The theme of the Architecture and Cities in Transition (ACT) seminar for 2024 was resilience (joustavuus). The seminar was held within the TAD Week on 4 October 2024 at the Finnkino Plevna cinema in Tampere. The seminar’s keynote speakers were Lassi Siitonen (AOR Architects), Jukka Savolainen (AD Museum), Jérôme Picard and Elida Mosquera (LOCAL), Samuli Miettinen (JKMM Architects) and Konstantinos Pantazis (Point Supreme). The speakers represented architecture practices based in Helsinki (Finland), Bergen (Norway) and Athens (Greece), as well as the Helsinki-based Foundation for Architecture and Design Museum and the City of Tampere. The seminar was organised by the TAD Week’s team led by architect and teacher Henri Käpynen.
The panel discussion held after the seminar in the adjacent Finlayson area gathered Samuli Miettinen, Jérôme Picard, Elida Mosquera, Jukka Savolainen and Konstantinos Pantazis, moderated by architect and Tampere University’s Professor Fernando Nieto, to discuss their perspectives about resilience and the practice and management of architecture in different forms and contexts. Some topics that were discussed in the panel were the need for versatility in the adaptation of practices to specific contexts, the possibility of embracing failure and overcoming adversity by taking advantage of mistakes, the tensions and opportunities between autonomy and engagement of the architectural practice, as well as the architects’ responsibility in the midst of the present-day contradictions (between the transformational role of architecture and the climate and environmental crisis or the public and private interests when addressing a hybrid project, among others) and the most imperative challenges for the future of the architecture profession.
[Photographs by Henrik Laakkonen and Siina Siuvo courtesy of TAD Week and ACT Seminar 2024]