Visual
     Stories

A film highlighting the preservation of cultural heritage and new sustainable, energy-efficient buildings.

Let’s not be in a hurry to throw things away and demolish walls. Instead, let’s try to make sense of various objects and discover the history within them. After all, long-forgotten fashion trends are making a comeback and seemingly ancient objects are finding their place in our lives again. Open House lets you see old objects with fresh eyes, such as the old lamp or pipe that just so happens to fit into a new build. At the same time, an old piece of furniture lies forgotten in an office that was built half a century ago.

While participating in MADE in Thessaloniki, a parallel event of Open House Thessaloniki, I had the opportunity to meet many ceramists from various art studios. Used around the world since ancient times, clay is one of the most widespread and sustainable construction materials. I was impressed by its properties and interested in creating a short visual history about this simple yet unique natural material.

During the weekend that Open House Thessaloniki hosted its MADE in Thessaloniki parallel event, I had the chance to visit some of the participating businesses. Each one, in its own unique way, has found a method to make items such as ceramics and clothes using sustainable practices to minimise any waste from their production. Most of the businesses are small shops where a few people combine their passion for the same thing and make it happen. None of them would probably be open today if they hadn’t worked together and so, I took the opportunity to give you a glimpse of the amazing things they do.

A spolia, Latin for ‘spoils’, is a stone taken from an old structure and repurposed for new construction or decorative purposes. As the idea of sustainability is often linked to innovation and state-of-the-art technology, the concept of spolia suggests we view the past as an inseparable part of our future. Instead of erasing the past to make space for a ‘better’ future, we can integrate what is already present and adapt it to our needs.

Cities are a great example of how demolishing and rebuilding everything would be much less sustainable than transforming and adapting existing infrastructure to match our emerging needs. Just like spolia, we can preserve the parts of our past that can be of value and create a stronger foundation for the years to come, blending together artefacts of yesterday with visions of tomorrow.

Recurrence (noun): a new occurrence of something that happened or appeared before; a repeated occurrence. 

Sustainability involves conscious and forward-thinking decisions and actions. Often, to come up with something new, we turn to the past for inspiration, find an idea we like, interpret it in a new way and by adding further nuances or modifications, we get something unique. The idea is repeated but slightly differently, as a recurrence.  A sustainable future involves new ideas, inspiration, reinvention and repetition. I took all the presented photos while volunteering for Open House Tallinn 2023 on their tours of Linnahall (Tallinn City Hall). I liked the empty interiors of the abandoned building, although it still seemed like they could be used somehow, in whichever peculiar way. Afterwards, I started imagining dreamy solutions for the spaces, adding small details and creating new collages with embedded stories. 

Habitat Lutheri highlights different fragments of an area and how each fragment contributes to a unified space whose unique character is made up of both natural processes and human interventions. The Lutheri Kvartal (Luther Quarter) in Tallinn is a former industrial area due to be transformed and start a new chapter of its life. During the Tallinn Open House 2023 festival, we walked through the area and got our first insights and some background information. There was something special about how different aspects came together to form the Habitat Lutheri, explored more closely in my visual story through atmospheric vignettes, sketches and collages. 

A part of preparing for the future is learning to perceive places and their qualities with all our senses—hearing, smelling and feeling them. In addition, questions of the past play a major role: what happened at these places? What functions did they have? How were they changed and adapted to different needs? 

Just like we choose the right bus at the bus station, there are times when we stand at the Architectural Station and choose where to live, where to work and so on. Today, it seems that we ’travel’ with architecture as quickly as we do with a bus. Architecture must not become like fast fashion. My Tallinn has changed a lot over the years. The city has spread and expanded at the expense of nature. Instead, Tallinn should be densified within its existing borders. But what is the best way to do this? With whom do we have to build the future? The only way forward is in collaboration with nature, the provider of almost all of our resources. We must listen and acknowledge it, bringing it back into our lives. As writer Tõnu Õnnepalu asked in his book ‘Flandria Päevik’—who said we have to live better and better? Rather, we should ask: what do we really need?

In every moment of innovation and creation exists a consideration about the effect on the future, regardless of the time of its creation. When creating the future today, we can learn a lot from how the future was created earlier to form an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable future. 

Stockholm will always be my hometown. This place, the heart of Stockholm, has been criticised for decades and hasn’t always been a safe and beautiful place. In the centre of the city lie opportunities for meetings, the opportunities to watch and be seen, to listen and be heard, to pass by and stay. The scale is simultaneously large and small, and the place is both finished and in a state of constant change. It seethes with life and emotion. This is where my heart lives.