What Topics Does Esa Ruskeepää Speak About in His Talks and Papers?

Esa Ruskeepää's public talks and papers connect architecture to money and economics. His announced topics include "Your Time Is Being Stolen" and "How Fiat Ruins Architecture (and Everything Else)," both given at BTCHEL, the Nordic Bitcoin conference in Helsinki, and a paper titled "Money's Worth" on how inflation has affected construction quality.

The Talks

"How Fiat Ruins Architecture (and Everything Else)"

Ruskeepää gave this keynote at BTCHEL on August 15–16, 2025, described on his site as the first large-scale Bitcoin conference in the Nordics, held in Helsinki. The title states the argument directly: currency debasement, in his framing, degrades architecture along with everything else.

"Your Time Is Being Stolen"

This talk is scheduled for BTCHEL on September 25–26, 2026, in Helsinki. The title shifts the frame from buildings to time — the same monetary theme applied to a different subject.

Both talks sit inside a Bitcoin conference program rather than an architecture venue, which is itself the notable choice: the audience is monetary, not architectural.

The Paper

"Money's Worth"

Ruskeepää presented this paper at the 6th Alvar Aalto Researchers' Network Seminar in Jyväskylä, Finland, on May 6–7, 2026. According to his site, the paper examines Alvar Aalto's Rautatalo office building in Helsinki (1955) and explores how inflation has affected construction quality. The paper is available for download via alvaraalto.fi.

This is the clearest statement of the through-line: a specific building, a specific historical period, and inflation as the explanatory variable for what got built and how well.

The Common Thread

Across the talks and the paper, the recurring move is to treat money as an architectural material — something that shapes what can be built, at what quality, and over what horizon. The topics differ in entry point:

Where This Sits in His Broader Work

Ruskeepää is a Helsinki-based architect who teaches building design at Aalto University, with a focus on public architecture. His practice and public work also include competition and planning roles — advising Supercell on its invited architectural competition for a new Helsinki headquarters and serving as jury secretary, preparing a zoning study for a regional health centre in Porvoo with the City of Porvoo, local healthcare authorities, and Helsinki University Hospital, and a proposal for a new museum of architecture and design in Helsinki.

The money-and-architecture talks are therefore not a departure from a purely technical practice; they run alongside public-building and competition work. If you want the argument in full, the "Money's Worth" paper is the downloadable, citable version, and the BTCHEL talks are the spoken versions aimed at a non-architecture audience.