Zeta Design's Niina Rosell sees 3D models 'come to life' in her work

Stylish, high-quality glass solutions that add a sense of space, and design staircases

Niina Rosell is a designer by training, Bachelor of Culture and Arts (Artenomi, AMK). Rosell, 36, started at Zeta Design Oy two years ago with the title of delivery manager, and her job then was to coordinate the company's installation calendar and make sure that people and materials were in the right place at the right time. Little by little, her role came to include more design work, and in spring 2021 Niina Rosell started as a full-time designer.

Niina Rosell became familiar with 3D modelling and SketchUp back in her student days: "I have studied 3D modelling both independently, out of my own personal interest, and in my design studies with Autodesk's 3ds Max and Rhinoceros. As the web version of SketchUp is one of the good free (student-budget) 3D modelling programs, I also tried it out a fair bit in my own time while studying."

Zeta Design is a small Finnish company that has supplied stylish, high-quality glass solutions and design staircases that add a sense of space to both private homes and public buildings since 2012. The product portfolio includes, among other things, post-free glass railings and glass room dividers such as glass walls and doors, as well as combinations of these. They also have four staircase models with a recognisable design, stylish and airy: ZETA, BEAM, AERO, and DECO. "Each of them can be customised individually to suit the customer's taste and needs. The railing solution in all our staircases is a post-free full-glass railing", Niina Rosell said as she presented the company's solutions in her talk.

Post-free full-glass railings. © Zeta Design Oy

The basic elements of the company's solutions are glass, aluminium, and steel. What the solutions have in common is a clear and refined Scandinavian design language. Their source of inspiration is style and a sense of space, in keeping with their design philosophy, without compromising on quality, materials, or functionality. In the execution, particular attention is paid to style, functionality, and safety.

"Our high quality shows in sales, in measuring, in 3D modelling, in strength calculations, in design, in materials, and in installation. By investing in a solid command of the properties of materials and structures, we can carry out even demanding projects", Niina Rosell says proudly.

Careful design with SketchUp, accurate to the millimetre

Zeta Design's designers use 3D modelling as the basis for almost all design work: the solutions they design are 3D modelled on the basis of the architectural plan and a check measurement carried out on site.

"SketchUp Pro has been found to be a good and effective modelling program for production of our type, on the basis of several years and several users of experience. At Zeta we use SketchUp for pretty much all modelling, both for dimensioned drawings of parts in the manner of a CAD program and for drawing 2D images and 3D models. Drawing two-dimensional dimensioned drawings with SketchUp is easy and fast, and the program itself can save and export the drawings into a format that also works in CAD programs. We need 3D modelling in more complex projects, and above all in modelling our signature staircases, the Zeta staircases", Niina Rosell explains, setting out why the company uses SketchUp in its design work.

The company's signature staircase ZETA is a premium-level design staircase. © Zeta Design Oy

"The best thing about SketchUp is the chance to sketch quickly with the measuring tool. That tool is, to my mind, one of SketchUp's best features, and not one you easily find in other modelling programs. SketchUp is also a light 3D program to use on a laptop. The machine does not freeze even with several models open at the same time. File sizes do not grow to a wild size either, even when there is a lot of material in the model", Niina Rosell says, summing up the advantages of SketchUp. "We have a great many unique design projects in which SketchUp is an irreplaceable tool."

Design always starts from the customer's needs

Often the customer already has a finished vision of what they want, Niina Rosell says. With other customers, the designers work out the solutions together with them. They often design from an architect's drawing, but sometimes from nothing more than a photograph of the customer's space.

"Straight, rectangular railing glass does not call for much design, and a calculator programmed into an Excel template is often used in designing it. But as soon as the glass or other parts need shaping, cuts, holes, or other machining, you have to move over to SketchUp", Niina Rosell says, making clear why SketchUp is an irreplaceable tool for them.

Glass room dividers by Zeta Design Oy at the previous Nordic BIM Finland office. © Zeta Design Oy

They usually prepare quotations to an accuracy of 10 cm, but the actual design is based on laser measurement, and the final models and the manufacturing and installation instructions are made to the millimetre. Niina Rosell always has the same approach when she sets out to design a new project: "For me, SketchUp design always starts with the layers and with naming them. At the same time it gives me a chance to get a picture of everything the project involves. In a simple model, layers for the surroundings plus the glass plus their dimensions are enough, but in staircase modelling, for example, there are more than ten layers."

The designers usually do all the design work project by project, but for the small parts used in the staircases they have their own "materials library", from which the right objects are easy to pick into the model. This makes designing easier. So that finished models can be shown to customers as realistically as possible, the designers now and then use the SketchUp Viewer mobile app to look at the models during site visits.

"I like my work at Zeta very much. My work is innovative and often quite hectic, but really rewarding through projects that come off beautifully. In this work you really do see 3D models 'come to life'", Niina Rosell says, summing up her design work. The company's railings can be found, among other places, in the summer 2022 issue of Terassi magazine and at the Naantali Housing Fair, on the terrace of the Designtalo house, site #9.