Solution 239-246, Finland: The Welfare Game (Sternberg Press 2011) by architect Martti Kalliala, co-written with architect Tuomas Toivonen and me, addresses the Nordic country’s numerous predicaments. We propose eight and a half solutions to our native country’s quandaries, ranging from the practical (rescuing ailing public space through climatization and the introduction of the Winter Garden City), to the absurd (dividing the country into two interlocking sub-nations: City and Wilderness) and the earnest, if far-reaching (the repurposing of the country to host the world’s nuclear waste).
The book elucidates the northern country’s modern history as a nation under construction, proposing that its identity remain a malleable myth, in which designing a more tenable future is the conduit for crucial adaptation.
Design: Z.A.K.
