ALA. Face or not

ALA Architects is an architectural firm from Helsinki.

Here, there's a simple base material (two letters, repeated), but it's interesting to see how forms can rhyme.

⊕ All the symbols are inscribed in identical trapezoids and reduced to simple “ticks” — it turned out lively. There's emotion: “A” — eyes squinted in a smile, “L” — a nose.

⊖ It's unclear how this cute face is related to architecture and the specific firm. Despite all translations and descriptions, I still couldn't understand the connection between the graphics and the meaning of the word “Ala”, which has several meanings in Finnish (area, space, business, sector, branch, under).