Kai Henrik Väinö Wartiainen (born 1953 in

Kouvola Kouvola () is a cities of Finland, city and Municipalities of Finland, municipality in southeastern Finland. It is located along the Kymijoki, Kymijoki River in the Regions of Finland, region of Kymenlaakso, kilometers east of Lahti, west of Lapp ...

) is a Finnish architect and former academic. He is the son of architect Henrik Wartiainen. Wartiainen was professor of urban planning at the

Royal Institute of Technology The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technolo ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden in 1997–2006. Wartiainen was previously married to the Finnish architect Sari Nieminen, but is now married to the Swedish Architect Ingrid Reppen. After working for his father, he first founded Kai Wartiainen Architects in Helsinki. Then, between 2004 and 2010 he became a partner and Creative Director in Evata – at the time the largest architectural firm in Finland. He became creative director of Pöyry Architects between 2008 and 2011. In 2000 he founded the Stockholm planning firm ''ajö´ tristess'' with architect Ingrid Reppen, though in 2011 it changed its name to arkitektur + development. Grani Kauniainen 110711

Among Wartiainen's realised building designs include the High Tech Center (HTC), Ruoholahti, Helsinki (2001), the Grani Shopping Centre, Kauniainen (2001), Karkkila town hall and library (1991) and Itä-Pasila urban insertions (2005). Wartiainen has won several international competitions, including France's first ecological house in Paris, at

Parc de la Villette The Parc de la Villette is the third-largest park in Paris, in area, located at the northeastern edge of the city in the 19th arrondissement. The park houses one of the largest concentrations of cultural venues in Paris, including the Cité de ...

(2000), and the Nordic First Waterfront Project for the Holmen industrial landscape of

Norrköping Norrköping (; ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Linköp ...

, Sweden. In 1997 Wartiainen was selected to lead the research in defining the ecological criteria for Finland's first eco-village, Eko-Viikki. Together with a work group, he drew up the so-called PIMWAG criteria (the name was derived from the initials of the members), i.e. 5 factors to be taken into account in assessing the level of ecology of a scheme: pollution, the availability of natural resources, health, the biodiversity of nature, and nutrition. In addition to ecological issues, Wartiainen has also been a controversial champion of libertarianism and the so-called "innovation culture" typified by the internet, and criticises the inflexibility of the state-driven norms of urban planning practice. He plots a historical line of development from the "full control" of autocrats to the "instrumental control" of what he terms expert dictatorship to the ultimate goal of the "out of control" of co-creation, and whereby professional urban design and planning expertise is ultimately replaced by urban management. In December 2016 Wartiainen was awarded the Swedish Architects' Prize.Swedish Architects Prize
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References

External links

HTC Centre, Helsinki

Grani Shopping Centre 1953 births Finnish architecture writers 21st-century Finnish architects Modernist architects Academic staff of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology Living people {{Finland-architect-stub