Vapaa Collective combines theoretical and design work into artistic practice to envision new kinds of regenerative environments. They seek to bring about a holistic cultural shift by designing, writing, lecturing, curating and facilitating workshops on urban transformations.

The collective was awarded the Bryggman Prize in 2020, invited to chair the Futures Committee of the Finnish Association of Architects SAFA in 2021, and was one of the founding signatories of the Finnish Architects Declare. The collective has produced widely published installations, given keynote lectures internationally, and was shortlisted to curate the Finnish Pavilion in Venice Biennale in 2020 and 2023. The collective’s book “Architects of Disruption” was published in 2022. 

The collective was founded in 2019 by architects Iines Karkulahti, Charlotte Nyholm and Meri Wiikinkoski. All of them have graduated with honors from Aalto University and have held teaching positions in their alma mater.

Vapaa is based in Helsinki, Finland and Copenhagen, Denmark.