Events

"This is not a door – absurd stories about the challenges of recycling building components" was the Building Extinction research project's distillation of how much unnecessary demolition and repair takes place in construction, and how many natural resources are wasted in the process, presented at the Designs for a Cooler Planet -exhibition, 5 September – 28 October 2025. Realized by Aalto University as part of Helsinki Design Week. The exhibition was seen by a wide range of visitors, from international guests to the presidential couple. Our own installation was noted, for example, in an article in Wallpaper.

Working group: Laura Berger, Netta Böök, Päivi Helander, Marko Huttunen, Juulia Mikkola, Panu Savolainen, Niklas Jensen-Eriksen, Saana Jukola, Katja Tikka, Kati Toivanen.
Marsio, Otakaari 2, 02150 Espoo

Niklas Jensen-Eriksen and Kati Toivanen took part in a seminar and presented their research on 11 June 2026 under the title "Building on waste: Recycling of construction materials in the 20th century Finland." 
University of Jyväskylä

Juulia Mikkola and Hannu Huttunen took part in a seminar and presented their research on 22 May 2026 under the title "From Living with the Land to Building Against It: Transformations in Sámi Architecture under Finnish Legal and Cultural Pressures." Klagenfurt, Austria

Laura Berger and Netta Böök organized the panel "11. The Flip Side of Demolition – Narratives of Construction under the Pressure of the Circular Economy" for the seminar and served as its chairs. Viola Schulman and Karita Rytivaara took part in the research days. 
Tampere University

Panu Savolainen and Laura Berger presented their research on 16 October 2025 under the title "The Conceptual History of the Suburb – From a Utopian Dream of the Future, through Problems, to Rehabilitation." 
University of Jyväskylä

Panu Savolainen and Laura Berger, as part of the Habitare event, gave a presentation on the theme stage titled "Finnish Architecture 1/3: A History of Demolition, Preservation, and Rediscovery." 
Messukeskus, Helsinki

Laura Berger, Netta Böök, and Panu Savolainen, presentation on 8 July 2025 (Track 6: Urban culture and lived heritage) under the title "Ghost plots – memory of empty urban spaces." 
Istanbul

Laura Berger, Netta Böök, as part of a conference, with a presentation titled "Built Heritage Amid Conflict – 3 Case Studies from Ceded Karelia." 
Tapiola, Espoo

Laura Berger and Netta Böök took part in a seminar, presenting on 16 May 2025 with "Like Migratory Birds – Stories of Relocated Terijoki Villas" in the session "Remembered and Imagined Layers of the Past and the Experience of the Urban Environment, Part 1."

Laura Berger and Netta Böök took part in a conference and presented on 13 February 2025 with "Moving villas. The case of Terijoki." 
University of Helsinki

The project and its members introduced themselves, and even though the project was just getting started, the hall was full! Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, Mariankatu 5A, Helsinki