Reflecting on the Past Year to Welcome the New Year 2023
After an eventful year with a broad range of projects of different scales and types, it is again time to reflect on the past year and direct our thoughts towards the future to welcome the new year. This is a time to say thanks to our amazing team for their hard work and to our wonderful collaborators with whom we have been able to accomplish a lot together. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to all of you!
A Year of Recognition and Awards
During this year, many of our recent projects have been recognized with important international awards, including the Tikkurila Church and Housing and the Karlsson Housing winning the PLAN Awards 2022 in their respective categories, and the Villa B winning the World Architecture Award 2022 for houses and villas. The Tikkurila Church and Housing was also selected among the 40 shortlisted buildings for the EU Mies Award 2022, and it is now included in the internationally touring exhibition presenting the best new architecture in Europe.
Embarking on New Projects and Continuing with Current Ones
We have also had a exciting pleasure to embark on many new projects, both big and small, from the development of entire city districts, like the Seinäjoki Station Area, to educational buildings, like the new main building for the Järvenpää Professional Training campus, and housing in Helsinki, Jyväskylä, among others, to exhibition spaces for the arts, like the Konsthall Tornedalen, and pavilions for events, like the Kontra Pavilion on the Central Square in Seinäjoki. We have also had the chance to participate in competitions, both internationally and in Finland.
During this year, one of the biggest highlights for us has been the restoration of the Rauhalinna Castle in Savonlinna with new buildings added to complement the main building with its extraordinary wood architecture from 1900. We are looking forward to working on the final touches to complete the project in 2023.
Sharing Our Work
2022 has also given us inspiring opportunities for sharing some of our past projects both in publications as well as in lectures. The web-based tool, the JOKOTAI Material Impact Screener was presented at a seminar focused on the challenges and opportunities related to calculating the carbon footprint and making a Life Cycle Analysis of buildings when they still are on the drawing board. Learnings from our work with building with wood were shared on numerous conferences and panel discussions during the year, for example at the New European Bauhaus seminar Into the Woods, at the 11th Wood Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, and at the National Convention on Wood Construction in Rauma.
Publications to Reflect on Old and New Projects
Publications presenting our work from a few years back, like the RUM Magazine feature on the Puuhi Community House, the Casas en Finlandia publication of the House Riihi, and the Signature Magazine piece on the Lonna Sauna invited us to reflect on our past projects. Writing an article on spiritual spaces for the Roca Gallery and the publication of the Sauna Tonttu in a book focused on saunas and wellbeing allowed us to highlight the role of buildings in creating spaces that elevate the experience of our daily lives.
The book Share: Conversations about Contemporary Architecture gave us a chance to reflect on our way of making architecture in a broader perspective. Our work was featured also in many magazines and printed publications, like the Braun book on Contemporary Architecture: Masterpieces from Around the World, Arkkitehdit Vantaalla, a book on architects in Vantaa, ARK, the Finnish Review of Architecture, ArchDaily, Arquine, Domusweb, ESTAV, Flooornature, Gooood, Modern Decoration, Moool, Octogon, Outsider Magazine, and STIR, among others.
Welcoming New Members to the Team
During the year, we have had the pleasure of welcoming Annamari Haapsaari and Ella Pitkäkoski as new members to our design team in Seinäjoki. Isaac Edmonds has joined our team in Helsinki along with Vilja Halonen. In the fall season, there were some changes in the Helsinki office as two long term members of the team, Iida Hedberg and Katharina Heidkamp went on family leave. Markus Keisala relocated from the Seinäjoki office to Helsinki, and Tuuli Tuohikumpu takes care of the responsibilities of the team leader while Iida is away.
Wishing you all happy New Year, we look forward to continuing the collaboration with you in the coming year 2023!