Learning event Talk and workshop
Architecture in the More-Than-Human World
Join Suomi/Koivisto Architects for a talk and workshop on how we can build while respecting other species.
Join us for a vibrant event inspired by our upcoming exhibition More than Human, bringing together art, science and radical thinking to ask how design can help our planet thrive by shifting its focus beyond human needs.
Buildings are never constructed on a blank site, even if it may seem so, but always into a complex web of entangled life. How can we build while simultaneously respecting all life?
Join Elina Koivisto and Maiju Suomi of Suomi/Koivisto Architects for a talk unpacking how their work creates enjoyable living environments for both humans and non-human beings. This will be followed by a workshop where we will slow down to listen and follow the movements of the more-than-human world. Who do we share this space with? What kinds of feelings and thoughts does this encounter raise?
Please note that the workshop will take participants outside the museum, into the Dame Sylvia Crowe Garden and Holland Park. Please let us know if you have access requirements or want further information. The workshop requires focused presence, so we kindly ask that participants join us on time.
Book Online
Adult:£5
Member: £5
Student/Concession: £5
Carer: Free
• Pre-booking is required as places are limited
• Individuals can purchase a maximum of 4 tickets.
• Suitable Age: 12 +. Children under 16 must be accompanied by a responsible, ticket-holding adult
• Assistance dogs are welcome
• Do you require BSL interpretation? Please note that your ticket must be purchased at least 1 month before the event to request a BSL interpreter. We won't be able to provide a BSL interpreter if the ticket is purchased less than a month before the event
Tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable. Visit our Terms & Conditions page for further information.
Guest speakers
Elina is an architect (MSc), educator and doctoral researcher. Her curiosity lies in the social, corporeal and environmental possibilities of the material realities of architecture. Her award-winning projects include KKYC Youth Centre, Cambodia (Komitu Architects) and Alusta Pavilion for Multispecies Encounters, Helsinki (Suomi/Koivisto Architects). In her practice-led doctoral research, she investigates how caring relations with architecture could be built together with human and non-human participation.
Maiju is an architect (MSc), a doctoral researcher and educator at Aalto University working in environmental architecture. Her practice and teaching bridge nature and culture by creating multisensory spatial experiences. Award-winning projects include KKYC Youth Centre in Cambodia, designed with Komitu Architects, and Alusta Pavilion for Multispecies Encounters in Finland (Suomi/Koivisto Architects). Her research explores how moving beyond a human-exceptionalist world-view affects architectural practice.
Suomi/Koivisto Architects aim to create enjoyable living environments for both humans and non-humans through their design, research, and pedagogical practice. Their project Alusta Pavilion for multispecies encounters (2022) is part of the Venice Biennale and the More Than Human exhibition at the Design Museum. It was awarded the prize for ecological architecture by the Finnish Association of Architects in 2024. In their doctoral research projects at Aalto University they bring practice-led research methods to architecture.
Sponsor
The Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland supports the internationalisation of Finnish and Finland-based artists, and researchers. As the leading expert on Finnish culture and society, the Institute enables societal change through art and culture, championing diverse perspectives and fostering a more inclusive cultural landscape for all. Founded in 1991, the Institute is a non-profit, private foundation funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.
The exhibition
Background image: Alusta Pavilion © Photo by Maiju Suomi
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