of meditation, of ritual, and of course raising the heart rate and heating my body to the core, followed by a cold plunge or cold shower. This practice is my moment of peace, which I make sure to engage in at least two or three times per week. The sauna is a true place of quiet and recharge.

“ I’m not fearless — I just have more spirit, more dreams, and more imagination inside to qualm the fears, and share it with the world.”

— Kaija Wuollet

Who are you admiring now and why?

Equally, my Tai Chi master and Gen-Z young activists. Personally, I'm working towards a calm space — where I can receive and observe more in my life. Tai chi is part of my path to get there — it's a practice that combines elements of mediation, yoga and dance. I’m more natural at boxing and power lifting, so this is a challenge. And the Master I've started working with, with decades of experience, brings honor, peace and joy to the work.

As for Gen-Z activists, they are relentless and determined, and dedicated to research and understanding while growing up and navigating an unprecedented social media landscape with a lot of information to sift through. Equity is central to their narrative — expected and demanded. And for some of us that may be uncomfortable because it is not the norm unfortunately, but each step towards equity, no matter how uncomfortable, is necessary.

What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?

Life is joyful and life is hard. We all have different challenges, some more than others. As a child, I always had this optimistic lens, and deep desire to create joy.

When one of my earliest retail spaces was built in Detroit, a non-designer friend wrote to me after the opening, “It just felt so nice in there. I don’t really know why, but I can tell it's you who designed it.” That is the impact I want to continue to have — to create moments of joy, wonder, or reprieve — and to allow others to feel that good feeling. Architecture is truly a privilege to practice; we create artifacts of culture, and people experience them. As urban designers and planners, we are influencing the future of the built environment. Equity should be our lens. Not just asking who will use the spaces we plan and design, but more importantly, who does it exclude, and why? And chasing those answers with reverence, just as my early Detroit friends shared - their passion and pride in social justice work.

Laavu rooftop sauna sketch by Kaija Wuollet.

Spirit of the Caribbean. Watercolor by Kaija inspired by trips to Port Antonio, Jamaica.

Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?

Hold on to your imagination, and follow your heart, your mind and your gut differently, as your life evolves and grows. As former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said, “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” In my early years, many thought I was fearless — but that was not the case. My early professional years were incredibly imaginative, yet challenging because I didn’t have years of experience. I was usually the youngest, and often the only woman at the table. My voice would sometimes shake a bit before I hit my stride, whether presenting to the Board of Zoning Appeals, the City Planning Department, or presenting my work at a conference in China or design biennale in France. And sometimes it still does. I’m not fearless — I just have more spirit, more dreams, and more imagination inside to qualm the fears, and share it with the world. Now my years of experience allow me confidence in my process, and respect for systems, but I still continue to dream, in all areas of my life.

Develop habits to calm yourself, yet challenge yourself and stay uncomfortable. No matter how many years of experience I gain, I continue to challenge myself in different realms — I’ve learned how to rollerskate, to brew kombucha, make bone broth, and to box. I’ve recently started practicing Tai chi. I paint to draw out the imagination, I visit my many nephews and nieces around the world and learn about their perspectives. I continue to develop friendships with people from a wide range of backgrounds. I don’t think this advice is exclusive to women, but I do notice that many women working in creative fields give so much to their work, yet forget to fill back up. When we keep our minds challenged, our creativity flowing and our spirit refreshed — we can continue to fill our soul and pour back into our creative work.