Hope from Wood

large exhibition hall

Toivoa puusta -näyttelyn tunnuskuva

From March onwards:
Open guided tours on Saturdays in English 1 p.m. and in Finnish 2 p.m.
Museum admission fee €10/5/0

The Museum of Finnish Architecture’s main exhibition this autumn and winter, Hope from Wood, looks at wooden architecture from the perspective of the hope it inspires. The multi-voiced and multi-faceted exhibition covers a time span extending from the early achievements of wood construction to the architecture of the future produced by artificial intelligence. It brings together an interesting group of contributors addressing the exhibition theme in the form of, for instance, love letters, videos and music.

In the era of climate crisis, much is expected from wood. One building material hardly solves all the challenges of building construction, but it is the spark that hopefully ignites a debate about major change. The exhibition highlights how architects, as well as the entire construction industry, can have a say in what kind of future we are heading for.

Hope from Wood has been curated by cultural journalist Minna Joenniemi.

Participants in the production of the exhibition:

Aalto University Wood Program students 2020–2021. Mikko Aaltonen. Tytti Arola. Antti Auvinen. Finnish Architects Declare Climate and Biodiversity Emergency, Netta Böök. Gretel Hemgård. Reetta Karhunkorva ja Johanna Lehto-Vahtera, Finnish Forest Museum Lusto. Riikka Karjalainen,Re-thinking Urban Housing project. Tommi Kinnunen. Matti Johannes Koivu. Olavi Koponen. Olli-Paavo Koponen. Teemu Kurkela. Pia Kuurma and Pelastetaan vanhat talot! [Saving Old Houses] Facebook Group. Marko Lamberg, Human, Time, Landscape Project. Anssi Lassila. Lars-Erik Mattila. Anne Mustarastas ja Saara Salmi. Joar Nango. Petter Nissinen. Tuula Närhinen. Juhani Pallasmaa. Sofie Pelsmakers. Janne Pihlajaniemi and Architecture students at the University of Oulu. Classes 5A and 5B of the Pudasjärvi Log Campus. Muistot eivät pala [Memories do not burn] choir drama, Virpi Suutari. Renovation Centre Toivo. Wood for Good research group. 

The exhibition has been implemented with the support of the Ministry of the Environment’s Wood Building Programme.

Themes of the Exhibition

“Our relationship with wood is ancient. Many different kinds of hope have been stored in wood over the centuries. I find this hugely inspiring. As a curator, I am interested in what this hope has been like at different times. Whose hope is it? What kind of fears lie behind hope? Hope from Wood is an extensive and multi-sensory exhibition. It invites us on a journey, where the past, present and future of wood construction overlap in a polyphonic way,” says Minna Joenniemi, the curator of the exhibition

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