Reimagining Nordic living environments – Discussion on Nordic construction culture
Creative, sustainable, beautiful, inclusive… The New European Bauhaus fosters a new movement based on sustainability, aesthetics and inclusion for a better tomorrow. How can we interpret its values in the Nordic context?
The Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland and The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux invite you to explore what the New European Bauhaus could mean in the Nordics. Together, we will look into how the values of the New European Bauhaus translate into the development of our living environments.
Nordic stakeholders will gather to discuss the building blocks of a Nordic construction culture. Drawing upon the concept of “Baukultur”, the event will consider how architecture and design contribute to a high quality and sustainable built environment. Through a multidisciplinary debate, the event will identify needs, drivers and obstacles on the path towards a Nordic construction culture. How can a cultural approach help accelerate the shift towards a circular economy within the construction sector?
The event is organised in conjunction with Nordic Networks for Circular Construction project, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The project seeks to accelerate the implementation of a circular economy in the construction sector. The outcomes of the event will feed into the development of a narrative for a Nordic construction culture, which the project will propose.
This event has been organised as an official side event to The Festival of the New European Bauhaus, you can also see it listed on the Festival platform.
Keynote Speaker:
Massimo Santanicchia, Professor and Director of the Master’s Program in Architecture at the Iceland University of the Arts.
Our two panels of experts include:
Malin Kock Hansen, Senior Advisor for Innovative Cities and Communities and Project Manager at Design and Architecture Norway
Juuso Kokkonen, Project Coordinator at Karelia University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Oskar Norelius, Architect and Partner at White Arkitekter, Sweden
Efe Ogbeide, Urban Planner at participatory Urban Planning bureau FEMMA Planning, Finland
Carmen Garcia Sanchez, Post Doctoral Researcher MSCA fellow, PhD in Architectural Design, Architect MAA
The Royal Danish Academy, Denmark
Päivi Tahkokallio, Founder and CEO, Tahkokallio Design+, Finland
The panels will be moderated by Vincent Lassalle, Team Lead at Demos Helsinki
You can find the bios of our speakers at the end of this article.
Agenda of the Day:
09:30 Registration and coffee
10:00 Opening words & welcome
10:05 Greetings from Riitta Kaivosoja, Director General of the Ministry of Education & Culture, Finland
10:15 Keynote by Massimo Santanicchia followed by questions
11:00 First Panel Session, moderated by Vincent Lassalle
11:45 Break
12:00 Second Panel Session, moderated by Vincent Lassalle
12:40 Q&A Session, moderated by Vincent Lassalle
12:55 Closing words & Thank you
13:00 End
Practical Information:
Date & Time: Friday, 10 June 2022, 10:00-13:00 CEST
Location: Orangerie, Maison de la Poste (Tour & Taxis), Rue Picard 5/7, 1000 Brussels
The event will also be streamed online via our YouTube channel.
Accessibility: At The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux we strive to create a more inclusive, accessible and sustainable environment for the practice of art and culture. We are working towards enabling all individuals to engage fully in our events. To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact Ela Suleymangil at ela.suleymangil@finncult.be, +32 486 84 42 48.
Speakers’ bios:
Malin Kock Hansen
Malin Hansen is a Senior Advisor for Design and Architecture Norway (DOGA). She works with innovative urban and local development, and how interaction between people and technology can contribute to smarter and more sustainable cities and places. Malin holds a Master’s Degree in political communication from Aarhus University in Denmark.
Juuso Kokkonen
Juuso Kokkonen is project coordinator in Karelia University of Applied Sciences. A key focus of his ongoing project is to identify low-carbon construction solutions, processes and promote their implementation. Project consists of life cycle assessment of buildings and finding emission reduction potential. Project will consist also GHG-calculations for companies in field of construction. Previously Juuso has worked in corporate sector calculating emissions for different kind of building solutions. Juuso has strong competence and all together has calculated emissions for hundreds of structural solutions. He has also competence to calculate emissions of renovation and his thesis compared environmental impacts between renovating a 1970’s residential apartment building and demolishing it for a new building.
Oskar Norelius
Oskar Norelius is an award-winning architect and partner at White Arkitekter, one of Scandinavia’s leading architecture firms. Oskar directs the international studio in the Stockholm office and is co-lead behind the recently inaugurated Sara Culture Centre in Skellefteå, a climate positive 20 storey mass timber building for which he received the International Award for Wood Architecture in 2022. Oskar is frequently invited to international architecture competitions where high levels of sustainability and architecture is sought after. Oskar is currently co-lead for the Kimmel Quarter in Riga, including the transformation of a historic brewery into a cultural hub, and the new construction of 35.000 sqm offices in timber.
Sara Kulturhus is a 28.000sqm development combining a library, two art galleries, six theatre stages and concert halls with a 200 room hotel. The 20-storey building is designed with a structure of Glue and Cross laminated timber. The innovative construction technique paired with a complex content and a situation right at the centre of town is a true challenge, but the project highlights several advantages of building with timber.
Efe Ogbeide
Efe Ogbeide is co-founder of the Helsinki-based participatory urban planning bureaou FEMMA Planning founded in 2019. Her background is in planning geography and she has taken her Bachelor’s degree in Stockholm University and finished her Master studies in the Univeristy of Helsinki.
FEMMA Planning facilitates participation in spatial planning. In the heart of their work is a commitment to understand different spatial realities and experiences which are then transofrmed as guidelines to the urban planning processes. The bureau also aims change the urban planning into a more holistic practice where both social and ecological aspects are taken into account.
Carmen Garcia Sanchez
Carmen Garcia Sanchez is BA and MA in Architecture, specialised in Building Construction, and Ph.D. in Architectural Design from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She is an experienced practicing architect and a Postdoctoral Researcher Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at The Royal Danish Academy, – Architecture Design Conservation (KADK), Institute of Architecture and Design in Copenhagen. She teaches Spatial Design and is member of the research Center for Interior Studies at the Institute of Architecture and Design, KADK. Her research addresses the interaction between the building surroundings and the lived life in the domestic space, focusing on the relationship between nature, architecture and users. Her doctoral dissertation unveils the keys to Danish Modernity and revives the legacy of some of its protagonists in the domestic field. She is conducting NATURE-IN,1 a fascinating study that gains knowledge from some exemplary postwar-Danish and traditional-Japanese buildings – that contribute via rich multi-sensory stimulation to the connecting of their interior space with the surrounding nature – to inform us of a sustainable contemporary interior design practice. The main aim is to enhance the health and wellbeing of communities through daily interaction with nature in urban areas of EU and beyond. Funded by the European Commission, NATURE-IN opens a new phase in the Biophilic design’s implementation for built environments.
Päivi Tahkokallio
Päivi Tahkokallio is the Founder and CEO of Tahkokallio Design+, a strategic design agency operating from the Arctic north in Finland.
With her track record in strategic and social design Päivi has been called the Mother of Arctic Design, a design approach to support sustainable development of the Arctic, more topical than ever at the time when Europe has set an objective to become climate neutral by 2050. We know the Arctic is warming two times faster than the rest of the world, and design is an effective tool for transformation, be it environmental or social.
Päivi is the past President of BEDA, The Bureau of the European Design Associations with 53 members in 27 countries in Europe. As President Päivi was leading the design policy work in Europe, with climate change, digitalisation and values as key topics, especially relevant in BEDA’s input related to the New European Bauhaus initiative, an initiative with the strongest co-design approach in the European Commission’s history.
Päivi has acted as a jury member of international design competitions, with Compasso d’Oro, DesignEuropa, German Design Award, Taiwan International Student Design Awards, The One Show and Turkey Design Awards amongst them.
Päivi is Fellow of Royal Society of Arts in the UK, FRSA, and a Committee Member of Arctic Society of Finland.
Moderator: Vincent Lassalle
Vincent Lassalle leads the team focused on Expanding Agency in decarbonisation, one of the key leverages identified to propel societal transformations towards a fair, sustainable and joyful next era.
He has been a practitioner, a consultant, and a writer on the topic of organisational innovation and societal change for over a decade. Prior to joining Demos Helsinki, Vincent’s already international career focused on innovation and spanned most of its value chain, from research & development to growth management, with experiences in venture capital, entrepreneurship, large corporate and governmental change management.
He is the author of Bridge Builders: Learning from those ushering the future of society (2017), a personal essay following a year-long international study on post-industrial transition. Of dual Franco-New Zealander nationality, Vincent is based in Paris, France. He holds a Msc in Management from HEC – Paris and is an alumni of the Institut supérieur de l’aéronautique et de l’espace (ISAE-Supaero) in Toulouse and the National University of Singapore (NUS).