Photo Arkkitehtuurimuseo (c) Volker von Bonin / Helsingin kaupunginmuseo

Concrete Dreams

Kasarmikatu 24, 00130 Helsinki
Museum of Finnish Architecture

Concrete Dreams and Other Perspectives on 1970s Architecture

Concrete Dreams and Other Perspectives on 1970s Architecture

Concrete Dreams invites people to experience the spirit of the 1970s, for instance, enticing us to imagine how a well-equipped suburban home built of prefabricated concrete elements with adjoining playgrounds felt like for its first residents. It also highlights gems from the 1970s of different building typologies: theatres, town halls, university buildings, churches, factories and water towers and challenges us to think about the value of these buildings in our environment, now that they have reached an age when they require renovation. It shows the diversity and pluralism of the architecture of that time.

The exhibition explores the architecture and other phenomena of the controversial decade. It tells about the ideologies and social progress that guided the work of architects at a time when the welfare state was under construction, cities were growing and housing construction was at its peak. A lot of the old houses had to make way for larger houses and more efficient roads. The industrial, systems architecture, which emphasised repetition and uniformity, as well as the grid pattern expanding in different directions, fitted perfectly with the era’s ethos of universality.

 

Museum of Finnish Architecture
 17.5.-15.10.2023

Tue, Thu-Sun 11.00-18.00

Wed 11.00-20.00

Admission fee 5/10€, under 18 yrs free entry