[diss] Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu / ARTS

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  • Contextually responsive interaction design - Design ideation for dynamic contexts
    (2025) Pejoska, Jana
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    Digital tools for remote social interaction have become an integral part of our daily lives. Interaction design, which considers context when shaping user experiences, is critical for creating these tools. Remote interactions are dynamic, occurring across varying contexts and influenced by physical movement, so interaction designers need to account for these changes to design quality user experiences. The main challenge is to understand how to design for dynamic contexts while also considering for the socio-technical layers that influence individual user experiences. Traditional usercentric design methods lack methods for including broader social, cultural, and business contexts, resulting in a narrow focus on user needs that overlooks larger-scale implications. One way to ensure that context is proactively considered in the design process is to consider the human factors that hinder designers from grasping the big picture that affects individual experiences. The research presented here investigates how interaction design can become more contextually responsive, especially in dynamic environments. This study seeks to unpack the concept of contextually responsive interaction design and investigate ways to make it more meaningful in practice. The goal is to combine insights from various disciplines to address design ideation challenges in dynamic contexts, improve designers' contextual awareness, and challenge the standardization of user experiences. The study takes a research through-design approach, combining qualitative and exploratory methods. The research is divided into two studies. The first study investigates design considerations for remote interaction tools, while the second focuses on a method for gaining a better understanding of the overall design context. Both studies use design cases and co-design workshops to help inform the research process. The results provide theoretical and practical contributions to the field. The theoretical findings shed light on the design considerations for remote interaction, as well as the significance of considering nuanced contextual factors. The practical contributions include a design prototype for remote interaction and a novel design method for diversifying artifact associations during design ideation. This dissertation presents valuable findings for interaction designers, digital product designers, and design researchers by providing tools and methods for improving design ideation in dynamic contexts. The findings can support designers to anticipate the complexities of dynamic contexts, allowing them to create more responsive and effective interactive tools. The practical applications of this research support design teams in overcoming the challenges of developing contextually responsive technologies in a variety of contexts.
  • Wicked problems and the welfare state: Segregation in Finnish urban planning policy
    (2024) Rosengren, Katriina
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    Segregation is a relatively new research topic in Finland. Levels of residential segregation are growing, presenting a problem for the welfare state ethos. This thesis investigates how urbanplanning policy deals with the 'problem' of segregation in Finland. The four articles study the interrelationship between the social, the physical, and the perceived city and each dimension's role in the segregation cycle. The first three articles concentrate on the Helsinki metropolitan area, analyzing the social dimension of institutionalized urban policies such as transit-oriented development and social mixing. The last article examines how segregation is recognized in the twenty largest Finnish cities. Perceptions are of interest to urban planning, as they are linked to selective moving patterns, which are one driver of the segregation process. The first article finds interlinkages between neighborhood satisfaction, socioeconomic status, and the share of social housing in neighborhoods. The second article finds differences in neighborhood satisfaction by tenure status, with municipal tenants reporting lower neighborhood satisfaction, quality of life, and perceived safety than homeowners. The second article concludes that while social mixing seems to have bridged the gap in spatial justice among different tenure groups, it has not managed to equalize neighborhood perceptions in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The third article concludes that while the segregation trajectory in the Helsinki metropolitan area is perceived as alarming and needing intervention, governance capacity is lacking: segregation is poorly articulated and yet to be institutionalized. The fourth article concludes that acknowledging segregation depends on city size and urban policy framework. Where segregation is named as a goal, it is often not translated into explicit actions in local policies. Segregation is mostly targeted with housing and land use policies, cornerstones of the local autonomy. This model works poorly in a situation where segregation is a regional issue. Governance capacity is also lacking on the state level, where housing policies affecting segregation are volatile. Insufficient governance capacity carries a risk: spatial inequalities may eventually become structural and cemented.
  • Turning the Tables: Emerging practices of Pedagogic Architect
    (2024) Kauppila, Toni
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    The fields of architecture and design, and their respective higher educations, are undergoing paradigm shifts, where both their processes and outcomes are under dispute, due to ever-complicating operating environments. Transformative design processes within these fields include social negotiations with diverse actors, cultures and agendas. In this thesis I query whether complementary practices for the professions could be more apropos to address the related socio-spatial concerns, partially shifting the emphasis towards the need for a new kind of polymath whose expertise is the disposition to learn from those manifold professional encounters. I bring forward the design discipline of interiors, and its education, as providing a peculiar entry point to comprehend the spatial qualities, the interiorities, of those social spaces. My research is motivated by the following questions: How can the pedagogical practices within interiors, as encounters in spaces of learning, inform the interiority of the spatial practices themselves? Could these provide new agency to address contemporary and future challenges within the expanded fields of the profession? I approach the processes of learning from a design educator’s perspective. In this thesis I consider practice as research, where my pedagogic activities are seen as part of my artistic practice. My research material are the live pedagogical situations (spaces of learning) within MA studies of interiors over the past 10 years, which I use to examine and disseminate the diversity of spatio-pedagogical conditions. Through my diary-like writings (novellas), I have processed and reflected in action the qualities of those situations. With my drawings, as architectural notations, I further distil and analyse the emerging findings, and present for scrutiny a live design installation, ‘a table’. I contextualise and bring my practices into reciprocal discourse with the relevant historical and theoretical constructs of the key concepts on spatial interiority and dialogical learning. I propose in my findings a complementary professional agency, a pedagogic architect, who has the will to appreciate the inherent ambiguity within the practice, as to empower oneself to adapt and alter the unpredictable socio-spatial conditions. With this thesis I wish to contribute into discourses of spatial practices with auxiliary perspectives to teaching and learning, providing awareness of responsibilities and power structures and opening potentially expanding fields. The proposition is to offer students to envisage designers’ alternative professional futures, complement broader pedagogical debate and challenge the conventions of professional practices.
  • Tasapainoa tavoittamassa - Lavastajan ammatillinen asiantuntijuus fiktioelokuvatuotannon ennakkosuunnittelun valtakäytännöissä
    (2024) Rantama, Marjaana
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    The study examines the professional expertise of the set designer in the production culture of fiction film by applying the autoethnographic method. The filmmaker should create a world in which the events of the story are convincing. The scenic elements, landscapes and spaces tell the story of the world's culture, values, ideals, emotions, past and possible futures for its actors. To do this, the set designer has to find out for herself what the story is about at its deepest level. What is the meaning of the story? In this study, the researcher-designer explores the power practices of production from the standpoint of first-hand experience of repetition and silencing. The research aims to reveal and understand the hidden beliefs, expectations and assumptions of both the set designer and the power holders who define the set designer. Five recurring 'narratives of truth' are presented as research findings. They are found to permeate film culture and influence the choices of the filmmakers. However, the truth narratives are found to be paradoxical in relation to actual making and acting. The analysis contextualises public narratives and embodied authorial knowledge in relation to the wider phenomena of power from the individual to the group, culture, society and the material environment. Power practices will be examined from the perspective of the expectations of both the designer-researcher and the needs of those defining the staging process. The research material consists of a working diary of the designer-researcher's set design and interviews with the director, producer and other set designers conducted for the purpose of the research. Publications from selected film funding and training bodies have been used as ancillary material. Interpretation is based on three key paradigms of systems theory and Niklas Luhmann's theory of ecological communication. The study finds that power practices in film emerge from social phenomena of power and are symmetrical with their paradigmatic models. In the light of this study, it seems that the practices of film making reproduce paradigmatic models of power in the narrative of the movies.The research aims to raise awareness of the hidden paradigms that influence the culture of filmmaking. Drawing on systems thinking, the research argues that through awareness, new choices and more flexible, multi-polar paradigms open up.
  • Dressing poetics: The Costume-Image in Soviet Poetic Cinema
    (2024) Ovtchinnikova, Alexandra
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    In this thesis I focus on the films of Soviet poetic cinema to explore the encounter of costume with the medium of film. The term ‘Soviet poetic cinema’ refers to the work of a small group of Soviet filmmakers who operated in the regional studios of the Soviet Union in the period between the early 1960s and late 1980s. Their work is characterised by bold experimentation, ethno-national motifs and, an element that has frequently been underplayed, a prominent use of costume. The thesis’ primary focus is on how costumes shape the vivid visual worlds of these highly imaginative films. My discussion centres on three films in particular, which exemplify in various ways how costumes define the formal and figurative aspects of the mise-en-scène in these films: Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates (1969), with costumes designed by Elena Akhvlediani, Iosif Karalyan, Jasmine Sarabyan, and Parajanov himself; Tengiz Abuladze’s The Plea (1967), with costumes designed by Tengiz Mirzashvili; and Yuri Illienko’s The Eve of Ivan Kupalo (1968), with costumes designed by Lidiya Baykova. I frame the analyses of these three films within a wider inquiry into costume design in Soviet poetic cinema, a singular cinematic phenomenon emerging during broader shifts in the Soviet film industry as part of the second wave of modernism that emerged worldwide in the 1960s and 1980s. By turning its attention to costume as a pronounced aspect of Soviet poetic cinema, this thesis sets itself two goals: first, to reveal and highlight the importance of costume in the fabrication of Soviet poetic cinema; and second, to position costume at the centre of the then-radical modernist redefinition of the film image. Specifically, I draw attention to how costume-focused perspectives can expand existing debates around these films on three key subjects: creative ownership and auteurism; a preoccupation with ethnic and historical themes; and a destabilisation of the classical narrative structures that characterized mainstream Soviet cinema at the time. Building on previous studies on Soviet poetic cinema and Soviet cinema, as well as scholarship on film costume, this thesis provides a conceptual and historical framework for an image-focused approach to costume that is central to Soviet poetic cinema. Key to my case studies and contextual analysis is the concept of costume-image – a concept I use to refer to the costume-as-image that spectators encounter when they experience a film. Rather than a physical costume, then, the focus is on the coming together of the sartorial and the cinematic within the film frame. Here, the costume-image is presented as a methodological tool for style analysis, and a theoretical lens that positions this research within current discourse on mise-en-scène and film style. With its emphasis on contextual analysis and a close reading of the three films, this thesis contributes to current debates on Soviet poetic cinema and costume design for film. It does so in three principal ways: first, it positions a costume-focused approach as a valuable lens for the study of Soviet poetic cinema. While there is a considerable body of literature on Soviet poetic cinema, relatively little has been written about costume as its key component. Yet costumes play an instrumental role in shaping the look and the aesthetic identity of these films. Second, it foregrounds Soviet poetic cinema as a film phenomenon that exemplifies the affective power of costume as a cinematic form. In this way, this research expands on existing scholarship on film costume by engaging with the production of the Soviet ethno-national periphery as part of a broader shift that shaped European cinema during the second wave of modernism. And third, it puts forward a novel methodological approach for the analysis of costume in film, by proposing the concept of costume-image. While there have been earlier scholarly analyses that approach ‘costume- as- image’, in this thesis I present a concrete methodological model that can be used for the investigation of costume within the medium of film. Soviet poetic cinema, perhaps more than other cinemas, offers itself for such analysis. Yet, rather than being limited by this historical, cultural, or artistic context, this thesis proposes that the concept of costume-image can be used for engaging with other forms of cinema as well.
  • Understanding Game Work Migration: Game Expats in Finland
    (2024) Park, Solip
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    This dissertation explores the experiences and creative work practices of migrant game developers ("game expats") in Finland, focusing on the factors that motivate them to move to or leave the country, as well as the cultural adaptations they encounter in their work practices. Additionally, the study includes methodological and pedagogical explorations aimed at enhancing multinational game development work. There has been a significant growth in the number of game expats in recent years. In Finland, game expats now occupy nearly one-third of the nation's entire game industry workforce. However, academic inquiries into game expats' work, life, and migration experiences have been overlooked. As of writing, this dissertation is the first scholarly attempt to study the microscopic landscape of game work migration, by asking: (i) What are the factors that affect game expats' migration and settlement intention?, (ii) How do those factors affect the game expats' practices of game development?, (iii) How could one improve the multicultural practices of game development? My research methodology focused on capturing the experiences of game expats, using qualitative longitudinal research combined with arts-based research methods while engaging with the participants for four years. Semi-structured interviews collected from the participants were analysed using thematic analysis and grounded theory, supplemented by inductive visual abstractions and research popularisation through comic art making (a web-comic series titled "Game Expats Story"). My research offers three key contributions. First, it highlights the multifaceted nature of game development and its influence on game work migration, including globally shared technical skills that motivate game expats to relocate, locally distinctive practices that encourage settlement, and the role of the occupational community in bridging global and local boundaries. Second, it exposes the worrying talent import tactic of "cultural fit" normalised in the Finnish game industry, and the precarious nature of the game industry that pressures game expats to achieve immediate productivity at work promptly upon relocation. By profiling expats based on "cultural fit", the industry forces rapid assimilation, hindering game expats' natural integration and requiring them to abandon their established development practices to quickly demonstrate adaptability in Finland. Third, to address these challenges, the dissertation introduces a pedagogical exploration designed to enhance the cultural competencies of future game developers and calls for industry-wide collaboration to rethink talent import strategies. Further interdisciplinary research is essential to deepen the scientific understanding of game development practices globally, fostering a game industry that is culturally diverse, inclusive, and equitable.
  • Building (with) Pictures: The Confusing Fluency of Architectural Photorealism
    (2024) Hyvönen, Hanna
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    This study explores the practice of photorealistic architectural visualization with regard to its technical underpinnings and cultural implications. In recent decades, pictures that mimic photographic documents have become a standard way to present architecture projects to the lay public. In critical and academic contexts, by contrast, photorealistic visualisation is customarily bypassed as a form of superficial illustration that has no significant bearing on truly architectural ideation. Through my study, I argue that photorealistic architectural visualisation should not be embraced as fluent communication nor dismissed as trivial pictorial representation. It is shown that both attitudes rely on questionable assumptions about pictorial realism as the straightforward imitation of visual reality. I develop my interpretation of photorealism by analysing the graphical user interfaces of common architectural software. On current 3D platforms, architecture is habitually inspected through operations that simulate photography: it is through an imaginary camera that architecture is made visible for the software user so that it can be assessed and worked on. I argue that the aim of photographic veracity is thus built into the digitalised toolkit of present-day architecture. Hence, instead of being a stylistic feature of pictures, architectural photorealism is better understood as a pivotal way of working on architecture – a common sense of digitalised architecture. Drawing on philosophical and art historical critiques of pictorial realism, I argue that the apparent naturalness of photorealistic operations cannot be accounted for in terms of visual imitation. Instead, the practical fluency of architectural photorealism builds on simulations of entrenched pictorial and architectural conventions. It is argued that as an artificial conglomeration of realist techniques photorealism ingrains largely held assumptions about the relationship of visual perception, pictures, and architectural space. Therefore, photorealistic architectural visualisation can be studied as a reserve of both pictorial and architectural ideals that implicitly guide the current production of built environment. It is under the cover of its seemingly trivial verisimilitude that photorealism can assume such an instrumental, and, frequently, misleading, role in architectural culture. Through my exploration, I challenge architects to develop new techniques of visualisation that would depart from the conventional commitments of photorealism. At the same time, however, my study underlines the vastness of the challenge: pictorial realism is more deeply rooted in architectural culture than the recent critics of photorealism have been ready to admit.
  • Thinking with people and pots: A practice-led design study of sociomaterially distributed thought processes
    (2024) Vega, Luis
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    One of the main interests of practice-led design research is to advance scholarly thinking through creative acts of making. While this form of research offers a unique epistemic sensibility facilitated by direct engagement with materials, knowledge production in the field tends to concentrate on the creative practices of individual designer-researchers. Collaborative and distributed design situations bring the potential to expand this epistemic sensibility beyond the individual, particularly by reconfiguring the social and material boundaries of one’s creative practice. The present thesis addresses this potential in an introductory summary and four peer-reviewed publications. Informed by theories of distributed cognition and sociomateriality, the summary and the publications comprise a practice-led design study illustrating how to account for the epistemic role of thinking with materials beyond the scale of individual acts of making. Publication 1 introduces the term distributed thinking through making to outline the thesis topic and the framework to investigate it. Premised on decentering the figure of the designer-researcher, the framework recalibrates the onto-epistemological dimension of ‘practice’ in practice-led design research. This refers to maintaining the site of knowledge production within one’s creative practice while expanding the nature of such practice beyond individual modes of practicing. Publication 2 presents a method to analyze shared acts of making as sociomaterial entanglements, drawing insights from a pottery-based design practice I followed as a non-participant observer. Publications 3 and 4 incorporate the framework and the method through practice-led research examples in which I engaged in the collective prototyping of two additional pottery-based design practices. The prototypes consisted of designing a co-located workshop and a remote collaboration project, each affording a distinct empirical setting to elicit processes of distributed thinking via more-than-individual acts of making. In both examples, the object of thinking was the prototype, whereas the things we made to enact that thinking were not just pots but shared modes of practicing. My original contribution to knowledge is thus a methodological approach to conducting practice-led design research. In addition to presenting a new method of data analysis, the contribution extends established data generation methods from subjective elicitation and reflection to intersubjective sensemaking and diffraction, and it proposes a theory-methods integration to navigate the entanglement of research and practice intersubjectively. In this vein, the findings delineate the entangled becoming of thinking and making, individuality and collectivity, and sociality and materiality in collaborative and distributed design situations, elucidating how to draw meaningful boundaries when studying such forms of entanglement from within. The thesis targets design scholars, designer-researchers, and doctoral students interested in tinkering with the philosophical foundations of design research led by practice. Yet, it holds relevance for a wider community of researchers grappling with the challenge of being constitutive and co-productive of their objects of inquiry.
  • Accelerating the energy transition toward zero-emission district heating systems through policy codesign
    (2024) Auvinen, Karoliina
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    Achieving zero-emission energy systems is necessary for mitigating climate change. This requires replacing fossil fuels with energy-saving measures, low lifecycle-emission primary energy sources, energy storage, and smart control systems. A significant portion of fossil fuels is consumed in district heating systems in cold climate regions worldwide. The main research question in this thesis is: "How can the energy transition toward zero-emission district heating systems be accelerated with policy codesign?" My research intersects with literature on socio-technical transitions, energy system decarbonization, transition management, and codesign. My research was conducted in collaboration with four research groups in Finland. The research methods included a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative approaches, such as interviews, energy system modelling, and prototyping. In the context of transition management, we designed and developed a mid-range pathway creation toolset and a transition arena process, which we then experimented with high-level influencers. Furthermore, by engaging with investors and other key stakeholders, we investigated socio-technical barriers and formulated policy proposals aimed at decarbonizing district heating systems. Finally, we proposed a transition pathway model for Helsinki, incorporating heat auctions to promote third-party access to the local district heating network. Our research in Finland confirmed the presence of numerous barriers to energy system decarbonization. Our research experiments indicated that mid-range transition arena processes, along with other policy codesign events, have the potential to produce effective policy suggestions for accelerating zero-emission energy transitions. Achieving energy system transformation requires wide-range policy interventions. However, implementing these in formal policy decision-making processes is contested and challenging. Transitions produce uneven costs and benefits across society. Transforming energy systems requires destabilizing the existing regime, and incumbent actors often resist this change due to path dependency. In conclusion, I propose a transition management model to accelerate the zero-emission energy transition, aiming to achieve emission reductions within district heating systems that are in line with the Paris Climate Agreement's timeline. Transition management and codesign approaches need to evolve toward institutionalization in order to create societal impact, and they must develop further in order to handle the related tensions and conflicts. However, given the current paradigm and system complexities, achieving a rapid energy transition appears improbable.
  • Experiencing urbanity in the making - Embracing uncertainty in design for social diversity and rich public realm
    (2024) Kholina, Anna
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    This thesis looks at urbanity, a quality reflecting cities' ability to attract diverse people and translate a concentration of differences into active public life, creating possibilities for social interaction and contributing to the richness of urban experiences. Social encounters in public spaces have been proven to benefit human wellbeing, promote longevity, improve safety and create positive economic effects. While often linked exclusively to city centres, urbanity is crucial for peripheries of cities which frequently lack qualities that attract a diverse pool of people and businesses, resulting in sterile or homogenised environments. In the context of polycentric development, one of the strategic goals of Finland's capital region, urbanity could support the development of multiple active centres in a decentralised suburban periphery, enhancing economic vitality and living conditions in the region. Despite its significance and many benefits, the concept of urbanity is understudied and is often reduced to vague terms like vibrancy or equated with dense and compact form. This dissertation challenges the idea that public life is a consequence of good design or policies alone and suggests shifting the focus from the properties of the environment to the process of its production to recognise and cultivate the unique potential of the urban periphery to create urbanity in alternative forms. The research uses a case study of Otaniemi, a suburban area in the capital region of Finland which is evolving into a research and innovation hub, to investigate the emergent forms of urbanity. The case study, conducted over four years, employs ethnographic methods and a framework based on Henri Lefebvre's production of space. The results of the study surfaced several conflicts and tensions which threatened to flatten emerging differences, such as the contradiction between supporting student guilds with private rooms and the need for inclusive spaces for social encounters, the densification of the centre and the emergence of backstage urbanity on the periphery, or the renovation projects for commercial use which produce sterile environments and lose their role as places for ad-hoc activities and interactions. The implications of the study are two-fold. First, it clarifies the definition of urbanity as a place where differences evolve and engage in productive exchange, which can be instrumental in guiding suburban growth and supporting regional economic development. Second, this research has brought together an analytical framework based on Lefebvre's production of space and several ethnographic methods, which could be added to the toolbox of planners, architects or participatory designers who want to engage with the messy process of tracing urbanity in the making and embrace the uncertainty of designing for public life.
  • Beyond the Craft — Three Perspectives on the Creative Process in the Innovation of Television Formats
    (2024) Morney, Elisabeth
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    The invention of new television formats is vital in the ever-changing world of media to maintain and gain the interest of the audience. The innovation of television formats leads to an overarching question: What does the creative process encompass when innovating new television formats? And that question leads to three sub-research questions: 1) Which elements belong to the creative process when innovating new television formats? 2) What is quality across genres in television? and 3) What are the prerequisites for creativity in group collaboration in the context of television format development? To answer these questions, this research consists of three published peer-reviewed articles. The first article, a case study of the Fenno-Swedish television format, Strömsö, identified 14 elements in the creative process:1) ideas, 2) brainstorm, 3) research, 4) benchmark, 5) toss ideas, 6) temporary input, 7) formulate, 8) concretize, 9) pilots, 10) rest, 11) analyze, 12) make mistakes, 13) chaos, and 14) inspiration from an unexpected source. The second article reflects on the result of such a creative process and assesses quality across genres in television through interviews conducted with television professionals in the U.S.A. and Finland, as well as board leaders of the Emmy and Peabody Awards. The third article is a case study of the genesis of the Norwegian television format Slow-TV, examining circumstances influencing creativity in team collaboration, with a special focus on the genesis of the format. This practice-led research clarifies the inherent mechanisms in creating new and original audiovisual programs and offers an emerging theory on the innovation of television formats. The practice-led approach leaves the viewer experience to a minimum, while instead focusing on gaining new knowledge for the field of television and contributing to the implementation of creativity theories in the audiovisual media field. The research also contributes with case studies to the field of creativity research. To gain a deeper understanding of the process and the outcome of creating television formats, creativity studies were employed, including those related to the creative process, the creative product, and press, which is the environment influencing the creative thinking and behavior. The research is a triangulation of different qualitative methodologies; hermeneutics, phenomenography, case studies, constructive grounded theory, and practice-led research. This doctoral thesis is intended to aid practitioners in the audiovisual field and is practice-led in the sense that I am the researcher and also a practitioner interpreting the data through this professional lens.
  • Helsingin yliopiston päärakennuksen laajennuskilpailu 1931, edeltävät vaiheet ja toteutus – Kysymys yliopiston asemasta ja tyylistä
    (2024) Merenmies, Eija
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    The thesis deals with the 1931 architectural competition for the extension of the University of Helsinki’s Main Building, the period preceding the architectural competition, the implementation of J. S. Sirén’s winning proposal in 1935–1937, as well as the repairs to the building in 1938–1940 and 1944– 1948. The main question posed in the thesis is how the Main Building, designed by C. L. Engel and completed in 1832, influenced the 1931 architectural competition and the implementation of the extension in 1935–1937. Other important questions concern the stakeholders that influenced the evaluation of the competition proposals, and the role the Finnish Association of Architects, the university’s administration and the public debate played in it. What political or cultural values did the competition’s winning proposal and its implementation encompass? What factors influenced the post-competition changes in Sirén’s implemented design? The above questions are linked to various phenomena related to the architectural style of Sirén’s extension, in particular the stylistic features of the building and their relationship to Engel’s architecture. When distinguishing stylistic features alongside the classicism and functionalism of the 1920s, the focus falls on pastiche features and quotations. The pastiche features of the extension were regarded as taboo by the supporters of functionalism, who felt that the formalistic historicist solution weakened the value of the authenticity of the original building. In their opinion, the external character of the extension should have been clearly distinguished from the original part. Because of these features, the Sirén extension was ignored in later assessments made during the following decades. The 1931 architectural competition was exceptional in Finland, because the university’s main building that was to be extended is part of the nationally valuable site comprised of the Senate Square. That fact, and the organisation of the competition during a period of transition in Finnish architecture were the reasons for the fierce debate that arose after the competition between the supporters of the classicistic closed-block proposals and the functionalist open-block proposals. Among the competition proposals were also some mixed forms combining styles and block structures. The functionalist proposals included strip windows, shell structures and tall glazed atrium spaces made possible by new types of concrete structures. A special feature of the competition was that even though the functionalist proposals differed in appearance from the old buildings surrounding them, their authors defended the preservation of the Empire-style cityscape. The decision to implement J. S. Sirén’s classicist competition proposal was made in 1934. Sirén’s extension as built forms a closed block with the old main building. In the extension, a zone of motifs quoted from the Engel building continues in the facades, thus connecting the new part to the whole. The architecture and refined furnishings of the interior of the extension are characterized by an abundance of features of 1920s classicism. Like Engel, Sirén employed columns and pillars in the most prestigious spaces. Sirén’s extension also includes several spatial typologies adopted from Engel’s building. Since the competition proposals and Sirén’s design for the extension are compared in the thesis to Engel’s design for the main building, Engel’s University building provides the context. The thesis also examines the renovations of the Engel section designed by Sirén, first in 1938–1940 and then in 1944–48 when bomb damage in the Engel section during the Continuation War (1941-44) was repaired and the large festival hall was extended. This renovation work marked the completion of one of the last public buildings in Finland that was visibly classical in style. The central research material in the thesis has been drawings, photographs, and other archive material as well as periodicals. The competition proposals and implementation are analysed with the help of, among other things, drawings and diagrams prepared specifically for the thesis. The thesis is a case study analysing the architectural, stylistic and functional properties of the building. The designs for the extension to the university’s main building are also analysed in relation to other architecture of the period.
  • Advancing Sustainability Transformations - Co-design for Sustainable Development Policies
    (2024) Lähteenoja, Satu
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    We are living in an era of multiple environmental and social crises. Sustainability transformations are needed since no country has reached sustainability as yet and none are on the way to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Multiple challenges with SDG implementation have been identified, such as the integration and coordination of cross-sectoral topics, policy coherence, institutional capacities and local contextualisation. There is a call for new mechanisms with which to guide nations towards sustainability. Co-design for transitions, or transition co-design, is an emerging area, bringing together the scholarships of collaborative design and transition management. More empirical studies are needed on what transition co-design actually means and what it can offer for sustainability transformations, especially in the governance and policy contexts. This dissertation contributes to this research gap by empirically studying sustainable development policies and the possibilities for co-design to advance them. The research consists of four case studies approaching the topic from different angles, ranging from national to local SDG implementation, as well as from broad, systemic sustainable development topics to the narrower target of increasing renewable energy production in housing companies. The research is based on qualitative methods, including document analysis, interviews and co-design workshops. It consists of five interrelated articles. The findings of the research highlight the role of small wins in sustainability transformations. While sustainable development policy that is only based on small wins can be too incremental and slow to meet the sustainability challenges of our time, the small wins seem to pave the way for more transformative policy changes. However, to achieve sustainability transformations, small wins need to contribute to a shared ambition at a higher level. The research introduces a policy edition of the transition arena, wherein some of the earlier assumptions have been readjusted to cope with policy realities, thus enabling the tools' closer integration into official policy processes. The policy edition was developed and tested during the creation of the national sustainable development strategy, led by the Prime Minister's Office, Finland. According to the results, this method can provide a safe space for facilitated discussion on difficult topics with conflicts of interests. After co-designing positive future visions and mid-range transition pathways, the participants of transition arenas experienced increased understanding of complex systemic changes and better understood the agency of different actors in sustainability transformations. The final strategy raises difficult, transformative topics as being important for further work. While there is a need for more empirical studies on the topic, the research recommends utilising transition co-design methods in the agenda-setting phase of complex sustainability-related policy processes.
  • Genius or Charlatanry? - A psychobiographical reinterpretation of the life and works of Buckminster Fuller
    (2024) Toiviainen, Pasi P.
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    Within the history of modern architecture, R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) is hailed as a visionary futurist and polymath. While he is best known as the inventor of the geodesic dome, he is also appreciated as an important pioneer of ecological design and a front-running ecological thinker in general. Fuller's many titles include academician, architect, cartographer, designer, ecologist, economist, engineer, historian, inventor, mathematician, mechanic, philosopher, physicist, poet, systems theorist, and world planner. Indeed, he is often referred to as the Leonardo da Vinci of the twentieth century. He was a prolific author and lecturer and was granted numerous honorary titles, patents, and awards. However, within the literature, Fuller also appears as a rather controversial figure. During his career he was occasionally accused of charlatanry and crackpottery, and to this day such accusations have not been entirely dispelled. In fact, such comments surfaced once more following the publication of Fuller's latest biography, in 2022 – most intriguingly, considering its author's assertion that Fuller was, indeed, a genius. Although two previous studies, in 1973 and 1999, have attempted to debunk accusations of Fuller's possible charlatanry, their analyses remain insufficient. The present study proposes the hypothesis that Fuller was, in fact, a charlatan. Furthermore, it presents an auxiliary explanatory hypothesis that he suffered from grandiose narcissism. The latter hypothesis effectively positions the study in the field of psychobiography. To test the principal hypothesis, the study analyses not only the extent to which Fuller's works and theorizations were original and valid, and his other claims legitimate, but also the degree to which his actions exhibit characteristically charlatanic traits. To test the auxiliary hypothesis, the study assesses the alignment of his personality traits, vulnerabilities and personal history with the theoretical understanding of grandiose narcissism. The main, underlying objective is to provide a credible interpretation of Fuller's life and works as well as to understand his actions and personality. The role of the later Fuller scholarship in the creation of his lore is also investigated. The theoretical context of the study derives from the history of charlatanism, the philosophy of pseudoscience, the psychology of deceit, and an integrative approach to narcissism. The study's point of departure is Fuller's published texts, accompanied by the secondary literature on Fuller. From the leads identified in these works, the study then progresses according to its problem setting. The study findings support both hypotheses. In his working life, Fuller seems indeed to have been a charlatan whose career was mainly based on fabrication, misappropriation, pseudoscience, pretense, and imposture. The study suggests that his actions and behaviour are best understood via his fractured and grandiose personality, which, in turn, may have developed due to the complex trauma that he experienced in his childhood and youth.
  • Let it Flow - Making Generative Service Design Work
    (2024) Knight, John R.
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    This dissertation reports on doctoral research on agile service design work. The focus of the inquiry was to explore in-house design, understand current working practices and identify potential improvements if and where necessary. The research was published as five articles, each of which drew on a series of mixed methods, empirical studies that explored different aspects of agile design work. The first article found that adopting agile had both negative and positive effects on a team of practitioners who were shifting from waterfall to scrum working in a design agency. The second publication reported on a healthcare case study that trialled ways to unify agile and service design and the third article tackled the business context of service innovation and introduced a new conversational service methodology. The fourth publication shifted attention back to practitioners' experiences of agility and reported issues affecting designers' occupational balance in extreme agile. Problems emanated from poorly defined tasks, ambiguous requirements, weak project vision and cross-functional misalignments. These factors, both individually and in combination, often stymied progress, reduced design impact and integrity and eroded practitioner wellbeing. The concluding article identified specific ways and means to improve integrating design in service production in different forms of agile. The results suggested that looser modes of agile could be ameliorated through principled, positive, practitioner resistance alone. More rigid agile forms, however, were improved by applying four foundation design practices, whereas intense and scaled forms required more structured approaches to team task definition and workflow control. In the final inquiry, practitioner feedback indicated the proposed remediating and resistant approach to unifying design and agile helped make service design work flow and improved practitioner job satisfaction.
  • The Teaching of drawing in higher arts education — Articulating the practitioners’ orientations
    (2024) Nurminen, Marja
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (monograph)
    It is my experience of working with drawing in higher arts education since 1998 that has driven this research. During these years, I have been occupied with the significances of drawing as a part of growing up as an artist. This is why the focus of my doctoral research project is on exploring the teaching of drawing in two art universities, one in Finland and the other in Sweden. The main research question is: What kind of orientations do the practitioners have towards drawing and the teaching of drawing? Even if drawing is understood as an important and integral component of an artist’s education, the significance and value of drawing have not been articulated properly. The research touches upon two areas: higher arts education and drawing. The theoretical framework I am using is Keijo Räsänen’s notion of academic work as practical activity (2009). In the research question, I refer to orientations, which are, according to Räsänen, how to do it (tactical), what to accomplish (political), why do it in this way (moral) and who to become (personal). The methodological approach draws from “at-home ethnography”, which was developed by Mats Alvesson (2003, 2009). As he states, it is a method especially suited for studying universities and higher educational institutions in which you yourself work. I am focusing on a particular strand of at-home ethnography which I call at-home interviews. The data consist of twelve interviews with six artists/designers and university teachers from Sweden and six others from Finland. The data collection method I have chosen is expert interviews with artefacts, i.e. the interviewees had the chance to bring one to three drawings or documentations of drawings to the interviews, and we also discussed the drawings. One of my goals in this research is to demystify the teaching of drawing and the tacit knowledge which it contains by articulating it. In so doing, the research produces a description of the values and beliefs about drawing in higher arts education, supporting those who are responsible for designing content and curricula for higher arts and design education.
  • Synthesizing Art and Science - A Collaborative Approach to Understanding Intergroup Relations and Contributing to Social Change
    (2024) Amir, Einat
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    This thesis examines the vital role artists can play in shaping individuals and societies, emphasizing art as an impactful force that can foster a more inclusive, empathetic world. It explores the concept of synthesizing art and science, suggesting that equal collaborations between these fields can yield innovative solutions to contemporary 'Wicked' problems. This thesis is situated within the interdisciplinary domains of socially engaged research, ArtScience, and artistic research, with a special focus on the relationships between participatory performance art and social psychology.  This research agenda is composed of both the written and artistic components. It presents an analysis of innovative ArtScience interdisciplinary research methods and hinges on the role and efficacy of art, from collective transformation to personal engagement. Component 1 responds to why there exists a need for equal collaborations between scientists and artists, and how such collaborations could contribute to society. Underlining that artists are needed more than ever during challenging times, this study advocates for their crucial integration into all societal and environmental change initiatives. Component 2 shows empirical evidence from multiple studies of how the synthesis of art and science, specifically performance art with social psychology, contributes to improving prosocial behaviors by elevating empathy towards individuals from marginalized groups in different societies. Component 3 presents a tangible example of the synthesis of a social psychology field experiment with participatory performance art. As an artwork rather than an academic article, this component offers an opportunity for experiential understanding through direct emotional and aesthetic engagement, as opposed to merely analytical comprehension. Finally, component 4 illuminates the significance of art for the individual self, positioning narrative-based art as a safe space for emotional exploration, devoid of real-life social consequences.  Drawing upon the dynamic interplay between scientific research and artistic practice, this thesis positions research as the confluence between theory and practice, unearthing new knowledge. The synthesis of art and science in collaborative ventures offers enormous possibilities for innovative research. Beyond this, it has a multifaceted impact—it can educate, influence, and evoke change in individuals and societies in multiple ways.
  • Quantifying Qualia – Aesthetic Machine Attention in Resisting the Objectifying Tendency of Thought
    (2024) Okulov, Jaana
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    My interdisciplinary doctoral thesis Quantifying Qualia – Aesthetic Machine Attention in Resisting the Objectifying Tendency of Thought, conducted at the Department of Art and Media at Aalto University, explores human and algorithmic perception. While language-based approaches are widely developed and utilized in machine learning today, the thesis explores the ethical potential of alternative modes of perception to be manifested in machines and proposes the concept of aesthetic attention to invite perceptual variations from phenomena through how they resonate across the senses. Psychologist Daniel Stern suggests that this dynamic nature of experience, arising from embodiment, represents the earliest stage of development. Consequently, it serves as the primary means for interpersonal communication and also expressing inner experiences later in life. Additionally, affective and aesthetic expressions can be viewed as being rooted in these vitality forms described by Stern. The thesis argues that aesthetically oriented attention has the potential to reorganize perception by delaying the categorical determination of an experience. At the core of my research is the idea that the narrowed cognitive repertoire resulting from perceptual biases can be altered with perceptual strategies aiming to broaden the receptivity for sensory knowledge. My thesis consists of three peer-reviewed articles published in interdisciplinary edited volumes and journals, along with one peer-reviewed unpublished article. These articles redefine philosophical concepts such as aesthetic attention and qualia, making them computable. As a result, a method was developed in interdisciplinary collaboration to generate asemic stimuli algorithmically. This approach also led to the establishment of a research platform that seamlessly integrated both artistic and quantitative research. The artistic conclusion of my thesis is a research process utilizing the platform. During this process, asemic stimuli were annotated with artistic expressions as opposed to the traditional method of using verbal categories for annotating. Multimodal expressions established aesthetic data for a machine attention model to perceive beyond categories. With the research process, I demonstrated how the development of machine learning models that incorporate nonverbal expressions can influence cultures increasingly reliant on algorithmic information processing; future intelligence and ethics are founded on the choices we now make in what is recognized as valuable data.
  • Architectural computation of spatial dynamics
    (2024) Han, Yoon J.
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    In the current era, digital technology is ubiquitous throughout diverse aspects of architecture. This omnipresent condition undermines spatial discourse despite engaging with ample discussion concerning formal approaches. The research acknowledges that space and form in architectural experience are inextricably intertwined and should therefore be considered as such. In order to frame the discursive context, the thesis traces the development of an architectural understanding of experiential space through interrelations of aesthetic (bodily), spatial, and formal (geometric and topological) dynamics. The architectural understanding builds upon the conception of experiential space as field structures; the conception involves the three aforementioned dynamics and is conceptually interlinked with computational discourse in architecture. The research proposes systematic inquiries into aesthetic aspects of experiential space through a mixed-research strategy: designing a computational framework for spatial information construction and perceptual comparative analyses of the information. The computational framework in the thesis maps and visualises structural changes of experiential space as dynamic field structures, rendering abstract spatial information more tangible. Three study cases are presented showcasing the operations and behaviours of the computational framework. For each study case, the mapping results are also analysed in comparison to the existing body of architectural literature, including diverse written accounts of architectural experience based on phenomenological approaches. The comparative analyses of the study cases suggest that some qualitative descriptions of architectural spatial aesthetics can be constructed through digital computation, where resulting digital spatial information can be visually communicated. The thesis also discusses potentials and implications of the computational approach introduced in the thesis, particularly in relation to digital spatial information, digital media as cognitive extension, and digital tectonics.
  • Grounded Principles for Open Design Pedagogy - Design Perspectives on Early Years Pedagogy with Digital Technologies
    (2024) Brinck, Jaana
     School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)
    In the past few decades, researchers have shown growing interest in design in the context of teaching and learning in the 21st century. Accordingly, design has been introduced as a method to implement and develop teaching and learning practices that are more active, evidence-based, and interdisciplinary, as well as to confront real-life situations and problems. Moreover, in the current world, skills and competencies to utilise and benefit from various digital technologies are increasingly important for an individual to fully participate in society. Socialisation into digital media culture starts from an exceedingly early age, and digital environments are an integral part of children's everyday sociocultural environment. Thus, digital tools should be integrated in early years pedagogy. Consequently, this research explores the ways in which pedagogical practices should be designed to apply digital technologies in early childhood design education. The pedagogical dimensions of design practice are investigated in real-life educational context by conducting two design experiments, which highlight participatory design in pedagogical development and focus on developing practices that support the pedagogical use of digital tools and enhance children's participation in their everyday lives. To study the phenomenon, this research project conducted a participatory design process in a kindergarten in the Helsinki area for over one year, entailing 22 workshops involving research participants: teachers, daycare assistants, a pre-service kindergarten teacher, children, and pedagogical specialists. The research process was guided by a grounded theory method in which the aim is a data-driven and open-ended research process, and to actively learn from the interaction and collaboration with the research participants. The research process included three sub-studies that have been reported in three academic publications; in addition, a technology prototype was designed, implemented, and tested—an augmented reality sandbox for early childhood learning. As an overall contribution, this thesis developed grounded principles for open design pedagogy, a set of principles which is called the 4Ts of open design pedagogy. The thesis provides important perspectives on the ways that digital tools should be taken into early years pedagogy in a pedagogically meaningful manner. The main finding of this thesis is that open design pedagogy should foster learning contexts that are designed around the principles of togetherness, tools, trust, and time.