Young Finnish architects Ella Kaira and Matti Jänkälä have been announced as the curators of the Finland Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. 

Seleted from a total of 45 open call entries, Ella Kaira and Matti Jänkälä's exhibition concept will aim to tackle with the care and maintenance of modern architecture from a new perspective.

Helsinki-based architecture studio Vokal founders Ella Kaira and Matti Jänkälä will start working with Archinfo, the Information Centre for Finnish Architecture, towards the May 2025 opening of the exhibition at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of Venice Architecture Biennale.

The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale will be curated by Italian architect and engineer Carlo Ratti, who is teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and at the Politecnico di Milano. 

The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of Venice Architecture Biennale will take place from 25 May to Sunday 23 November in 2025. 

For the Finnish Pavilion 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. 

"The theme of the chosen exhibition concept, the preservation of modern architecture, is most topical. Since the Biennale is a significant platform for international discourse, we were looking for an exhibition idea that is relevant to the Finnish architectural field but also resonates internationally," Katarina Siltavuori, Director of Archinfo and Commissioner of the exhibition.

"The chosen exhibition idea has the potential to open up new perspectives here at home, too," Siltavuori added. 

Vokal specialises in community-based design, and Jänkälä and Kaira are particularly interested in modern architectural heritage and its preservation. 

The architects 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.

"Our joint practice, Vokal, examines the forces that drive urban development, ranging from the real estate market to social movements, by employing methods of storytelling, art, and research. We are particularly interested in the role of local knowledge in preserving modern built heritage," said Ella Kaira.

Internationality comes naturally to the young Finnish architects, as both the Aalto University alumni have also studied abroad, Jänkälä at ETH Zurich and Kaira at École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville. 

At the end of last year, they were Artists in Residence at the Finnish Institute in New York. The Biennale platform in Venice is not alien to them either, but working on such a large-scale exhibition production is a new challenge.

Finland Pavilion September, 2021. Photography © Miina Jutila / Archinfo

"This is a big step for us, and we are delighted to have been chosen as curators. However, exhibitions – like architecture – are not done alone, and we look forward to working together with professionals from different disciplines and the Archinfo team," said Matti Jänkälä.

"Ella and I are particularly interested in these issues of collective authorship," Jänkälä.

Opened from December 2023 to February 2024, the call for submissions attracted 45 proposals worldwide. The selection panel shortlisted five exhibition concepts for further consideration, and the authors were invited to present their ideas. The panel included architect Pia Ilonen (FI), Professor Sofie Pelsmakers (BE/UK) and Aura Seikkula (FI), Doctor of Philosophy and Curator. The panel was chaired by Katarina Siltavuori.

The selection panel appraised the themes raised by all shortlisted concepts to be significant. "Many proposals were inspirational in how they challenged the status quo of how we tend to see architecture and the architect’s role in a time of climate and biodiversity crisis. The winning curator proposal uniquely makes visible and intends to communicate issues of climate and social justice in the making and caring of our built environment," said Sofie Pelsmakers who Chairs the Sustainable Housing Design research group at Tampere University in Finland.

The Venice Architecture Biennale's exhibition theme for 2025 is expected to be announced in May 2024.

Top image: Finland Curators Ella Kaira and Matti Jänkälä. Photography © Miina Jutila / Archinfo.

> via Archinfo

pavilion Venice Architecture Biennale