Finnish architecture looks to China
snowballarchitecture.fi Snowball project, which boosts the export of Finnish architecture, is part of Finland’s cultural programme at Shanghai World EXPO.Finnish Association of Architects SAFA together with Finland at Shanghai EXPO 2010 has launched a series of Snowball-seminars, which look into the export potential of Finnish architecture.
The goal of the project is to generate a snowball effect, which combines expertise through bringing together a working group of professionals. At the same time the aim is to create cooperation between Finnish architects and Chinese operators.
Snowball seminars have been held this year already in Helsinki and Shanghai.
– The snowball has been set rolling and good signs of its progress are already evident. On ground of our meetings experts in the field agree on the possibilities that Finland and China can offer each other, architect Janne Pihlajaniemi emphasizes.
Bringing out the Finnish profile
According to preliminary research Arkex, which investigated the export potential of Finnish architecture, the export of architecture has for a long time relied on individual agencies. There are no specific statistics on the number of exports, but on the basis of information gathered from different sources only a small part of Finnish architect agencies export.
– In the last hundred years Finnish architecture has developed its own profile and it is at least worth exploring what kind of international demand there is for it. On global scale, from the viewpoint of general economic development, the World EXPO and architecture, China has the most significant potential
Pihlajaniemi highlights the “tailor-made” stance and the high level of commitment in each project as the strengths of Finnish architecture.
– Even in smaller projects we always seek to find insightful solutions that fit the site and its purpose.
Traditional Finnish operational culture gives great prerequisites also for being responsible for organizing major projects. According to Pihlajaniemi Finnish architects have the ability to negotiate and sign contracts, as well as looking after that they are followed through.
Although competition is tough, Pihlajaniemi sees a plenty of possibilities with China.
– A clear, unique role for Finnish agencies is there to be discovered. The fact that Finnish architecture is considered down to earth, gives a good starting point also for meeting global ecological challenges.
snowballarchitecture.fi
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