Born in Helsinki in 1969, Sami Rintala simultaneously boasts the status of architect, teacher and artist. In 1994, for the first time, he designed a temporary architectonic installation in Denmark and, since then, has continued in this vein in Finland and throughout the world. With Marco Casagrande, he designs architectural or scenographic installations centring on social and environmental problems, at the Venice Biennial in 2000, in Havana during the same year, at Montreal in 2002 and at the Yokohama Triennial in 2001, to name but a few. The architect is also the author of a forestry observatory, a genuine work of art created for the open-air museum at Kyushu in Japan. Rintala sees it as an architectural instrument erected in the heart of woodland to help people who are interested to observe nature. But what made him known to a larger audience is without doubt the Hotel Kirkenes. Widely publicised in the media, the most striking feature of this modest two bedroom hotel with sea views in the north east of Norway is the economy of its design.

It was in the context of the Anyang Public Art Project (APAP) that Rintala produced a permanent project, based on experimental ideas - as are all of the works produced for this international exhibition. Although the construction is almost the size of a real house, it has only the very basic functions. It is a place of meditation for contemplation of the surrounding nature.

Looking at these projects, we can see that Sami Rintala is something of a specialist in extreme constructions. Faced with an architectural profession contaminated by money and politics, Sami Rintala aspires to reaffirm certain values. His projects, usually off-beat but always subtle, denounce profligate consumption, the destruction of nature, the problems of pollution, economic speculation and the frenetic pace of life. The thinking and working methods are linked to architecture but they are enriched by being interwoven with art.