The Finnish Institute in London is excited to be part of the largest ever collaborative project for the Finnish cultural institutes, Mobile Home 2017. The Finnish Institutes of Paris, Benelux countries, Berlin and London are producing a joint project to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Finnish independence. Mobile Home 2017 explores and interprets the different meanings of home in 2017 through architecture, art, science and society.

The international project will look at ideas of home and homelessness in different European cities. "Home, homelessness and homeland - it’s hard to find more current themes! The idea of home raises feelings and thoughts in everybody," says the coordinator of the project, Meena Kaunisto, Director of the Finnish Institute in France. Mobile Home 2017 launches in September 2016 and culminates with a series of events in August-September 2017 in Finland.

Finnish wood construction in London

"Mobile Home London will create opportunities for a sustainable and innovative wood construction combining wood know-how, university collaboration and technology." says the Director of Finnish Institute in London, Pauliina Ståhlberg. The project is produced in collaboration with design professionals and architecture students and will be an integral part of the architecture studies of the University of Westminster. Renowned British architect and Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Westminster, Professor, Harry Charrington and Finnish architect Sami Rintala are the forces behind the project. Under their guidance the students will develop environmentally friendly building materials and models with low emission. The processes and end results of the project will be shown at the University of Westminster in London and Habitare Showroom in Helsinki 2017.

KOTI - a habitable village of cottages at the Finnish Institute in Paris

Inspired by the simple hospitality and the Finnish summer cottage traditions KOTI will surface in January 2017 in the Institute’s exhibition space in central Paris. The habitable installation, designed and curated by designer Linda Bergroth, will transform the Institute to exciting village of cottages for 100 days. These wooden cottages can be rented via AirBnb and will exhibit Finnish living and top design through a communal-style sleepover. In the summer of 2017 KOTI will return to Finland and can be booked for over-night stays by visitors in the Valkoinen sali at Torikorttelit. KOTI was featured in the September edition of leading British design magazine Wallpaper*. Reservations for Paris start 10 October 2016.

Mobile Home(less) Benelux - Syrian homelessness as part of our everyday reality

The Finnish Institute in Benelux will explore the idea of the Mobile Home through homelessness and its different manifestations. In the spring of 2016 the Institute invited artists living in Finland and Benelux countries to create new works that represented homelessness for a project titled Mobile Home(less). An international jury chose the work Street View (Reassembled) I-III by Finnish sculptor Anssi Pulkkinen. The piece is the reconstruction of a home destroyed in Syria. It will be shown in 2017 in the Benelux countries and Finland.

Mobile Home installation will take over the Berlin Institute

The Finnish Institute in Berlin will examine the meaning of home through a site-specific installation by Tuomas A. Laitinen and the architectural collective raumlaborberlin. The piece will deal with bio and energy policies, strategies for surviving and visions of homes after the age of post-fossil fuel era. The installation will be exhibited at the Berlin Institute during the spring 26.1 - 6.7.2017. The programme includes MOBILE HOME donnerstags - a series of events that dive deeper into the themes of home and homeland. The installation will also be shown at Sinne gallery in Helsinki from August to September 2017.

More information: http://www.mobilehome2017.com/