In September this year, the Museum of Finnish Architecture (Kasarmikatu 24, Helsinki) will open an exhibition entitled "Hope from Wood" (from 10th September 2021 to 9th January 2022).
The multi-disciplinary event, curated by cultural journalist Minna Joenniemi, is set to look at wooden architecture from a unique perspective, taking into consideration the hope it inspires in people. Rather than just looking at a few buildings, the exhibition will cover a long time span, going from the early achievements of wood construction to the algorithmic architecture of the future, and it will explore them through human emotions - from hope to despair, from love to sadness - analysing at the same time the various emotions captured by wood in an era of climate crisis.
In Finnish the word "toivo", that is hope, is integrated in the name of more than 800 places with the name Toivola, villages, farms and houses - most of which are built of wood. Therefore, preserving wooden buildings is an act of love towards the local heritage, but also a way to react to climate change and get inspired to create more sustainable buildings (the use of wood reduces the carbon footprint in building construction).
Wood has increasingly begun to appear among the prize-winning entries in architectural competitions and in Finland it is the material of choice for schools and day-care centres and the hope is that in future it will be used also for high-rise residential blocks.
The exhibition will also include love letters to the architectural heritage, written by architecture professionals as well as the author Tommi Kinnunen, documentary filmmaker Virpi Suutari, and founder of Pelastetaan vanhat talot (Save the Old Houses) Pia Kuurma.
A smaller event - "Deciphering Roof-trusses – Exploring Medieval Wooden Structures" - in the exhibition hall will focus instead on structures from the Middle Ages. This is a fascinating theme that is rarely explored: roof trusses hidden beneath Medieval shingle roofs are rarely analysed, but they are extremely intriguing structures as they are masterly displays of construction skills, and they are tangible proof of the structural innovations that developed in Central Europe during Medieval times. They could easily be used as inspiration for other creative projects (textile design, knitwear and jewellery come to mind - think about how to recreate some of these effects with yarns or metals for example).
If you love design, but prefer materials with a soft consistency that are still sustainable, check out the Porífera vases by Margarida Pereira.
The name of the collection comes from the sponge species (from the Greek "πόρος", meaning vase and passage, and the Latin "fero", to bear). The first animals on Earth were poriferous and their shape was a vase or a cylinder-like, asymmetrical or radially symmetrical body, with an opening, the osculus, on the top (View this photo).
Pereira's vases (available from Copenhagen Studio Tableau) are made from repurposed sponges, collected from recycling centers in Copenhagen (the materials mainly come from waste from furniture) cut up in different pieces and handsewed in a variety of sizes so that each vase is unique (you can follow more about the designer's creative process on her Instagram page).
The collection challenges tactile expectations, between the visual sensation of softness and the fact that vases are usually hard to the touch (Pereira's vases have an epoxy coating interior so that they can contain water and accomodate flowers). The vases come in delicate pastel colours - light pink, baby blue and pale yellow - a palette partially inspired by corals (View this photo) and they are stitched in blue or red thread. Pereira's designs are a great example of something unwanted being upcycled into something new and desirable.
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