Reflecting back on 2025 – Looking forward to 2026
After a busy year of hard work, the holiday time brings a welcome moment to pause and wind down before welcoming the new year. Reflecting on the past year and on everything we have accomplished together, this is a time to say thanks to all of our clients, collaborators and to the members of our team. Thank you for your commitment and dedication!
A Time of Transformation and Adaptation
The themes of transformation and adaptation have been a central focus for us in 2025. In a broader perspective, this time is one of growing awareness of the impacts of climate change. It calls us as architects to acknowledge our role in shaping the built environment of a future that will unfold in the decades to come.
It prompts us to use our capacity for creative thinking to envision what the future may look like. We must ask ourselves how the structures of the built environment may support everyday life in the transformation towards ways of living that are less draining on the earth’s resources than the one that has brought us to this point. The fact that this coincides with a prolonged economic downturn makes the challenge of living up to the expectations placed on architecture even more pressing.
Now is a time for reflection and for finding ways to draw from the experience of the past to envision the potential of something new in the future. We need to create solutions that are possible to implement today. In a time like this, collaboration and working together are more valuable than ever before. Through sharing knowledge and inspiring each other, we can device new solutions to address the challenges we are faced with today.
New Frameworks for Collaboration
During the year we have engaged with the themes of transformation and adaptation in many ways. In practical terms, we have pursued new frameworks for collaboration and the exchange of ideas by moving our Helsinki office to a new location in another part of town. In the new premises we share the space with an inspiring group of architects and landscape architects.
The new location has also given us a new perspective into the dynamics of change in the city. The new premises are situated in a former industrial part of town that has gradually been transformed into a vibrant cluster of creative activity and educational facilities over the past decades.
Strengthening the City
In Seinäjoki, the completion and taking into use of the block around the Station in stages during the year has been an important milestone for us. The block brings together a multiplicity of services that are essential to people’s everyday life: a train station and transport hub with its parking facilities for both cars and bicycles, a wellbeing center and a center for family services, retail facilities, offices and apartments in the heart of town.
In its architecture, the block is an example of how we can draw from an understanding of the history of architecture and create new adaptations of historical themes by applying the grammar of scale into today’s context to respond to the needs of our time. In the station complex, a human scale is achieved by breaking the relatively large volume of the multifunctional block into smaller parts each with their distinct character.
The Family Center started its operations in February. As the final part of the project, the platforms of the train station itself were completed during the fall. With the goal of strengthening the city, the block marks the first phase in the transformation and development of the area around the station in downtown Seinäjoki.
Engaging with Audiences beyond Finland
The year has also offered ample opportunities to engage with collaborators and audiences beyond Finland. Our approach to creating structures that engage urban waterfront areas to enliven them as part of the public space in the city was featured in the Japanese a+u Magazine in February. Our work on saunas was published in March in the New York Times Magazine in an article on how saunas may improve society. As a recognition of our work on buildings for education, the Lastu Education Building was nominated for the EU Mies Awards 2026. The publication by Birkhauser on Tall Wood Buildings featuring Puukuokka was published in an updated version in its third edition.
Speaking about the potential of wooden structures in architecture today, Anssi Lassila participated in an international seminar on Timber Architecture Now at Aalto University in May. He also shared his thinking on architecture for wellbeing at an all-day summit organized as part of the Nordic Circle program at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan in October.
New Initiatives and Ongoing Projects
In addition to new initiatives, such as the plan for the Bridge Blocks in Jyväskylä, we worked on many ongoing projects developing them further during the year. Konsthall Tornedalen, a project that has been on the drawing board for a long time, is now ready for the start of construction in the beginning of the coming year.
We developed our concept for floating structures further through application studies for various sites both in Europe and in Asia. It has been rewarding to work on new solutions to address the needs of the future development of urban areas and neighborhoods to create lively and comfortable places for people to live in. We are looking forward to continuing to work on them together with our clients and collaborators in the coming year.
We want to express our heartfelt thanks to all our clients, collaborators, and to all the members of our team. It has been great to work together with all of you during this year.
Wishing you all a peaceful holiday time and all the best for the coming year 2026!