Embargo at 14.15: Pietilä Prize for a group of architects whose solutions create new architecture for a new era

The Pietilä Prize 2023 will be awarded to a team of young architects: Tuuli Kanerva, Leo Lindroos and Antti Soini. Their office NERVIN Architecture Ltd was founded in 2019. The Helsinki-based firm combines socially sustainable and climate-smart solutions with beautiful and innovative architecture. 

Design catering for the changing needs of society

The Pietilä Prize is awarded by the Board of Trustees of the Building Information Foundation RTS sr. The prize amount is EUR 10,000. The Jury for the Pietilä Prize 2023 consisted of architects Henna Helander and Julia Hertell, representing the RTS Board of Trustees, and architect Francesc Palomeras, representing the Board of Representatives.

In its citation, the Jury highlighted the architects' acute understanding of the changing needs of our society and the spatial solutions they require. They are particularly well versed in climate-smart solutions and social sustainability, emphasising the nature and aesthetics of space in architecture. The Jury citation draws attention to the role of contrasts in the appearance of the buildings designed by the team, while creating a new generation of architectural practice.

"We hope that the work of this year's Pietilä Prize winners will inspire us all to think about architecture deeper than the surface, without forgetting the surface," says Henna Helander.

The expressive power of the structures that underpin the function and identity of a space

NERVIN Architects Ltd have explored spaces in terms of social interaction, function, spatiality, landscape and experience. They use a wide range of climate-resilient solutions such as solid external walls and timber framing. The team uses these structures and their expressive power to support function and identity.

The team has won several prizes in open architectural competitions. The Asuntoreformi 2020 architectural competition sought innovation in housing design in Helsinki. The three competition sites selected for planning were located in different parts of Helsinki. The team's proposal for the Jätkäsaari site, "Domus", was one of the winners of the competition.

In the spring of 2023, the construction of Sammontalo in Lappeenranta began, based on the team's winning proposal in the 2019 design competition, "The White Courtyard".

The Pietilä Prize was awarded at the Architecture and Cities in Transition (ACT) seminar during Tampere Architecture and Design Week. The prize was presented by members of the Jury. Henna Helander, Julia Hertell and Francesc Palomeras.

The next Pietilä Prize will be awarded in 2026.