Drawing Cages

Understanding how we produce our built environment is a central challenge when we aspire to imagine sustainable futures. In spite of several proposed goals and guidelines for sustainable building, success may often prove elusive in the crosscurrents of interests involved in urban development. This paper is a study of the ambitious Low2no project, that provides an instructive case illustrating challenges and possibilities of sustainable urban development in the context of Finland. The paper presents an Actor-network theory based reading of the project, from conception in 2008 to realization in 2018 as the Airut-block in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki. The project is described as a changing network of actors, human and non-human mediators. The reading follows the trajectory from the initial goals of the project, through different phases, to the finished built environment. The heterogeneous set of documents, written and visual, connected to the project make up the primary material used in drawing this narrative. The analysis results in the first comprehensive description of the project. Conclusions focus on highlighting the mediating role of non-human actors, and their effects on the process, as well as the crucial role they may play when designing similar projects.