Garden Futures: Designing with Nature

Garden Futures: Designing with Nature is the first collaborative exhibition between the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum on their journey towards a new architecture and design museum. It will sprawl across both museums, taking over the exhibition spaces on Kasarmikatu and Korkeavuorenkatu from November 10, 2023. 

The exhibition is divided into two museum buildings, both of which can be visited with one ticket on the same day. You can start your visit and purchase the ticket from either museum. Weekly guided tours are organized for the exhibition in both the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum.

Approaching gardens through architecture, design, and art, Garden Futures: Designing with Nature is a touring exhibition by Vitra Design Museum, the Wüstenrot Foundation, and the Nieuwe Instituut, with Helsinki being its first stop.

The Garden Futures exhibition demonstrates that even private gardens are interconnected with society in various ways. The ongoing transformation invites us to view gardens from a different perspective: rather than as romantic escapes, they are now examined through activism, social justice, and biodiversity. The exhibition highlights, for example, how many of the familiar plants in Western gardens have deep roots in colonialism.  

The exhibition showcases not only design and landscape architecture related to gardens but also artworks that explore the concept of gardens. Local examples and projects support the international perspective of the touring exhibition.  

Garden Futures: Designing with Nature  

An exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum, the Wüstenrot Foundation, and the Nieuwe Instituut. 
At the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum from November 10, 2023 to March 31, 2024.  

Curated by:  
Vitra Design Museum: Viviane Stappmanns, Nina Steinmüller  
The Nieuwe Instituut:: Marten Kuijpers, Maria Heinrich  

Curatorial team in Finland:  
Architecture Museum and Design Museum: Anna Autio, Ksenia Kaverina, and Harry Kivilinna  

Exhibition texts

You can study the Garden Futures: Designing with Nature exhibition texts from both buildings before your visit, read them while moving around the exhibition space, or return to the texts again after visiting the museum. Read exhibition texts

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Thanks to: Empirica Research Group / Aalto University, Grano, Tikkurila, Versowood, VM-Carpet