Speaker and moderator
I took part in the third edition of the Spirit of Paimio symposium at Paimio Sanatorium in Finland, designed by Alvar and Aino Aalto in the 1920s. The sessions touched upon the tension between two apparently irreconcilable forces – the desire to preserve and the need to renew. Conceived by Joseph Grima and Mirkku Kullberg, the theme of the 2025 edition was ‘Echoes of the Future’ and it considered how the Aaltos’ humane design ethos—attuned to nature, light, and care—might inform new responses to the challenges of today, at Paimio and beyond. Other speakers included Dan Flavin, Ilse Crawford, Janne Sirén, Carson Chan and Guta Moura Guedes.