Carson Chan is named the Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs of the new Museum of Architecture and Design in Helsinki, one of the most ambitious cultural projects in Finland’s recent history. Chan will provide a comprehensive intellectual vision for the museum and oversee the strategic planning, development, and implementation of the museum’s content-related programming, including exhibitions, collections, publications, diverse research initiatives, and audience engagement. Ahead of the museum’s opening in a new building in Helsinki’s South Harbour in 2030, Chan will begin his new roles in January 2026, as the museum continues to operate at its current premises at Korkeavuorenkatu 23, Helsinki.
“We aim to build a leading and inspiring museum for the creative industries in the Nordic context, with a cross-disciplinary and innovative approach. Carson Chan’s valuable expertise and visionary work as a bold explorer of new territories supports our museum’s ambitious goal to engage global and diverse audiences. I am truly delighted to welcome Carson to our dynamic team, bringing professionalism and insight that will help shape our journey toward the museum of the future,” describes Pilvi Kalhama, Director of the Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki, outlining the emphasis behind Chan’s appointment.
“The chance to tackle today’s social, ecological, and political challenges through architecture and design within a new institution is a once-in-a-lifetime privilege. Building on Finland’s celebrated architecture and design legacy, I see the future museum as a global leader not just in showcasing these fields, but in actively shaping their evolution. It is an honor to join Pilvi in Helsinki to create a new kind of museum program, one driven by a spirit of urgency, a commitment to innovation, and a foundation of rigorous research. I am driven to expand the narrative of architecture and design, crafting inclusive new frameworks that will fundamentally shape contemporary culture.”
Chan comes to the new Museum of Architecture and Design from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City where he has served as the inaugural Director of the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment, and where he was also Curator of architecture and design since 2021. Chan was also a member of the museum’s sustainability task force, which leads an institution-wide effort to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. Through a range of curatorial programs and research initiatives at MoMA, he championed dialogue and critical thinking around the built and natural environment. Chan used a multifaceted approach—including public programs, scholarly conferences, publications, and collaborations with MoMA’s learning and engagement team—to illuminate architecture’s historical foundations in ecology and justice for diverse audiences. His widely acclaimed exhibition at MoMA, Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism (2023), crucially brought to attention the US architectural responses to the environmental crises of the 20th century.
Focused on a sustained inquiry into the boundaries of architecture and design, Carson Chan’s curatorial practice began with the co-founding of PROGRAM in Berlin with Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga in 2006, an experimental project space and residency that fostered cross-disciplinary dialogue. This foundational work led to large-scale curatorial projects, including co-curating the 4th Marrakech Biennale (2012) with Nadim Samman, which featured 37 new commissions, and serving as Executive Curator of the Biennial of the Americas in Denver (2013). Across these platforms, Chan prompted creators to produce site-responsive works that grounded global discourses in local contexts.
Chan is a prolific writer whose work appears in publications such as Art Papers, Frieze, Log, Texte zur Kunst, and 032c, where he previously served as Editor-at-Large. He has contributed essays to monographs on artists and architects including Monica Bonvicini, Julian Charrière, Aleksandra Domanović, LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Barkow Leibinger. Chan holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University and a Masters in Design Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His doctoral research at Princeton University focuses on the rise of environmentalism and the architecture of postwar public aquariums in the United States. In 2013, he co-convened the conference “Exhibiting Architecture: A Paradox?” at the Yale School of Architecture with David Andrew Tasman and Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen; the resulting papers were published by Actar in 2015.