A  HUMAN FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN SKETCHED AT THE ALVAR AALTO CAFÉ

The international Alvar Aalto Café seminar, Abundance, will bring together people in architecture and design in Jyväskylä this weekend, 30 and 31 August 2014. During the two-day event, six international speakers will lead an exploration of the future of architecture and design. Hundreds of friends of architecture and design from Finland and abroad are expected to attend the public lectures.

“The Alvar Aalto Café, now being held for the first time, opens its doors to all those interested in architecture and design. This year, the event, on the theme of Abundance, is open to the public, and includes local and international expertise, with participants arriving from fourteen countries,” says the Director of the Alvar Aalto Academy, Esa Laaksonen.

The keynote speaker, giving his first speech in Finland, will be Harvard University professor of architectural theory and criticism Sanford Kwinter. In addition to Kwinter, the floor will also be taken by the Australian transport planner for the Guggenheim Lab Rachel Smith; the architecture critic and curator Marco Brizzi; and the architect Klaas Hofman from the Netherlands-based MVRDV architecture and urbanism practice. The Polytechnic University of Milan professor, Luisa Collina, and the interior architect and designer Esa Vesmanen will represent expertise in design.

The theme of the Alvar Aalto Café, Abundance, has been conceived by the chair of the event, Aalto University Professor and design director at the Kone Corporation, Anne Stenros. The theme enables a discussion on how to design a good future.

“Rapid technological developments and changes in society are posing challenges for human design and construction. The theme raises issues such as urbanisation, technological innovation, and new practices with the related challenges. Architecture and design should, in the future, bring people together. Instead of products and buildings, the focus could be specifically on us, humans,” says Stenros.

The event will be organised by the Alvar Aalto Academy. The speeches will be free and given in English.

For more information on the event, the programme, and the speakers, visit the Alvar Aalto Café website at http://abundance2014.splashthat.com/.

More information and interview requests:

The Alvar Aalto Foundation
Communications, Annukka Pakarinen
annukka.pakarinen(a)alvaraalto.fi
tel. +358 50 381 0143