How do we relate to care within the spaces we inhabit? What impact does collective action have on shaping these environments?

Finnish architects Iines Karkulahti, Charlotte Nyholm, and Meri Wiikinkoski of Vapaa Collective will explore the concept of care in public spaces and how it can be democratised and made more visible through collective action. 

Since 2019, Vapaa Collective has focused on care, examining maintenance, repair, and building lifespans. These themes align with contemporary architecture and design cultures highlighting the connections between ideas, values, people, and our material reality.

Vapaa Collective’s three-part project series will debut in Helsinki, Finland, followed by installations and a symposium in London during the London Festival of Architecture in collaboration with Garry Hunter and Suzanne Harb (Fitzrovia Noir), and a residency in New York during Archtober later this summer and autumn.

Read more about the architectural performances and symposium on our website.

This project is commissioned by the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland in partnership with the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and Consulate General of Finland in New York. The project is part of the pARTir initiative funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

Bio 

Vapaa is a creative collective that discusses the holistic societal disruption necessitated by the environmental crisis. Its focus is on human environments and the construction industry. The collective combines theoretical and design work into artistic practice to envision new kinds of regenerative environments. 

Vapaa Collective was founded in 2019 by architects Iines Karkulahti, Charlotte Nyholm and Meri Wiikinkoski, who design, write, lecture, curate and facilitate workshops on urban transformations.

Photo: Pyry Kantonen Photography