Topic outline


  • DUE TO THE ONGOING CORONA PANDEMIC THE STUDIO FORMAT WILL BE HYBRID!

    Join the Departement´s studio info for further info:  7 Sept 2021 - 10.00h > zoom session

    Performative Patterns of High Density - Sustainable Visions between Architecture and Landscape


    Digital design is driven by thinking in structures and systems, translated into pattern of order and their interaction. The studio is an introduction into such design thinking and emphasizes the exploration of spatial organizational  pattern in various levels of abstraction and scale through the integration of computational methods and digital workflows. The studio is organized as joint studio between the professorships of Design of Structures and Computational Methodologies in Landscape Architecture and Urbanism and a continuation of a collaboration with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)

    The studio in autumn will explore climate mitigation strategies through the study of performative qualities of organizational patterns on various architectural scales. By viewing the city not anymore as a collection of independent objects but rather as a systemic network of relationships the studio will explore new design strategies to engage with the surrounding urban and green systems and transform these concepts into an articulated landscape as new urban typology grounded in social and environmental sustainability. Computational methods and techniques will be developed to study the relation between buildings, the city and landscape and its underlying flows of different data streams like, people, material and culture, urban green. This knowledge will be used to speculate on new types of urban sustainability aiming at the connection of urban and green systems for future cities, taking the city of Porvoo as a test case. 

    The studio is organized as an experimental design lab. Teaching will be fully digital and exploring a data-driven encounter with urban phenomena. Studio teaching is supported by intense skill building workshops as well as reading & discussion rounds. The course is aiming at the rethinking of fundamentals of contemporary architecture and landscape architecture and can serve as starting point for a thesis research.  


    Teaching team: Prof. Toni Kotnik, Prof. Pia Fricker, Tina Cerpnjak, Luka Piskorec, Kane Borg (all Aalto) and Prof. Carlos Banon (SUTD)

    Prerequisite: completed Bachelor studies; basic modeling skills in Rhino; basic knowledge of Grasshopper beneficial (equivalent to ARK-E2512 Parametric Design)

    Credits: 30 ECTS - participants of the studio will be registered in parallel to the following courses:

    ARK-E3009 Design of Structures Studio (12cr), ARK-E2514 Design of Structures Theory (3cr), ARK-E551801 Digital Speculative Urbanism Studio (12cr), ARK-E551001 Digital Speculative Urbanism Lecture (3cr)

    Number of participants: max. 30

    Time: teaching period I - II, Tuesday 9h - 15h & Thursdays 9h-17h

    Responsible Teacher:  Pia Fricker (pia.fricker@aalto.fi) & Toni Kotnik (toni.kotnik@aalto.fi)