PROJECTS

We work on various projects ranging from architectural design and participatory workshops to artistic and research projects.

PRESS

11/2025 Finnish Architectural Review
The New Wave

6/2025 Archinfo
Finnish Architects in the Spotlight: Vokal

2/2025 Archinfo
Pavilion of Finland’s exhibition explores architecture as a collaborative endeavour through the iconic Aalto-designed Pavilion

3/2024 Archinfo
Young Finnish architects Ella Kaira and Matti Jänkälä to curate the Pavilion of Finland at the 2025 Biennale Architettura

3/2024 Withstanding Podcast
On Community Activism

1/2024 Archinfo
Residency work opens up new perspectives and opportunities to build international networks

12/2023 Finnish Cultural Institute in New York
Interview: Ella Kaira and Matti Jänkälä on the soft side of architecture

PUBLICATIONS
5/2025 Archinfo & Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing
Architecture of Stewardship

8/2024 Archinfo
Savouring slowness

5/2023 Finnish Architectural Review
Halting New Construction – Interview with Charlotte Malterre-Barthes

5/2023 Finnish Architectural Review
Revisit: Vuoranta Training Centre

2/2023 Finnish Architectural Review
The Local Community Heals

1/2023 Finnish Architectural Review
Social Movements, Saviors of Built Heritage?

GRASSROOTS CITY

What role do local communities play in urban development amid market-driven forces? How can communities act as active agents in response to climate-driven extreme weather events? These are some of the questions explored in Grassroots City, a two-year research and art project focused on the role of local communities in socially and ecologically sustainable urban development.
As climate change forces cities to adapt to rising sea levels and extreme weather, it is essential for city dwellers to be central in shaping climate-resilient urban spaces. The project aims to spark discussion on the resources and resilience of local communities in a changing world, examining the history, present, and future of community-based urban development. It also addresses the challenges and opportunities created by today’s urban dynamics, including the financialization and entrepreneurialization of real estate markets. The project is funded by the Arts Promotion Center.

You can study the results of the project (in Finnish) via this link↗

We mapped local knowledge of extreme weather events in a workshop titled “Let’s Talk About Weather”. The workshop was part of the Mellunmäki neighborhood celebration in May 2025 organized in collaboration with Mellunmäki-liike, Kalliolan Setlementti and ME-talo.

We took part in the communal day of work restoring a local stream in Mellunmäki. The work is lead by Virtavesien hoitoyhdistys Virho ry and an example of community stewardship of the environment.

Sarcelles, a satellite city (banlieue) of Paris

GRAND [ENSEMBLE] TOUR
Cité internationale des arts

We are working in the Cité internationale des arts residency in Paris from beginning of September to end of December 2025. During the residency we will study the modernist housing complexes les Grands Ensembles.
The Grand [Ensemble] Tour is an artistic research project where we document the lived experience of the modernist neighborhoods of Paris together with the local communities. The Grands Ensembles were built during the era known as the trente glorieuses. They symbolized development and ideals of housing for all. Due to lack of maintenance and short comings of social policy the neighborhoods have been stigmatized in the media. However, these narratives often do not represent the lived experience of the communities living in the neighorhoods.
In our reinterpretation of the traditional grand tour we will study the life in the Grands Ensembles using hand drawing. We will connect with local organizations and contact people, and with their help work with the local residents. Through drawing workshops we will empower the locals to tell their own stories of the life in these neighborhoods.
The project will culminate in an exhibition in a selected neighborhood where we will focus the most of our work. The project is funded by the Finnish Culture Fund and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.

We curated the exhibition of the Pavilion of Finland at the 2025 Venice Biennale Architettura.

THE PAVILION – ARCHITECTURE OF STEWARDSHIP
Architecture is often seen as the creation of the architect alone. However, architecture is a collaborative endeavour, drawing on diverse labour – from design contributions by architects and engineers to the efforts of construction workers, maintenance staff, cleaners, and restoration architects, all of whom play vital roles in the creation and upkeep of the built environment.
The exhibition traces the story of the Pavilion of Finland, designed by architect Alvar Aalto and his office, from its construction in 1956, through three major restorations and decades of continuous maintenance, to today. It delves into the labour required to ensure the longevity of architecture and positions the people involved in this work as co-creators alongside the original architect.
Through immersive multi-channel video projections and sound art, the exhibition brings to life the memories embedded within the pavilion’s walls. Through these stories, the exhibition invites visitors to see the space from new perspectives and uncovers aspects that are typically hidden.
Preserving built heritage depends on stewardship – a shared duty between architects and non-architects, requiring the negotiation of land, resources, and the built environment and considering the needs of humans and non-humans alike. The Pavilion – Architecture of Stewardship aspires to make the invisible visible.

Photo: Ugo Carmeni

The exhibition is comissioned & produced by Archinfo Finland
Curated by Ella Kaira & Matti Jänkälä
Video art by Merle Karp
Sound design by Jussi Hertz
Exhibition architecture by Antti Auvinen
Graphic design by Samuli Saarinen

Photo: Ugo Carmeni

Photo: Anna Rusi

THE PAVILION OF FINLAND IN PRESS
YLE Kulttuuriykkönen
Dezeen
The Guardian
NSS Magazine
Architecture Today
Stirworld
Designboom
Wallpaper
Archdaily
Rondine
World Architecture

Photo: Miina Jutila

ARCHITECTURE OF STEWARDSHIP

The exhibition is accompanied by an independent publication Architecture of Stewardship. By recounting the Pavilion’s history, this book illustrates that buildings are not static objects but dynamic processes influenced by human actions, global politics and non-human forces. The collection of essays offers perspectives on stewardship from Finnish and Italian contributors in academia, practice, and activism, and explores how people have stewarded land, resources, and communities throughout the Pavilion’s history and its Venetian context.

Editors and Authors
Ella Kaira & Matti Jänkälä

Contributors
Stefano Ferro, Lodovica Guarnieri, Jonas Malmberg, Ila Narjus, Essi Nisonen, Pietro Daniel Omodeo, Veronica Pecile, Sofie Pelsmakers, Margherita Scapin, Carolyn Smith, Gianni Talamini, Federica Toninello

Graphic Design
Samuli Saarinen

Published by
Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing in collaboration with Archinfo – Information Centre for Finnish Architecture

ISBN 978-91-89270-97-8

You can study the documentation of the project via this link ↗

GEOGRAPHY OF MEMORIES

Geography of Memories is an art and research project where together with local residents we gathered memories and the intangible values embedded in the neighborhood of Meri-Rastila. As the area undergoes significant changes due to urban renewal, major buildings—from schools to the local mall—are being demolished to make way for new constructions.
Through our approach, we aimed to inspire a new way of observing the built environment—not just through abstract maps and planners’ drawings, but through the personal significance places and spaces hold in people’s lives. The project invited us to engage with the history of map-making and reflect on the power that the lines drawn by architects carry. Even if the demolition driven by urban renewal cannot be halted, we can preserve the memories embedded in the built environment and the silent knowledge held by the area’s residents.
The results of the Geography of Memories project were exhibited in Culture Space Merirasti in August 2025. The site specific exhibition adopted its form from the former chapel hall. On the wall of, in the place of the altarpiece, hung a memory map that compiled information about the memories of Meri-Rastila: past and present significant places for which locals have struggled. The altar table was covered by fourteen stacks of A4-papers. The A4 represents the systems of standardization that guide our daily lives and aim to enact control over the human experience. The stacks of paper symbolized the myriad of surveys conducted of Meri-Rastila, and comprised the final publication of the project in the form of a deconstructed book that aimed to showcase what surveys conducted of the social life of neighborhoods could look like.
The project is funded by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation and the City of Helsinki.

MERIRASTI MULTIFUNCTIONAL BUILDING COMPETITION

In the spring of 2024, we collaborated with landscape architect Kaisla Rahkola on an architectural competition for a new multipurpose building in East Helsinki’s Meri-Rastila neighborhood. The project aimed to integrate a school, daycare center, and youth center while balancing new construction with the thoughtful reuse of existing structures.
With support from FEMMA Planning, we held workshops with residents and school staff to assess the strengths and challenges of the current buildings. These sessions helped envision how the new complex could best serve its users.
Our proposal focused on preserving the site’s existing buildings, connecting them with extensions while demolishing only the janitor’s house for new functions.
The yard design honored natural features, preserving trees, the forest floor, and open rock areas while repurposing playground equipment. Rooftop play spaces, a public path from Fokkatori to Haruspuisto, and a rooftop garden enhanced community access.

MERI-RASTILA COLLAGE WORKSHOP

Design practice Raivio&Bumann commissioned us to facilitate a participatory workshop for children and young people as part of their placemaking project in Meri-Rastila, East Helsinki. We invited the local youth to imagine their dream neighborhood through collages.
The participants explored the cityscape with a focus on play, socializing with friends, and self-expression. Through the anecdotes shared during the workshop, we gained valuable insights into how the youth perceive their neighborhood.
We discovered that places for play can be found in the most unexpected spots: at the locally famous climbing tree, in the breeze from an AC unit on the side of the local mall, or at the cliffs where friends gather to meet up.
Raivio&Bumann gathered and synthesized the findings from the workshop, using them as valuable insights to inform city planning in the area. The workshop was part of the Meri-Rastila block party, and the finished collages were exhibited at the local cultural center, Merirasti.

Local youth shared their insights into the best places to play and hang out in the neighborhood as part of our workshop in the Meri-Rastila Block Party.

FROM THE GROUND UP

In November 2023, we relocated to New York for the Finnish Cultural Institute’s architecture residency. During our time there, we explored the intersection of climate change and social movements, focusing on how communities adapt to climate change by occupying and appropriating their environment.
The residency culminated in the exhibition and workshop, “Reclaim the Triangle,” where we shared insights from our exploration of community-based practices in New York City’s climate adaptation. Participants were invited to envision ways to reshape their surroundings, drawing inspiration from community-led initiatives such as community-based organizations, community gardens, and landmarks like Cooper Square, home to New York’s first community land trust.

Harlem Grown community garden introducing their aquaphonic vegetable farming.

CLIMATE GAME

First piloted in the FCINY residency in New York, the climate game is an ongoing participatory method that we use to collect and share insights about community resilience in our contemporary cities facing the effects of climate change.