Architecture in Helsinki was an Australian indie pop band which consisted of Cameron Bird, Gus Franklin, Jamie Mildren, Sam Perry, and Kellie Sutherland.

Before its hiatus, the band released five studio albums: Fingers Crossed (2003), In Case We Die (2005), Places Like This (2007), Moment Bends (2011), and Now + 4eva (2014).

Architecture in Helsinki developed from a short-lived high school music experiment in the New South Wales city of Albury, by childhood friends Cameron Bird (lead singer), Jamie Mildren and Sam Perry.

By 1999, the trio had moved to the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, where they used the name Architecture in Helsinki for Bird's first collection of self-penned songs.

[2][3] The five-member group began to work on their debut album, Fingers Crossed, at Super Melody World, the recording studio Cecil had built in a church hall in a south-eastern Melbourne suburb.

Upon his return from Portland, Oregon, Bird was inspired to write short, catchy pop songs, which marked a new direction for the band.

[2] At art school, Bird met members of The Rhinestone Horns, a brass ensemble, and recruited Isobel Knowles, Tara Shackell and Gus Franklin – all three originally from Victoria's Western District[4] – to complete Architecture in Helsinki's eight-member line-up.

Cyclic Defrost's Vaughan Healey described a typical gig as "a bewildering ride through dynamic tempo changes, finger clicks and swapped instruments.

You never really know who is going to sing or what will happen next, and somehow the eight-piece juggles this anarchic structure with a music class worth of instruments and staging rearrangements.

[2] In mid-2006, Architecture in Helsinki announced via their MySpace page that Knowles and Shackell were no longer members and cited "creative conflicts" with Bird as the reason for their departure.

[11] In September 2007, Franklin, Knowles, Shackell and Sutherland provided the brass section on the Kevin Ayers album The Unfairground.

[2][10] Artists who provided remixes included Hot Chip, New Buffalo, Safety Scissors, DAT politics, Mocky and Isan.

[20] During the ensemble's New Year's Eve performance on 1 January 2008, they came on at midnight and announced that it was James Cecil's last show with Architecture in Helsinki.

Work began immediately in a new studio space, named Buckingham Palace, that the band had set up in the Melbourne suburb of East Brunswick.

To promote the album, they set up a temporary concept store in Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, which was open from 28 March 2014 until 6 April 2014.

Bird stated that, from 2004 to 2014, they had been in a constant album cycle and "there comes a time that you need to step away in order to have that life experience that you can turn into new work".

During that time, the band had sporadic performances, including in an episode of the Australian children's educational show Play School, in which they covered the song "Big Bass Drum" with toy instruments.

The band toured heavily throughout Australia, the United States, and Europe, playing festivals such as Coachella, Sasquatch, Sound Relief, Big Day Out, SxSW, Primavera, Groovin the Moo, Pukkelpop, and Haldern.

Architecture in Helsinki toured and/or played with: David Byrne, Dr Dog, Death Cab for Cutie, Yacht, The Go-Betweens, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Santigold, Glass Candy, The Presets, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Au Revoir Simone, Field Music, Lo-Fi-Fnk, Yo La Tengo, The Polyphonic Spree, and Múm.