In the Perspective of a Universal Local Resource

At the Venice Architecture Biennale, just outside the Finnish Pavilion, a shallow grave is unearthed, revealing its contents. It is a severed water closet, its porcelain parts white as bare bones, resting in peace. This is the subtle opening act of the exhibition “Huussi – Imagining the Future History of Sanitation”, curated by Arja Renell and the Dry Collective for the 2023 Finnish Pavilion. The exhibition critically reassesses the infrastructure of sanitation, in response to freshwater shortages which have long been a global situation, but more recently a reality in Europe. Creating the future sanitation infrastructure naturally includes the possibility of restoring the nutrient cycle in food production. Visitors to the exhibition can experience the huussi, a traditional dry toilet, with all their senses. Properly maintained, it does not emit any unagreeable smell while it produces a local resource of highly nutritious soil. Vegetables and plants thrive in cultivation beds in and around the pavilion, demonstrating the result of the full cycle. The huussi itself comes with its own vernacular architecture – a small scale tribute to a resource that is as universal as it is local.

Tools to make place-based decisions

In her work, Renell works with clients and users in early stage, where a lot of important decisions needs to be made. Using a special model, all important data goes in to cost evaluation and program planning, a lot of repetitions can be avoided in the design and building process, where work involves a lot of people and becomes very expensive. The challenges are mental- and process based. A lot of great examples exist and are very inspirational – we need to increase the level of education, starting with even beginning to talk about the issues of sanitation. In our contemporary societies, Arja Renell reminds us that we need to question where we are building, whenever we are building, or we will immediately waste the chances - presented by the place itself – of reevaluating the decisions, instead often architectural decisions and building processes are copy-pasted from one place to the next. Making profits, copy-pasting is a money-saving method, and it is difficult to compete with the efficiency of copying something that is repeatedly built, and thoroughly calculated. Building with local materials and local knowledge is something that is not built in bulk, so it has become more expensive even if that does not make sense. We have to make it possible and financially attractive, whatever the tools may be to make place-based decisions in creating architecture and infrastructure. We have to realize that it may not be cheaper than what is globally repeated as architecture around the world. If we want to do something different – what are the methods, structures and tools we need? If we have successful models, these can be cheaper in the long run, but in the short run, we need to invest in pilot projects and models to challenge the old system. The huussi makes sense as an example of this, in itself a small structure, but the creation of a new system, beginning with place-based decisions.