Annual Rings

Finland prides itself on its long-established woodworking tradition and widespread appreciation for quality craftsmanship, but the last twenty years have seen particularly remarkable development in Finnish wood construction. Since 1994, the government and the wood building industry have invested strongly in research, development, and education related to wood architecture and construction. The Finnish Wood Award, inaugurated in 1994, has been awarded 16 times and educational programs devoted to wood architecture now receive widespread recognition. Alongside these efforts, and with some help from them, wood architecture in Finland has again become vital and recognized throughout the world.

The exhibition, co-produced by the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Aalto University Wood Program, tells the story of Finnish wood architecture over the past two decades. The exhibition includes 14 projects of varying scales: churches, chapels, cultural buildings, pavilions, a research center, and the country’s first wooden multi-story apartment building completed last year. Some of the structures have been only temporary, but most buildings still stand today.

The included projects have been selected not only for their architectural quality, but also for the experimental nature of their execution. The buildings, many of them results of public competitions, also speak to the important role that wood plays in Finnish art and culture.