Re-Creation | OOPEAA Office for Peripheral Architecture

The Finnish pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will feature a special installation commissioned by the Museum of Finnish Architecture showcasing the work of Anssi Lassila, OOPEAA, Office for Peripheral Architecture, formerly known as Lassila Hirvilammi Architects. Re-Creation is a two-part installation based on a concept by Anssi Lassila. One part of the installation was constructed by a Finnish master carpenter and his team, and the other by a Chinese team. Together the two parts of the installation strike up a subtle and complex dialogue between the architects and local builders. Presented in the pavilion designed by Alvar Aalto in 1956, it takes a stand on our relationship with the modern legacy and its tradition of international dialogue. Curated by the renowned Dutch architect and theorist Rem Koolhaas, the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – titled “Fundamentals” – returns to the timeless basics of architecture. The national pavilions will explore global and local trends under the theme of “Absorbing Modernity: 1914–2014”. The presentation of Re-Creation in Venice has been realized by the Museum of Finnish Architecture in collaboration with the Architecture Information Centre Finland and the Shenzhen BI-CITY Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB). The exhibition co-curated by Juulia Kauste and Ole Bouman. Re-Creation embraces an appreciation for tradition as a source of identity, combining it with an openness and curiosity toward international influences. Finnish modernism has always essentially been about digesting these two into something new, not copied or borrowed, but inspired both by the local tradition and by an exposure to the world beyond one’s immediate sphere of experience. Re-Creation is the result of a deliberate and mutual exposure of the almost timeless architecture fundamentals of a nation to the rapidly changing cultural realities of a modern city: Finland and Shenzhen. A Nordic nation, reputed for its calm and serenity meets a city, famous for its speed and frenzy at the heart of Pearl River Delta. It reveals the qualities that emerge from this encounter, showing how “absorbing modernity” may produce specificity.