Architecture Speaks - Rakennustietosäätiö RTS sr

Architecture Speaks! is an international lecture series jointly organised by Aalto University and Architecture & Design Museum Helsinki, bringing together current voices and perspectives in architecture. Invited architects share insights into their design processes, their work and their roles in the field of architecture.

In the twelfth season of the Architecture Speaks! lecture series Professor and Head of Department Jenni Reuter invites seven speakers to share insights into their design processes. The lectures are held online in English and are free to attend. The theme of this season is Local Memory.

Local Memory

Buildings carry memory through their materials, construction techniques, traces of use, and relationship to place. Architecture can therefore be seen as a continuation of history, adding a new chapter rather than starting from zero.

This approach can be understood as critical adaptation: reusing existing buildings and their fragments rather than erasing them. Reclaimed materials can form a collage of different time periods, giving new meaning to both material and material loss.

Being regionally anchored means learning from what already exists—local materials, techniques, climate, patterns of use, and collective memory. Adaptive reuse can preserve and develop the social, ecological, and cultural values of the built environment while revealing its latent potential.

Architecture thus becomes more than a physical object: it can be a built argument for collective responsibility and ecological awareness. By reusing, adapting, and carefully adding to what is already there, new architecture can strengthen a place while allowing the past, present, and future to coexist.