Friday 6 July, 6–9 pm
The White Building,
Unit 7, Queen’s Yard,
White Post Lane
Hackney Wick,
London, E9 5EN
To coincide with the London Festival of Architecture, the Finnish Institute in London is delighted to announce the second event in a series of four design discussions titled HEL/LO – Let’s Talk About Games.
The urban fabric of the city is increasingly governed by rules surrounding security, ownership and surveillance. Citizens in both Helsinki and London have been left uncertain about the ways in which the public can occupy and use seemingly public space. From utopian visions to playful interventions, HEL/LO 2 has invited speakers who are working to develop creative systems, strategies and designs that aim to alter public spaces and the way we inhabit them. Speakers include Helsinki-based Martti Kalliala, an architect and writer specialising in urbanism and cultural analysis, and YKON, a collective made of artists, designers, game developers and art historians along with UK participants Public Works, a London-based, artist and architect collective and award-winning architectural practice Studio Weave.
“Games and the processes that constitute the building and existence of a city are not only analogous but, in fact, share similar structures and organising principles – even if, or maybe exactly because, both ‘city’ and ‘game’ are concepts without widely agreed-upon, unambiguous definitions. Yet, if a city is literally interpreted as a game-like process, the most important thing in order to be able to affect any meaningful change is, in addition to identifying the players, to understand their rewards and aspirations”, says Martti Kalliala who has recently published the book Solution 239–246, Finland: The Welfare Game (Sternberg Press).
HEL/LO – Let’s Talk About Games is organised as part of the London Festival of Architecture and will be held at the White Building, an exciting new canal-side Olympic-edge cultural venue, run by SPACE and designed by David Kohn Architects. Launched in May 2012, the HEL/LO series brings together architecture and design professionals from London and Helsinki. The series continues in September with the third HEL/LO event in Helsinki during Helsinki Design Week and concluding with the fourth in London during the London Design Festival.
The HEL/LO series is organised in collaboration with Blueprint magazine, and is one of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 international satellite events.
HEL/LO 2 is part of the British Council’s International Architecture and Design Showcase 2012?(21 June – 23 September); a global gathering of cultural projects that investigate architecture and design from across the world, presented for the London 2012 Festival.
The event is free but booking is essential as places are limited.
Notes on speakers:
MARTTI KALLIALA (FI)
Martti Kalliala is a Helsinki-based architect and founder of the design and research studio Pro Toto, focusing on architecture, urbanism, strategic design and cultural analysis. Kalliala recently edited and co-authored the book Solution 239-246, Finland: The Welfare Game, published by Sternberg Press. The volume puts forth a series of spatial, economic, social and cultural projects for tackling Finland’s quandaries. Kalliala’s work has been exhibited internationally at the Moscow and Shenzhen architectural biennales, and has received numerous awards and prizes, including a high commendation in the AR Emerging Architecture Awards and a nomination for the Scandinavian Forum Prize. He also comprises half of electronic music duos Renaissance Man and Heat Death.?http://pro-toto.eu
YKON (FI/DE)
YKON is a Helsinki-based not-for-profit organisation whose members include artists, designers, game developers and art historians who share a deep interest in current utopian thought and practice. Since 2005, YKON has worked on themes such as micro nations, social architecture, alternative economies, scenario developments, participatory processes, mapping and game design. In May-June 2012, YKON are the first international residents at the White Building, London, as part of the Permacultures residency programme at SPACE. During its residency, YKON has been working on the YKON game, a tool for utopian envisioning within a playful setting. The game was developed in 2009 and is inspired by architect and utopian thinker Buckminster Fuller’s World Game. YKON is: Ulu Braun, Tellervo Kalleinen, Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Pekko Koskinen, Christina Kral and Tomas Träskman. ?www.ykon.org
PUBLIC WORKS (UK)
In 2004 Public Works became the name for a group of architects and artists who had been collaborating in different constellations since 1999. The common denominator for a shared practice was an interest in making socially inclusive public realm, be it art or architecture. Public works designs temporary or permanent mobile structures roaming public space to reveal the meanings hidden within the public realm, grounded in its locality, its community and its potential future function and program. Their projects implement innovation and participation as part of a methodology towards cultural, social and spatial production within the city and its rural context, where local stakeholders take ownership and authorship.?www.publicworksgroup.net
STUDIO WEAVE (UK)
Studio Weave is an award-winning emerging architecture practice profiled as one of “Britain’s Brightest Young Architects”. The studio’s work encompasses an extremely diverse range of projects from furniture and art projects, to buildings, landscapes and urban design. Since setting up in 2006 Studio Weave has delivered a number of award-winning projects including ‘The Longest Bench’, a £475k seafront regeneration scheme in Littlehampton, West Sussex; ‘Freya and Robin’, two allegorical pavilions peering over the water as part of the Kielder Art and Architecture Programme, Northumberland; and the ‘Floating Cinema’, a project for the Olympic Delivery Authority to transform a canal boat into a travelling host for film screenings.?www.studioweave.com
HEL/LO 2 is kindly supported by CrestJMT Leather
CrestJMT Leather is a global producer of high quality leathers, delivering the largest and most comprehensive upholstery leather collection available in the UK.
They have just launched their latest collection of upholstery leathers: Collection 3. The new collection combines careful selection of raw materials to produce six great value ranges, each with their own unique look and characteristics to give customers a far greater choice of quality.
It is ideal for customers who are looking for high quality, great value, hard-wearing leathers that are perfect for many types of applications and complements perfectly Collections 1 and 2 which are suitable for a variety of applications, including domestic, commercial and marine.
