ANNI VARTOLA - FROM THE LAND OF ESKIMOS TO NOKIALAND: POSTMODERNISM IN FINNISH ARCHITECTURE
POST-ARCHITECTURE
The international image of the 20th-century Finnish architecture constantly omitted the post-1970s developments and the postmodern influences on the Finnish architectural discourse. Any attempt of new architectural expression was compared to the long and fruitful history of Finnish modernism and functionalism. Frequently, in the discourse of these discussions, the creative heritage by Alvaro Aalto was recalled, which was presented equally, as an example and an argument by the groups pursuing different artistic and aesthetic categories. The talk will reveal examples of Finnish postmodernism and offer a critical perspective to the reformation of Finnish architecture from the late 1960s to the early 1990s.
Dr. Anni Vartola is a Finnish architecture critic and scholar specialized in postmodernism and the late 20th-century Finnish architecture. Her articles appeared in many books, magazines and journals; she is a co-editor in chief of Nordic Journal of Architectural Research. Her current faculty position is at the Aalto University Department of Architecture and her main field of interest is in the historiography of late-modern Finnish architecture.
A book by a Slovenian architect, theorist and scholar is a seminal work that discusses the making of the prevailing image of modernist Finnish architecture. Ceferin examined a very specific area: how a group of architects and associated professionals set out to propagate an image of Finnish architecture abroad. Her case is the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the photography and exhibition policy at international exhibitions between 1957 and 1967. It was through these exhibitions, Ceferin suggests, that an identifiable image of “Finnish Architecture” was first created.
