Press release: Professor Juhani Pallasmaa reflects on his thoughts from 30 years ago about animal architecture in the new Studio exhibition of the Museum of Finnish Architecture

The Museum of Finnish Architecture’s new studio exhibition An Exhibition Called Animal Architecture (1 Sep 2022 – 30 Oct 2022) revisits one of the museum’s most beloved exhibitions of all time almost 30 years later. What does Professor Juhani Pallasmaa now think about animal architecture?

In May 1995 an exhibition called Animal Architecture opened at the Museum of Finnish Architecture. The exhibition was designed by Professor Juhani Pallasmaa, together with a team of zoologists, and it was regarded worldwide as a unique collaboration.

The exhibition comprised a versatile presentation of the building skills of almost all classes of animal. The exhibition experience itself was also unique: the entire floor of the museum’s main hall was covered with soft sand and the light levels were set to resemble twilight, while the space was filled with the sounds of different animals.

The questions raised by the exhibition about the coexistence of man and other species are still painfully topical today: most animals are unable to adapt to the almost ubiquitous impact of human activity on the environment. The ever-diminishing living space of animals leads to an imbalance in nature. The irreversible destruction of animal habitats is one of the reasons for the acceleration of the extinction of species.

The Museum of Finnish Architecture’s studio exhibition opening in September, An Exhibition Called Animal Architecture, asks the designer of the original exhibition, Juhani Pallasmaa, about his current thoughts about animal architecture. In a video shown in the exhibition, Pallasmaa discusses these themes with Alonzo Heino, doctoral researcher in aesthetics at the University of Helsinki, who is familiar with the relationship between human skills, art, technology, and nature. In addition, visitors can view excerpts from the original Animal Architecture exhibition from 1995.

Currently open to visitors in the joint courtyard of the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum is the Alusta Pavilion, designed by Suomi/Koivisto architects, a space for multispecies organisms in an urban environment. The pavilion is both a platform for considering the possibilities of multispecies coexistence and a green oasis in the concrete jungle for different animal and other (living) species. You can find more information about the platform pavilion at this link.

Studio is a small, admission-free exhibition space located on the ground floor of the Museum of Finnish Architecture.

For more information and high resolution press images, please contact:

Ilona Hilden
Communications Planner
Museum of Finnish Architecture
+358 45 7731 0468
ilona.hilden@mfa.fi

Jutta Tynkkynen
Curator, Exhibitions
Museum of Finnish Architecture
+358 50 544 3256
jutta.tynkkynen@mfa.fi

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Press release published 9 Aug, 2022