Topic outline

  • General Course Information


    General introduction 

    Urban Challenge Studio 1 provides an introduction to challenge-driven and research-based urban planning in an interdisciplinary setting. The course addresses all levels of scale -- from macro to micro --  and time -- from the contemporary, to past and future. 

    In Studio 1, students acquire training in research and planning through thematic project work within a focus area. The size and location of this focus area are carefully selected with the aim to cover heterogeneous grounds and offer a variety of potential challenges. The area is large enough to facilitate a broad and strategic approach yet encompasses enough spatially distinct qualities to necessitate zooming in and consider the details.  

    In the first half of the studio, Period 1, project work is realized through a series of practical tasks, supported by site visits, lectures, seminars, reading, reflecting and writing. The focus is on analysis by means of information gathering and interpreting. During the second half of the studio, Period 2, the focus shifts to synthesis by means of ‘plan-making’, which in this context is understood in general terms as the collective action for answering future needs. Discussion is central to the entire course. Students work in interdisciplinary groups, and the teaching team too consists of experts from a variety of fields.  

    By the end of Studio 1 students possess a broader understanding of the complexities of urban development, and have acquired practical training in analysing, visualizing, and responding practically to challenges in the urban environment. 

    The project area 

    The study area for studio 1 in Autumn 2022 is situated in the North-West “corner” of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA), along the corridor where a section of Ring Road II was originally planned but never realised. The area stretches across all four municipalities of the HMA: Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen. 

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