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The built environment plays a huge role in climate change, including in its prevention. Architects’ responsibility for environmental stewardship, sustainability and community resilience is increasingly growing. How are the changes reflected in architects’ work?

Book your place for the year’s largest Alvar Aalto event! The international Alvar Aalto Symposium – The Weight of Architecture 22.–23.8.2024 in Jyväskylä is a meeting of international architectural professionals, experts and colleagues. The symposium’s main programme, held in English in the Assembly Hall of the University of Jyväskylä’s Main Building, can be followed on site or via streaming. Tickets, also available for groups, are on sale here.

On Thursday 22.8 an opening debate will be held in Aalto2 discussing planetary boundaries, and ecological, social and economic sustainability. The debate, open to everyone, will be hosted by Aalto University, Tampere University and the University of Oulu.

The symposium’s main programme on 22.8, held at the University of Jyväskylä’s Main Building, starting with the theme Environment, will feature Pritzker Prize-winning architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, Dublin; architectural historian Barnabas Calder from the University of Liverpool; architects Juho Grönholm, Antti Nousjoki and Samuli Woolston of ALA Architects, Helsinki; and climate scientist and IIASA Director John Schellnhuber of Laxenburg, Vienna. The Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA) will discuss issues of money, politics and power with, among others, architect Anders Adlercreutz, who is the Finnish government Minister of European Affairs and Ownership Steering. Thursday will culminate in the 15th Alvar Aalto Medal award ceremony and a celebration at Aalto2.

The themes of the second day of the symposium, Friday 23.8., are Resources and Architecture – the work of the architect in a rapidly changing work environment. The theme of Resources will be presented by Hilda Rantanen, CEO of Materialisting, Helsinki; David Benjamin, Associate Professor at Columbia University (GSAPP), New York; Ehab Sayed, Founder of Biohm, London; and Thomas Brogren, Architect, Project Manager of Realdania, Copenhagen. Weighing in on the importance of Architecture will be architect, writer and professor Helena Mattsson of the KTH School of Architecture, Stockholm, and architects Emma Johansson and Willem van Bolderen from Studio Puisto Architects, Helsinki.

The discussion organised by Archinfo, the information centre for finnish architecture, Exhibiting care and repair, features Matti Jänkälä and Ella Kaira, curators of the Pavilion of Finland at the Biennale Architettura 2025 in Venice; and Kaisa Karvinen, curator at the Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture. The discussion is moderated by Miina Jutila from Archinfo.

The first side programme, for an additional fee, starts on Wednesday 21.8. from Korpilahti with a boat cruise to Alvar Aalto’s Experimental House in Muuratsalo (bus transfer to the boat from Helsinki). A second side programme, also for an additional fee, includes guided tours of the Aalto sites in Jyväskylä, as well as guided bus tours of Aalto West (Villa Mairea and Paimio Sanatorium, full) and Aalto East (Three Crosses Church, Imatra and Sunila residential area) on 24 August. Seats are limited, so book your tickets soon here.

Friday 23.8. will culminate in the Finnish premiere of Bêka & Lemoine’s film The Sense of Tuning, an enchanting portrait of the architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai. Bijoy Jain is also a previous Alvar Aalto medalist from 2020. Free admission to the film screening!

The Alvar Aalto Symposium is an international discussion forum on contemporary architecture held every three years in Jyväskylä and organized by the Alvar Aalto Academy. The Alvar Aalto Academy, which focuses on continuing education in the renovation and preservation of modern architecture as well as seminar events, is part of the Alvar Aalto Foundation. The Alvar Aalto Symposium’s main partner is the City of Jyväskylä. Collaborative partners also include Aalto University and the Cumulus Network, Archinfo, the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum, the Finnish Architects’ Association SAFA and Habitare Pro.

For more information on the symposium programme and how to buy tickets, click here.


Contacts

Nina Heikkonen, Programme Manager
Alvar Aalto Foundation
+358 44 500 1257
nina.heikkonen@alvaraalto.fi

Aila Svenskberg
Event Communications, Editor
Alvar Aalto Foundation
+358 40 659 1930
aila.svenskberg@alvaraalto.fi

 

Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) and his boat Nemo propheta in patria. Photo © Alvar Aalto Foundation.