The Juror, nominated by the Executive Board of the Finnish Association of Architects, is a public figure who is a recognised expert in an area other than architecture. The winner is selected from a shortlist of projects chosen by the Pre-Selection Jury.
Lasse Lecklin
Anna Herlin (b. 1982) is a fifth-generation member of the family that runs elevator and escalator manufacturer KONE Corporation. She currently divides her working life between the family’s investment company, the Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation and her board memberships.
Following her studies in the humanities and social sciences and a career within the visual arts and cultural heritage, Herlin now works at the Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation, where she is focused on exploring the role of humankind as part of the Earth’s wider, critically important systems. The foundation has set out to address the most serious and urgent problem facing the current decade and is focusing its resources on managing global warming.
The drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss can ultimately be found in human behaviour. One of the key tasks for Herlin in her role within the foundation has been to create a space that is open for all, where people can gather to participate in the climate debate and to contribute to the efforts to mitigate global warming and biodiversity loss. Tiina and Antti Herlin Foundation’s headquarters at Puistokatu 4 in central Helsinki comprise a wooden villa, acquired from the Foundation for the Museum of Finnish Architecture in 2020, which has been sensitively refurbished and redecorated with sustainability and wellbeing in mind. The building currently serves as the home to two public-facing event programmes and as an office and community hub for around a hundred researchers, artists, NGOs, foundations and small businesses working towards a more environmentally sound future. From Monday to Friday, the building is also open to the general public.
Anna Herlin lives on a farm with her family. Home to an abundance of plant and animal life, the land surrounding her home has inspired in her a love of spotting and identifying birds. Bird watching is a true meditation and mindfulness practice and offers an ideal counterbalance to Herlin’s currently hectic life. Anna Herlin enthusiastically recommends bird watching for anyone struggling to concentrate or overwhelmed with everyday life.