With the inauguration of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, the architectural work of the contemporary Finnish partnership of Ilmari Lahdelma and Rainer Mahlamäki comes into worldwide focus.

This monograph presents for the first time a survey of selected built work and projects of the Lahdelma & Mahlamäki partnership, from their early work in the 1990s to the present day, introducing that work to a larger international audience and placing it into the larger international context.

Peter MacKeith’s critical introduction and analyses of significant cultural and civic projects identify themes and intentions of the built work and projects, and places those projects within both the Finnish architectural context and that of the larger architectural culture. Besides the Warsaw Museum, designs for the Lusto – the Finnish Forest Museum, the Kaustinen Folk Music Center, the Lohja Municipal Library and Vellamo – the Finnish Maritime Center are highlighted, among a range of more than twenty other significant projects.

An interview with the architects opens territories of education, competition designs, museum design and the future of Finnish architecture. Throughout, Lahdelma & Mahlamäki’s commitment to architecture as a public, spatial, material art of building well is emphasized, as is their equal commitment to social engagement through civic and cultural commissions.

Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects were recently shortlisted for the Finlandia Prize for Architecture 2014 with their desing of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

Lahdelma & Mahlamaki Architects: Works
Peter MacKeith (ed.)
Publishers: Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects
Publishing company: Rakennustieto Publishing
152 pp. | 58 €
Softback with folds,
Size: 190 x 250 mm
148 4-colour photographs and drawings
ISBN 978-952-267-071-7