Finnish Architecture

Juha Ilmari Leiviskä, one of Finland´s foremost architects recognized for his design of light-filled poetic spaces, passed away on November 9, 2023, at the age of 87. Born in Helsinki and educated at Helsinki University of Technology, Leiviskä developed a personal style throughout his six decades-long career, working with his own family of forms to design buildings with unique identities, yet unified by their treatment of light and geometry. His architecture has been praised for its serene, hones, and timeless qualities, earning him numerous awards and international recognition.

Local communities are more than just a collection of buildings and infrastructure. They possess a distinctive architectural character that mirrors their history, culture, and values. As part of our year in review, we take a deep dive into the top narratives that examine the architectural identity of different local communities.

Moving away from top-down approaches, contemporary practices embrace more inclusive and participatory models and design processes. Participatory planning, a notion that prioritizes involving the entire community in the decision-making process, has earned widespread recognition and popularity globally. Cities across the world have interpreted participatory planning to fit their unique needs, using technology and government resources to expedite and enhance the process.

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The Nordic Countries Pavilion for the 18^th International Architecture Exhibition “Girjegumpi”, is a collaborative library archive of Sámi architecture. While exploring La Biennale di Venezia onsite in Venice, ArchDaily had the chance to speak with the architect Joar Nango and also with the curators James Taylor-Foster and Carlos Mínguez Carrasco about the pavilion and its depths.

As early as the 20th century, women in Finland were already involved in the field of architecture. In fact, Signe Hornborg (1862-1916), a Finnish architect, was the first woman in Europe to graduate as an architect in 1890. Pirkko-Liisa Schulman, in her essay on The Changing Careers of Women Architects, notes that Hornborg was granted special permission to study at the Polytechnic Institute of Helsinki. After her, several other women such as Inez Holming, Signe Lagerborg, Bertha Enwald, Wivi Lönn, and Albertina Östman also pursued careers in architecture, with eighteen women having already trained as architects by the time the Polytechnic Institute became a university in 1908.

Near the center of Helsinki, Finland, in the Töölö neighborhood, one can find the Temppeliaukio Church, an unusual-looking Lutheran church nestled between granite rocks. Approaching the square from Fredrikinkatu street, the church appears subtly, a flat dome barely rising above its surrounding landscape. An unassuming entrance, flanked by concrete walls, leads visitors through a dark hallway, and into the light-filled sanctuary carved directly into the bedrock. The exposed rock walls earned it the alternative name “The Church of the Rock.” To contrast the heaviness of the materials, skylights surrounding the dome create a play of light and shadows and a feeling of airiness.

The new Aalto2 Museum, designed by A-Konsultit Architects, will showcase the cultural legacy of the architecture and design of renowned architect Alvar Aalto. The Museum will open to the public on 27 May 2023, fulfilling the architect's desire to establish a venue for the fusion of various mediums and art forms at the Ruusupuisto park in Jyväskylä, in Central Finland.

In any city, cultural centers can play a significant role in preserving and celebrating the community’s heritage and history, officing space for a vast array of activities and initiatives to encourage social interaction and the sharing of ideas and memories. They are also institutions that promote education and learning, often offering classes, workshops, and lectures on various topics related to culture, history, and the arts. By fulfilling these crucial roles within a given community, they can also become attractive centers for tourists eager to learn about local identities, cultures, and traditions.

The Portuguese office MASSLAB, in collaboration with AFRY Ark Studio, won the Train Factory Mixed-Use Competition, an international competition in two stages whose main objective was to create a landmark for the city of Helsinki, Finland. The proposal was selected from five world-renowned architectural consortia.

At the 2023 Biennale Architettura, Finland's Pavilion will present its exhibition Huussi, Imagining the Future History of Sanitation, which deals with the architecture of water and nutrient circulation, questioning the water toilet and Its implications for the future. "Huussi" is the Finnish word for an outhouse, a small compost toilet commonly used by Finns in rural settings and holiday homes. The exhibition, curated by Arja Renell and The Dry Collective, a group of Finnish architects, presents this typology as a starting point to finding alternative solutions to managing wastewater, inspiring professionals to start envisioning new sanitation solutions. At the core of the presentation, the exhibition questions the consequences of waste in the context of the current climate crisis the world is going through.