At Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, the Finnish Pavilion presents the New Standards exhibition
The Finnish Pavilion is a historic presence in the Gardens of Venice Biennale. Designed by Alvar Aalto for Venice Biennale 1956, it is currently a landmark in Venice’s artistic landscape. On the occasion of Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, the Finnish Pavilion hosts the exhibition New Standards, dedicated to a project of prefabricated wooden homes that set a new standard in the field of low cost and low environmental impact homes. The exhibition, commissioned by Archinfo Finland, was designed by the team of three curators linked to the Aalto University: Laura Berger, Philip Tidwell and Kristo Vesikansa.
The New Standards exhibition presents the project of the new prefabricated houses by Puutalo Oy (Timber Houses Ltd.), a consortium established in 1940 by 21 Finnish builders specialized in timber. To tackle the crisis caused by World War II, Puutalo Oy designed prefabricated wooden houses, which, in ten years, made it one of the leading manufacturers of prefabricated timber houses in the world.
Discover the British Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2021
Discover the Swiss Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2021
“A crisis can be a catalyst for innovation and bring different actors together to create something good. These homes with ingenious spatial distribution, practical domestic innovations and simple structural principles were designed to raise living standards and built to last. Many of them are still inhabited today, and we would like to show how these modest houses have been adapted to a variety of locations and traditions as well as to the changing needs of multiple generations and occupants,” explained Laura Berger, one of the curators.
The prefabricated homes by Puutalo Oy as an example of low environmental impact architecture
The exhibition includes archive drawings, photographs and advertisements, illustrating the history of these prefabricated homes built from the early forties to the mid-fifties. In this way, it is possible to see the modifications that buildings underwent to adapt to different climates and cultural contexts. The photographs by Juuso Westerlund document today’s Puutalo houses and the different customizations carried out over the decades.
Puutalo Oy homes were designed by some of the most important Finnish architects of that time. Their innovative character contributed to the rise in living standards across the world.
Katarina Siltavuori, Director of Archinfo Finland and Commissioner of the Finnish Pavilion, said: “Finland’s experience of this standardized housing is of a low-impact, long-lasting, sustainable and well-loved solution that emerged in response to a wartime crisis and went on to define an entire era of Finnish domestic architecture. It offers the world an example of mass-produced housing that is an alternative to grand projects, demonstrating how individual identity can be celebrated in the context of standardisation, as well as a validation that design can improve people’s lives.” [Txt: Arianna Callocchia, Ph: Ugo Carmeni]
Discover the British Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2021
Discover the Swiss Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2021
