Maiju Suomi
Biography
Maiju Suomi (M.Sc.) and Elina Koivisto (M.Sc.) are architects and doctoral researchers at Aalto ARTS. Through their practice and research they explore and strech the boundaries of architecture. They create enjoyable living environments for both humans and non human beings and study societal questions and values through multisensory spatial experiences. In her practice-led research in the Empirica Research Group at the Department of Design, Maiju Suomi exploers how moving beyond a human-centered world-view affects architectural practice. Elina Koivisto in her practice-led research at AREA Doctoral School and Department of Architecture investigates, how a more caring approach together with human and non-human co-collaborators could change our relations with the space and matter.
Photo credit: Maiju Suomi
Alusta Pavilion for Mulispecies Encounters
2022
200 m2
Clay, wood, biocharBroken electric cabling from Aalto University: the AV Takeout, Mechatronics, Behavioral Lab, the Health Technology building, and Fab Lab.
Alusta pavilion, conceptualised as part of Maiju Suomi’s doctoral dissertation at the Department of Design, and designed and realized by Suomi and Elina Koivisto together with a multidisciplinary group of collaborators, offers a space for multispecies encounters, and a platform for environmental discourse. Alusta is simultaneously an environmental act tackling loss of biodiversity in its specific urban context, and a poetic representation of entanglement and care in the more than human world. Alusta Pavilion offers a space for multispecies encounters, and a platform for environmental discourse. From 2022 to 2024 Alusta pavilion was located in Helsinki, between the Designmuseum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture. In September 2024 it was relocated to the Aalto University campus for the following ten years. It will be exhibited at the main exhibition of the Venice Architecture Biennale and the More Than Human exhibition at the London Design Museum in 2025.
