The International Alvar Aalto Café
The future is about humanising architecture and design. It is about building communities of designers and storytellers, builders and makers. It is a matter of putting the user and the resident in control. The future is about bottom-up rather than top-down. It is about engaging, empowering, enabling, empathising and emancipating. It is about networking and partnering – sharing and learning. Above all, the future is human to human. It is innovative, inspiring, interactive and inclusive. It is not only for the self – we expect the architecture and design of the future to also create social value. It is not about buildings and products – it is all about people.The International Alvar Aalto Café is taking part in the conversation about the expectations of humane architecture. Architects and designers from all over the world will gather to discuss the multiple ways in which humanism is taking over architecture and bringing it closer to the individual by responding to the needs of different communities. The Alvar Aalto Café focuses on exploring the ways in which humane architecture can bring people together and reflect the change in the social environment. The question is no longer “how to design a good product”. The question is “how to design a good future”.
Saturday 30 August 2014
Venue: Jyväskylä Workers´ club (designed by Alvar Aalto 1925) Väinönkatu 7
Registration, Café opens
Esa Laaksonen Opening
Marco Brizzi California State University and Image, Italy
Lunch break
Esa Vesmanen Pure Design, Finland
Luisa Collina Cumulus Association and Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy
Klaas Hofman MVRDV Architects, The Netherlands
Interviews / Anne Stenros & Esa Laaksonen
End of day one
Reception at the Alvar Aalto Museum, Alvar Aallon katu 7, Jyväskylä
"W.W.W." Alvar Aalto Library in Vyborg exhibition presentation
Sunday 31 August 2014
Venue: Jyväskylä Workers´ club (designed by Alvar Aalto 1925) Väinönkatu 7
Doors open
Rachel Smith BMW Guggenheim Lab, New York, Berlin & Mumbai, Australia
Sanford Kwinter Harvard University, USA
End of the open lecture sessions
interviews and ending words
The organiser reserve the right to alter the programme.
Speakers
Marco Brizzi
Italy
California State University and Image
www.image-web.org
Marco Brizzi, PhD, is an architecture critic and curator. He is currently teaching architectural design at California State University in Florence, California, and Architecture and Media at Kent State University in Florence, California. He is a founder and president of Image and he curates BEYOND MEDIA, an international festival of architecture and media. He is also a director of ARCH’IT online architectural magazine, founded in 1995, which is one of the most widely read Italian digital magazines on architecture.
Luisa Collina
Italy
Cumulus Association and Polytechnic University of Milan
www.design.polimi.it
Luisa Collina, president of the Cumulus International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media, graduated in architecture in 1993 and gained her PhD in technical innovation and architecture in 1998 at Politecnico di Milano, where she is currently working as a professor of architecture. In 2007, she became a member of the Cumulus Executive Board, specialising in sustainability. Since 2000, she has also been in charge of the international relations and projects of the School of Design, and of the INDACO Department at Polytechnic University of Milan. Her main interests involve strategic design and design-driven innovation, with a particular focus on the field of interior design.
Klaas Hofman
The Netherlands
MVRDV Architects
www.mvrdv.nl
Klaas Hofman, architect and urban designer, graduated in 2002 from Delft University of Technology and is nowadays a part of the MVRDV group. He has worked on MVRDV projects such as the Syke Synergy Environmental Institute in Helsinki, Finland, and the Almere Floriade 2022 city extension for the municipality of Almere, Netherlands. The research-based approach of MVRDV drives spatial innovation in the fields of architecture, urbanism and landscape design, with a strong focus on the social and environmental integration and impact of buildings. The focus of MVRDV is sustainability and the increasing effect of urbanisation in our everyday life. This combines quality of life for the residents and added value for the growing cities.
Sanford Kwinter
USA
Harvard University
www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/people/sanford-kwinter.html
Sanford Kwinter is professor of architectural theory and criticism at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is a writer and editor who holds a PhD in comparative literature from Columbia University. He has taught at MIT, Columbia and Rice universities, as well as at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt, the Architectural Association in London, and the University of Applied Arts Vienna. He was co-founder and editor of the journal ZONE and of Zone Books for 20 years.
Rachel Smith
Australia
BMW Guggenheim Lab and AECOM
www.aecom.com
Rachel Smith is a principal transport planner and blogger at AECOM, based in Brisbane, Australia. Named by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation as an ‘emerging international talent’ and described by News Limited as ‘one of Australia’s brightest thinkers on the perpetual challenge of urban planning,’ Rachel builds and helps implement programs to improve road safety and reduce car use without spending extra money. One of her utmost goals is to reduce car traffic. She is also the president and co-founder of Lazy Sunday Cycle Incorporated a non-profit association.
Esa Vesmanen
Finland
Pure Design
www.puredesign.fi
Esa Vesmanen is an interior architect and product designer based in Helsinki, Finland. He graduated from the Aalto University in Helsinki, pursuing his studies both there and at the ENSCI–Les Ateliers French National School for Advanced Studies in Design in Paris. He did post-graduate research at the Future Home Institute at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.
An avid sailor, Vesmanen is fascinated by the subtle changes in the natural environment and how these can help us discover beauty, bring us together, and make us feel alive. His studio, Pure Design Finland, creates products, exhibition designs and interiors that blur the boundaries between art and architecture, to highlight life's subtle experiential qualities. Vesmanen is best known for his unusual exhibition designs, sustainable interiors and experimental furnishings, which are regularly featured in some of the world's most prestigious museums and cultural expositions.
Alvar Aalto Meeting 2011 High-Rise Shuffle.
Marco Brizzi
Alvar Aalto Meeting 2011 High-Rise Shuffle.
Luisa Collina
Alvar Aalto Meeting 2011 High-Rise Shuffle.
Alvar Aalto Meeting 2011 High-Rise Shuffle.
Alvar Aalto Meeting 2011 High-Rise Shuffle.
Rachel Smith
Alvar Aalto Meeting 2011 High-Rise Shuffle.
