The Finnish Pavilion travels to South Korea

The Pavilion – Architecture of Stewardship, first presented at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, is continuing its journey in South Korea. Produced by Archinfo and curated by Ella Kaira and Matti Jänkälä, the exhibition is now part of the special exhibition Caring by Design in Seoul.

Opened on 17 September at Culture Station Seoul 284, the exhibition explores design through the perspectives of care, maintenance and use. It challenges the idea of design as a one-off end result and instead turns its attention to what happens to buildings, spaces and urban environments over time. The exhibition brings together 20 South Korean and international artists and designers, with a total of 33 works on display.

The theme is a natural continuation of the Venice exhibition, which used Alvar Aalto’s Finnish Pavilion to explore the kinds of work that make it possible for architecture to endure. Alongside the building, the exhibition highlighted the people whose work often remains in the shadow of completed architecture: maintenance workers, repairers, cleaners, construction workers, engineers and other professionals whose contributions keep buildings in use. Now, the exhibition takes on a new context as part of a South Korean exhibition that explores these questions on a broader scale. How does the built environment change through use? Who takes care of what already exists? And what kind of design is needed to maintain what already exists rather than building anew?

In recent years, exhibitions produced by Archinfo for the Finnish Pavilion have found new audiences and connections beyond Venice. Reusing and adapting exhibitions in new contexts extends their lifespan and gives their themes an opportunity to continue the conversation internationally.

Caring by Design is on view at Culture Station Seoul 284 until 1 November 2026. The exhibition is curated by Chung Dahyoung (CAC – Curating Architecture Collective).

The Venice exhibition team for The Pavilion – Architecture of Stewardship included curators Ella Kaira and Matti Jänkälä, video artist Merle Karp, sound designer Jussi Hertz, exhibition architect Antti Auvinen and graphic designer Samuli Saarinen. Archinfo was responsible for the exhibition production.

Read more about The Pavilion – Architecture of Stewardship, presented at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale here.