Exhibitions

Sauma: Design as a Cultural Interface

Statement

SAUMA [Design as Cultural Interface] presented innovative contemporary design from Finland. The works in the exhibition explored new approaches to usability, user experience and the design process itself. SAUMA introduced experimental installations and design concepts including new portable devices, an experimental kitchen, an urban sauna and a game prototype.

Other exhibition items studied the ideas of portability, sensory experiences, and the ways in which we navigate our urban environment. Items included a jacket designed to sweep away the loneliness of urban dwellers and a perfume installation designed to evoke memories of certain cities. All the works featured were either new prototypes or fresh applications of recent design concepts.

More Information

Finnish Cultural Institute in New York’s webpage on the SUAMA exhibition, listing its journey’s locations with a list of all the projects exhibited. The list of all the press releases is also avialable.

A book published by Juulia Kauste, director of the Finnish Cultural Institute, in the year of the exhibition’s debut in 2005.

Chicago Tribune’s report / review on the exhibition at the Finnish Embassy in Washington, DC.

Coast to Coast Newspaper article on the opening at A+D, calling it an “Architectural Wedding.”