Finland at the International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Archinfo is in charge of the Pavilion of Finland at the Biennale Architettura. The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will be held from 10 May to 23 November 2025.
Miina Jutila
Biennale Architettura 2025
Architects Ella Kaira and Matti Jänkälä are the curators of the Pavilion of Finland at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition. Their exhibition idea was selected through an international open call from among 45 proposals. With the exhibition, the curators aim to redefine our relationship with the built environment by highlighting the tacit knowledge related to the maintenance and care of a building.
Kaira and Jänkälä are young architects whose joint architectural practice, Vokal, specialises in community-based design. Jänkälä and Kaira are particularly interested in modern architectural heritage and its preservation. The Aalto University alumni are members of the You Tell Me collective of architecture students and young architects, which aims to promote a paradigm change in the field of construction and share information and solutions to create a more sustainable built environment.
The exhibition will be announced in early 2025.
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All events in VeniceBiennale Architettura 2023: Huussi – Imagining the future history of sanitation
The 18th International Architecture Exhibition was organised from 20 May to 26 November, 2023. The theme set by the curator appointed by La Biennale di Venezia, Lesley Lokko, was "The Laboratory of the Future".
Pavilion of Finland presented an exhibition critically reassessing our sanitation system in a time when the sufficiency of drinking water and food production is a global problem. By drawing from Finnish cultural heritage – huussi is the Finnish word for a composting toilet commonly used in rural settings and holiday homes – the exhibition questioned the so far indisputable position of the current water-based sanitation system and aimed to inspire architects and experts to start looking for alternative solutions, to better serve the world we inhabit today.
The exhibition was conceived by The Dry Collective, comprising Curator, Architect and Artist Arja Renell (FI), Graphic Designer Antero Jokinen (FI) and Architects Eero Renell (FI), Barbara Motta (IT), Emmi Keskisarja (FI) and Janne Teräsvirta (FI).
The exhibition was accompanied by a publication, Death to the flushing toilet, published by Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing.
Watch the exhibition's video works (English subtitles on available on YouTube):
The future history of sanitation (4:24)
Production company: Breakfast
Director: Pekka Hara
Producer: Henkka Hämäläinen
Writers: Antero Jokinen, Arja Renell and Jonathan Mander
Recycing nutrients (6:13)
Production company: Breakfast
Producer: Henkka Hämäläinen
Writers: Arja Renell, Antero Jokinen and Jonathan Mander
The urban challenge (4:31)
Production company: Breakfast
Producer: Henkka Hämäläinen
Writers: Arja Renell, Antero Jokinen & Jonathan Mander
Get your own copy of the Huussi publication
The Huussi exhibition is accompanied by a 112-page book entitled Death to the flushing toilet (Arvinius + Orfeus 2023). Edited by the exhibition curator Arja Renell, the publication contains thirteen expert articles going deep into subjects such as the history of sanitation, the recycling of nutrients, and new urban scale sanitation solutions. The publication can be purchased online at the publisher's webstore (25 €).
Biennale Architettura 2021: New Standards
New Standards, the Pavilion of Finland's exhibition in the previous Biennale Architettura in 2021, was also selected through an open call organised by Archinfo. Curated by Laura Berger (FI), Philip Tidwell (US) and Kristo Vesikansa (FI), the exhibition revisited a moment of history when architects and industry came together to address the urgent question of resettling Karelian refugees. The new approaches to pre-fabricated housing introduced by Puutalo Oy (Timber Houses Ltd.) not only modernised Finland’s construction industry but also became a worldwide export: In the 1940s and 50s, Puutalo houses were exported to more than 30 countries around the globe.
Video presentation of the New Standards exhibition (6 min).
New Standards online
You can get to know our 2021 Biennale Architettura exhibition on the project's website.
Biennale Architettura 2018: Mind-Building
In 2018, the Pavilion of Finland presented the exhibition Mind-Building, curated by Anni Vartola and produced by Archinfo. The exhibition was a study of over 100 years of Finnish library architecture, leading up to the opening of the new Helsinki Central Library Oodi in December 2018.
Mind-Building catalogue
The publication had a central role in our 2018 library architecture exhibition.
About the Biennale Architettura in Venice
The International Architecture Exhibition has been organised in Venice since 1980. It alternates with the International Art Exhibition, which was established in 1895. The architecture exhibition has developed into the most esteemed international arena for showcasing architecture, with almost than 300,000 visitors in 2023.
In addition to the national pavilion, Finland is present in the Biennale Architettura in other ways, too. The Nordic Pavilion is jointly commissioned by the Museum of Finnish Architecture, Sweden’s National Centre for Architecture and Design ArkDes and The National Museum of Norway, taking turns in the lead. In 2025, Finland will be in charge of the joint pavilion.
Some Finnish architects have also been invited to participate in the Main Exhibition and Collateral Events. We compile all information about Finnish participations at the Biennale Architettura. If your works are presented in conjunction to the biennale, please let us know!