Suomi/Koivisto

Alusta is keeping itself warm and dry under its winter coat, made with repurposed materials from the Concrete Dreams exhibition at

Late Autumn atmospheres at Alusta

Remembering a sunny afternoon on this dark and rainy one. Sun travels low across the sky this time of year.

Alusta is open and free for all, all year round. In late September a local kindergarden group explored the remaining insects. They will return in the spring to experience the change.

Now that snow is slowly falling behind the window, it is a good time to remember the sunny September evening when we had our last talk of the fall with Ville Lähde from BIOS research unit on Material cycles.

When sharing the process of making with the right collaborators, something beautiful may appear. Collaboration in question by us, , biochar, humulus lupulus and the elements.

On Tuesday we discussed Degrowth&architecture with activist-scholar Eeva Houtbeckers and a wonderful audience once again. Thank you all and welcome again on Wednesday to continue the discussion on Material cycles! A warm recommendation also to Eeva’s and Galina Kallio’s Untame podcast!

Benches for people, food and shelter for insects in Loviisa ecological park.

Työpaja ihmistä laajemman maailman tarkkailemiseksi Loviisassa 25.8. yhdessä ja luontokartoittaja Jere Salminen kanssa ihanassa uudessa ekologisessa puistossa.

The second generation butterflies of this summer are enjoying the Echinacea flowers with their friends at Alusta.

On Wednesday we will discuss the meaning of soil at Alusta. Welcome!

Alusta Pavilion: Soil Matters
Wed 23.8.2023 at 5.30pm
In English / Free entry / No pre-registration

🌿 Soil is an active, living entity that sustains life. How is soil? What can we do for it? What can it do for us? How can we strengthen our connection to soil and learn to understand different meaning it embodies by the means of art and architecture?

Speakers are visual artists Nina Rantala and Visa Suonpää (IC-98), microbiologist, docent Kim Yrjälä, Helsinki university and architect, doctoral researcher Elina Koivisto, Aalto University. The discussion is in English.

❓️Alusta Pavilion is located on the courtyard of the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design museum. It explores nature-culture relations and offers a place for encounters between humans and non-human animals in urban space. The pavilion is an outdoor space.

The event is organized with the support of Finnish Cultural Foundation.

More info about the event series & accessibility: https://www.designmuseum.fi/en/events/open-events-in-the-alusta-pavilion/

Maiju speaks tomorrow at the Arch4change: What We Stand For seminar together with other highly interesting speakers! Tuesday 22.8. At 2pm at the Hope to see you there!

www.arch4change.com

ABOUT ARCH4CHANGE: WHAT WE STAND FOR event on 22nd August 2023:
We think it is important that we help change the narrative: the majority in architecture and the building industry still think that we can engineer our way out of the climate crises (and barely focus on inequalities, the biodiversity crises or the fact that a solution is not sustainable unless it meets users needs and they adopt it and look after it).

So, the ARCH4CHANGE: WHAT WE STAND FOR event will both unfold briefly what the 3 year Erasmus+ Funded project ARCH4CHANGE is about, but through our speakers and the discussions, it is a call to action: we cannot be a carbon neutral or sustainable society without new ways of thinking and new values (e.g. more reuse and transformation, less building new; focusing on social infrastructure, non-humans and biodiversity and planetary health etc).

Detailed schedule:
14.00-14.20
ARCH4CHANGE: WHAT WE STAND FOR
Brief project introduction and platform introduction (Sofie Pelsmakers, Elizabeth Donovan, Emma Geoghegan, Ioannis Lykouras)
Q&A
14.20-15.20
Changing architecture practice and aesthetics
Siv Helene Stangeland - Helen & Hard architects, Norway
Maiju Suomi - Suomi- Koivisto architects, Helsinki
BREAK 15.20-15.30
15.30-16.30
Inclusivity and collaboration
Efe Ogbeide, Femma Planning, Helsinki
Dalia Milián Bernal, Tampere University, Tampere
Mirjami Myllymäki, Helsinki
BREAK + refreshments 16.30 - 16.45
16.45-17.25
Different ways of being an architect
Dr Hella Hernberg, Helsinki
Stephen Choi, Melbourne, Australia
17.25-17.50: Discussion
17.50-18.00
WHAT NEXT, feedback & closure - Sofie Pelsmakers

ARCH4CHANGE: WHAT WE STAND FOR https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/arch4change-what-we-stand-for-tickets-675292426827?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=wsa&aff=ebdsshwebmobile

Eilen myös juhlimme Taiteiden yötä ja hiljennyimme seuraamaan ihmistä laajemman maailman liikkeitä Alustalla yhdessä osallitujien ja hyönteistutkija Juho Paukkusen kanssa.

Olimme eilen Radio Helsinki Helsinki Design Weekly ohjelmassa Anni Korkmanin vieraana juttelemassa Alusta-paviljongista. Uusinta huomenna lauantaina klo 9.00 ja koska vain kuunneltavissa täällä: https://www.radiohelsinki.fi/podcastit/kehittamisen-paikkoja/. 📻

Kaunopunahattu ja kaverit - Echinacea purpurea and friends

Secret garden

Today Alusta welcomed its latest resident. We discovered a tiny baby bunny in one of the grow bags. 🐰🥰We learned that rabbits do not build nests but they spread their offspring in the undergrowth and nurse them during the night to avoid the attention of predators, so when encountered, they should be left in peace. We are delighted to offer refuge for this little one.

Olla-asema experienced some changes this week as organized a workshop to create biomaterial support structures for plants. The process of change will continue by Tropaeolum minus growing in the soil being nurtured by rainwater as well as eggshells and flour slowly crumbling from the cups to the soil.

Summer and the birds have arrived on Alusta! You are welcome too, any time!

Spring has arrived at Alusta and it’s time for a new chapter in its ever changing story. This week we are inspecting and fixing the winter damages. Come join us!

My mind keeps returning to the polished, carved and sculpted clay, stucco and tile features in Alhambra forming incredibly rich spaces for us and others.

Elina&Maiju were exploring earth architecture from the ancient to the state of the art last week in Spain.

Maiju and Elina discussing architecture in the more-than-human world this Friday at the Bryggman seminar in Turku (in Finnish). Come join us! More info at www.bryggman.fi

Lajit katoavat ympäriltämme, ja yksi syy siihen on rakentaminen Kesän päätteeksi Arkkitehtuurimuseon Alusta-paviljongissa keskusteltiin rakentamisen ja kaupunkisuunnittelun vaikutuksesta luontokatoon.

A heart warming story about Alusta in with our little crow friend Arminius at the spotlight. I wonder where he is at the moment. Has he flown south for the winter yet?

Take a look below at what we discussed with Duncan from Dwell last week 🐝

How Two Helsinki Architects Transformed a Parking Lot Into a Paradise for Pollinators The Alusta Pavilion gives birds, bees, and plants a lush habitat—and human visitors a renewed outlook on the natural world.

Maiju is spending October in Athens in residency doing research - here a wonderful find from today’s wanders: Church of St. Demetrius Loumbardiaris restored in the 1960s by architect Dimitris Pikionis

Alusta pavilion was featured in Dezeen today

Maiju Suomi and Elina Koivisto design "insect hotel" Alusta Pavilion in Helsinki Rugged clay forms the walls of this pavilion in Helsinki by Maiju Suomi and Elina Koivisto, which aims to provide an urban habitat for pollinators.

Making in the More Than Human World. Thank you Aarni Tujula and Maarit Mäkelä for discussing agency of both the living and the lifeless with us today.

Our last talk of the season will take place next Wednesday at 5pm. We will discuss Architecture as a tool for Environmental Discourse (in Finnish).

.suomi

Tänään eläinfilosofi Elisa Aaltola vieraili Alustalla ja keskusteli Maijun kanssa mm. muunlajisten eläinten asemasta arkkitehtuurissa, siitä miten meidän pitäisi ymmärtää itseämme voidaksemme ymmärtää muita lajeja sekä siitä, miten suhtautumisemme muihin lajeihin perustuu hallinnan ja hyödyntämisen näkökulmiin. Kiitos Elisa Aaltola ja kaikki keskustelussa mukana olleet!



Designmuseo Arkkitehtuurimuseo MFA Taiteen edistämiskeskus - Taike

Feeling grateful after a beautiful discussion on Aesthetics and the Environmental Crisis with
We finally got to experience the space filled with a focused audience with important questions. One of our aims with the project has been to explore how a temporary architectural space could function as a vehicle for environmental discourse. It is lovely to see this wish become reality. Thank you all for your presence and hopefully see you in the coming events!

Keskustelut Alustalla alkavat huomenna! // Alusta discussion begin tomorrow!

Environmental philosopher Sanna Lehtinen from Aalto University will discuss aesthetics, nature culture relations and the possibility of change at 6pm on Wednesday August 17th.

For more information and the whole program: https://www.mfa.fi/opi-ja-koe/alusta/

17.8. Aesthetics and the Environmental Crisis
18.8. Night of the Arts in the Alusta pavilion
27.8. On the Relationship of Humans and Non-human Animals
31.8. Loss of Biodiversity & Urban Design
2.9. Care, Architecture & Materiality
3.9. Architecture & Empathy
7.9. Making in the More Than Human World
14.9. Architecture as a Tool for Environmental Discussion

Alusta pavilion functions as a platform for environmental discourse, both on the level of its form and materiality, and the different activities which take place there. Alusta offers a space for thinking about our place as part of a more than human community.

Maiju ja Elina vierailivat tänään Ylen aamussa kertomassa Alusta-paviljongista ja keskustelemassa mm. arkkitehtuurin luontosuhteesta, huolenpidosta ja luontokadon torjumisesta rakennetussa ympäristössä. Ohjelma löytyy Yle Areenasta. Keskustelu jatkuu paviljongilla ensi viikolla. Tervetuloa mukaan!

Yhteistyössä: Arkkitehtuurimuseo MFA Designmuseo Aalto University Alfred Kordelinin säätiö Taiteen edistämiskeskus - Taike Kekkilä Fiskars Hyötykasviyhdistys - Nyttoväxtföreningen Uula Color Oy Wienerberger Finland ABL-Laatat STARK Suomi

Miten huomioida luonto rakentamisessa? Ihmiset ja muunlajiset eläimet ovat saaneet uuden kohtaamispaikan lisää. Helsingin keskustaan Arkkitehtuurimuseon ja Designmuseon väliselle museopihalle on rakentunut virkistäytymispaikka pörriäisille ja ihmisille. Haastattelussa idean takana olevat arkkitehdit Elina Kovisto ja Maiju Suomi.

Yle Radio Suomi vieraili Alusta-paviljongissa. Kuuntele Areenassa, mitä Maiju heille kertoi paviljongista ja muunlajisten eläinten huomioimisesta arkkitehtuurissa. Ohjelma on suomenkielinen.

Alusta-paviljongin esittely on kohdassa 5.30–16.20. https://areena.yle.fi/audio/1-62802819

Arkkitehtuurimuseo MFA Designmuseo