Helsinki built its 1st skyscraper but wants to be carbon free by 2035, Dubai imports all its sand from Australia to build its skyscrapers, the concrete for your house starts to decay after 30 years, and it has been a democracy, not a dictatorship, who has just built the biggest statue ever of a man, in India.
The kind of people we want to be is the kind of cities we should be designing for. So who decides about that and our future? Is this a science? For whom are we designing the city? Who owns my city?
Join us in the Architectural Democracy podcast, where we will take a critical look at these matters so that you can re-discover your own city and be a real part of it.
Architectural Democracy is a monthly podcast hosted by Pedro Aibéo with rotating guests, produced and airing at the Helsinki Open Waves, at Caisa, in Helsinki, Finland.
The guest of this episode is Saija Hollmén, Professor of Practice in Humanitarian Architecture.
Saija Hollmén’s research interests focus around architecture as a socio-cultural construction as well as interdisciplinary university pedagogy.
Since 2009, she has been teaching courses related to building design and global development within and outside Aalto University. She is a co-funder of WiTLAB with Matleena Muhonen.
Hollmén is a founding member of Ukumbi NGO together with Jenni Reuter and Helena Sandman, and a partner in Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects Ltd. Their work aims to empower disadvantaged communities.
Saija currently serves as a professor of practice at the Aalto Department of Architecture.
Credits
Producers and hosts: Pedro Aibéo and Mark Linder
Guest: Saija Hollmén
Sound recording and editing: Bailey Polkinghorne
*The audio piece was recorded and edited at the Helsinki Open Waves performance & recording room located at Caisa.
**The views expressed in this audio piece and texts are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of Helsinki Open Waves.
***If you have any feedback regarding the content of the podcast, please contact us via helsinkiopenwaves@gmail.com