The journal "Architectural Research in Finland" is serving an academic publishing forum to the research field covering a variety of scales from technical details to global issues of urban and regional development. Architectural research is interdisciplinary by nature, covering technical sciences on construction and digital tools, social sciences on urbanism, environmental sciences on the impacts of urbanization and on landscape, and humanities on the history and theory of architecture. In addition to this, architecture as an art and design practice is more and more used as a research method on its own, as arts-based research or research by design. The papers published as articles in the journal are treated fairly and equally and with academic rigour, by reviewers on doctoral level, in order to provide a respectable forum for publishing new results of architectural research in Finland, as well as critical debate on the contemporary issues relevant to architecture. In May 2018 ARF was ranked at Level 1 (basic) in the Finnish Publication Forum classification system.
Aalto ARTS Department of Architecture, Tampere University School of Architecture and Oulu School of Architecture.
Paimio Sanatorium: interrelationships within a technological system
This paper discusses the water, sewage, ventilation and electrical systems at the scale of the patient room, as well as the scale of the site, in the Paimio Sanatorium (1928–1933), designed by Alvar Aalto. The theoretical underpinning for the study is the actor-network theory developed by the French sociologist Bruno Latour. Besides the social theory, it also assigns a role for material factors in the evolution of technological systems. In this theory, the relationship between social and material actants is reciprocal, an observation which opens up interesting angles into architectural research. The study aims to answer the questions: which actants modified the decisions regarding different technological solutions; how did they mediate this input; and what kind of impact did the processes make, in themselves, in return? I deduced, that the building process of the sanatorium involved a lot of new technology, the application and development of which was an integral part of the architectonic meaning creation in a large-scale institutional construction such as this, and it succeeded in varying degrees. The success or failure of the design largely depended on how viable a network the actants were together able to assemble. The examination of the relationship between architecture and technology in the building process of the sanatorium reveals which issues were critical for the architect and for the other actants in shaping the different solutions, and helps us understand why a certain system was developed further than another – and how modernism came to be expressed in Paimio Sanatorium.
This article presents the ambitious potentialities in the use of digital methods and techniques for the documentation of the Nordic architectural heritage and environment. The processes of knowledge, both theoretical and practical, should not ignore the traces of the past, old buildings and traditional constructions. On the contrary, they should serve as a testimony of the past and provide a solid starting point for new, more coherent, sustainable and harmonic urban development. Since the Venice Charter in 1965 up to the more recent international documents such as the Declaration of Amsterdam in 1975 and the Madrid Document in 2011, both the verification of authenticity and understanding of architectural entities and details are getting more insight because of the current technological advancements. However, the methods for the analysis and following these noble principles and declaration articles is still not defined well enough. Each method and practical procedure with specific instruments produce also specific outputs and results, which need to be put in mutual dialogue in order to obtain useful results. These themes are studied and developed in this article by presenting chosen case studies in research projects both on the urban and singular scale with the location in Oulu, Finland.
Copyright (c) 2021 Architectural Research in Finland
Shouldn’t All Architecture Be Designed with Empathy?
Rapid urbanisation and, as a result fast growing informal areas, increase the need for affordable housing. This urgent need requires new forms of input from the architects active in the Global South. The profession must adapt and evolve. Based on previous research, I argue that to build sustainable communities, the residents must be heard and be part of the development process. To involve residents, architects can use new contextually suitable and effective design methods. The study comprised action research on an affordable housing design project in Zanzibar, Tanzania. This paper presents the early stages of a design process for a project still in progress. A close look at the Zanzibar case reveals four human-centred methods from the design discipline to the architectural design process: applied ethnography, empathic design, contextual design, co-design and participatory design. Through the analyses of these different methods, I explored the importance of empathy while designing in settings with contextual constraints. The study revealed the potential of developing empathic methods from the design discipline in the context of architectural design. Further, it suggests that empathic methods can be used by architects pursuing sustainable development.
Affordable housing; inhabitant engagement; human-centred design; design methods; empathic design
Affordances and Limitations of Cognitive Bias Reduction in Introductory Digital Design Pedagogy
As digital design rapidly expands the disciplinary knowledge-base of related media, methods, and modes in architecture, cognition-based pedagogical strategies hold unique promise in introductory digital design education to increase knowledge transfer efficiency (i.e. learning) by aligning the learner’s natural schema-developmental processes with the inherent affordances of digital tooling methods. Through the employment of cognitive-based instructional strategies that seek to refine the designer’s own judgement and decision making processes, can academicians exploit the affordances of digital design technologies to enhance the architectural learning process in ways not possible in an analog age? This paper frames and explores cognitive bias mitigation as a pedagogical strategy that may increase knowledge transfer efficiency in digital design pedagogy by helping novice learners to mitigate common cognitive biases in the iterative design process. The literature that explores decision-making processes in design will be presented first. This foundational introduction will then be followed by an overview of the implications of early-stage design decision making in architectural learning environments. Cognitive biases particularly applicable to architectural design will be introduced with a distinct emphasis placed upon those that may be augmented or compounded in digital design environments. Cognitive limitations to architectural decision-makers such as projection bias, affective forecasting, and the hot/cold model will be explored in detail. Cognition-based pedagogical strategies that seek to refine the designer’s own judgement hold promise in the emerging field of digital design as progressive technologies and processes are plagued by missed opportunities for the learner’s own decision-making intellectual advancement. Theory and concepts from the decision sciences and digital design in architecture are cross-pollinated in this study.
digital design, novice learner, cognitive biases
Impervious Coverage in Finnish Single-Family House Plots
Single-family house areas account for a significant percentage of the total square area of cities. Where statutory land use planning is concerned, single-family house areas and single-family house plots in Finland are usually addressed only in terms of housing, even though the impervious surfaces their construction creates also determine the cause of stormwater runoff and urban green spaces. This study will explore the specification of impervious surfaces in the single-family plots of modern-day Finland. Impervious surfaces are a key factor in causing stormwater runoff and the deterioration in the condition of catchment area streams. At the same time, impervious surfaces seal the ground surface and prevent vegetation from growing at each site. The research subject involved three plots in a housing fair area and their garden plan (N = 63), which represent sites completed in the same area. Housing fairs present individual consumers with the ideal of single-family housing as proposed by commercial developers. Permeable and impervious surfaces and their detailed breakdown into different surface types were measured in the plans. Although a considerable percentage of the impervious surface area in a modern-day Finnish plot is formed by garden surfaces, vehicle parking and various types of shelters and roofs also play a role in the formation of imperviousness. Used as a tool in statutory land use planning, plot density does not specify plot permeability, in which the roof square area is the primary factor. When defining the area of imperviousness, statutory land use planning could make use of the maximum allowable roof square area and/or the maximum allowable amount of impervious surface coverage as well as reduce the need for surfaced passageways by placing the parking space and residential building centrally within the plot. Setting guidelines for the amount of green space within a plot is more challenging, because the changing needs of residents significantly influence plot landscaping.
low-density housing, housing density, garden size, imperviousness, plot scale, Housing Fair Finland
Revitalizing New York’s East River Waterfront
Urban waterfronts are undergoing significant transformations. In many Western cities former industrial sites are experiencing a renewal as they are being rebuilt for new uses. For a long period, many waterfronts in inner cities were used primarily as industrial zones and harbors, limiting the number of citizens living on the shore. However, in the future new urban maritime districts around the world will provide cities with more waterfront housing and leisure venues. The city of New York has already opened up access to miles of shoreline that had been closed off to the public for decades. Diverse waterfronts are now among the most important of the city’s resources. Open space, resiliency, living by the waterfront, transportation and in-water recreation are among the priorities for future development. The aim of this paper is to look into current waterfront development along New York’s East River, map the activities and functions, and research the processes behind the development. The key question is what are the existing activities at the waterfront and what kind of approaches does the city have to face the future challenges at the coastline. The methods include field study, observation, data research, data analysis and interviews with key actors involved in the development processes in New York. This paper will contribute to the discussion on urban waterfront transformation and the experiences it provides. Emphasis is placed on urban planning, programming, cooperation and innovation in relation to the waterfront. Urban development is viewed as a condensation of activities, programs and networks. The themes include meantime strategies and collaboration strategies. The aim is to shed light on what lies beyond – the models and processes of waterfront development that create urban experiences.
waterfront, New York, urban planning, urban design, revitalization
Criteria to Evaluate the Quality of Building Envelope Retrofits
The construction industry is progressively moving from designing and building new towards redesigning, upgrading and maintaining existing buildings. Concurrently, the increasing demand for urban renewal calls for architectural interventions. Success and the meeting of set goals is typically assessed using an established framework. Architectural tradition offers methodologies to evaluate built structures based on characteristics like build quality, engineering performance, functionality, spatial design, and effects on the living environment.However, in addition to these qualities, building refurbishments target energetic, economic, environmental and social improvements. They respond to complex requirements set by an extensive network of stakeholders. A qualitative building assessment based on architecture alone does not sufficiently reflect the aims of such processes, and a holistic means to analyze refurbishment designs is lacking. This paper presents a review of existing building assessment methodologies, and suggests a new, simple set of evaluation criteria for interventions on the building envelope. The proposal is demonstrated by assessing three cases illustrating different approaches to such processes. Evaluation results prove the usability of the method to assess the variation in extent and aims of implemented measures. Coupled with quantitative estimations, it could aid the decision making process in residential housing cooperatives. Future development should include further cases and more extensive building refurbishments.
building envelopes, build quality, evaluation criteria, refurbishments, energy retrofits, qualitative building assessment
The complex phenomenon of architecture consists of too many irreconcilable and conflicting categories of thought, intention, emotion, interaction and action to be condensed into the framework of a single theory of architecture. Besides, art and architecture are constituted in their mental encounter and experience instead of the material works themselves. Works of architecture and art are encountered and lived rather than understood intellectually. Architecture is commonly understood, taught, practiced and evaluated primarily as a visual art form. However, we encounter buildings and environments through our entire sense of being. Perceptions interact with memory and imagination to constitute an experience with meaning and temporal duration. Art and architecture are essentially relational phenomena as they express our being in the world instead of themselves or their authors. The interest in architecture as experience also directs our attention to such diffuse and neglected experiences as atmospheres, ambiences, feelings, moods and attunements.
experience, existential sense, relational phenomena
Increasing the use of timber has been proposed as one step towards more sustainable architecture and construction. Timber's renewability and the capability to store carbon have dominated this discussion. At the same time, viewpoints related to material efficiency and recycling, equally important aspects to sustainability, have been neglected. Unfortunately, recycling wood can be challenging, and countries that already build a lot with timber tend to rely on incineration at the end of the life cycle. Reusing wood could, however, save emissions from manufacturing new timber and disposing of demolished timber and prolong the time the carbon stays sequestered. Embedded in new architectural ensembles, salvaged components could also transmit the past to the contemporary viewer and thus, result in more evocative architecture. Barriers preventing reuse in general have been documented in literature, but few solutions have been proposed. The obstacles include, among other things, inconsistent quality and quantity, difficulty of dimensional coordination and negative perception, which are all issues connected to design. This paper employs literature review and design simulation in addressing the challenges of architectural design from reclaimed timber. With the help of literature, the tectonic nature of reclaimed wood material is elaborated in more detail. The design simulation was conducted during a special timber architecture course with the help of 36 students, whose design projects form the empirical research material of the paper. Engaging in a discussion with literature and the research material, the study results in recognizing how reclaimed timber essentially differs from virgin timber and proposes ten design principles for managing the inconsistencies associated with the salvaged material. The presented discussion demonstrates that reclaimed materials should be considered as materials of their own; they should not be expected to simply comply with conventional construction methods and design practices. Since the salvaged components already exist, their architectural and structural design cannot be differentiated from each other. Therefore, tectonic expression endogenous to reclaimed materials needs to be developed in order to actuate their more widespread reuse. Whereas historical and vernacular construction methods withhold many insights for architectural design from reclaimed timber, contemporary computer-aided design offers novel tools for the execution of these ideas. The remarks of the paper are not only valid in Western contexts, but may be highly relevant for architects working in developing countries.
architectural design, cascading, circular economy, recycling, reuse, salvaged wood
Christopher Alexanderin arkkitehtuurifilosofian lähtökohtana on arkkitehtuurin käsitteellistämisen vaikeus. Hän puhui ”laadusta vailla nimeä”, mistä hän sanoi, ettei sitä voi ”valmistaa, vaan se syntyy ihmisten arkisen tekemisen kautta epäsuorasti” (Alexander 1979, xi). Tässä teoreettisessa artikkelissa jaetaan tuo näkemys, kuten myös pyrkimys selittää arkkitehtuurin tapahtumista kielellisyyden kautta. Teoreettista selitystä arkkitehtuurin ei-käsitteellistetylle laadulle ihmisten arkisessa toiminnassa haetaan kuitenkin eri suunnalta kuin Alexander: yhdistelemällä Gregory Batesonin teoriaa toiminnallisesta metakommunikaatiosta Ludwig Wittgensteinin filosofisiin näkemyksiin kielen käytön käytäntöjen (kielipelien) sidonnaisuudesta elämänmuotoihin sekä edelleen Roger Scrutonin Wittgensteinia soveltavaan arkkitehtuuriestetiikkaan. Tältä pohjalta artikkelissa hahmotellaan teoriaa arkkitehtuurin laadusta arkisena viihtymisenä, missä arkkitehtuurin käyttäjille tarjoutuu mahdollisuuksia käyttönsä myötä omaehtoiseen itseilmaisuun keskinäisessä sosiaalisessa koordinoitumisessaan rakennetussa ympäristössä. Vaikka tällainen viihtyminen on pitkälti tiedostamatonta, on sen mahdollistavaa arkkitehtuuria suunniteltaessa kuitenkin kyettävä käsitteellistämään siihen sisältyviä sosiaalis-materiaalisia elementtejä. Arkkitehdilta vaaditaan herkkyyttä ja eläytymiskykyä tunnistaa, ei vain arkkitehtuurin esineympäristön funktionaalisen käytön kielipelejä, vaan myös sen esteettisen käytön kielipelejä, joissa arkkitehtuurin käyttäjät itseään metakommunikoivasti ilmaisten koordinoituvat keskinäisissä suhteissaan. Funktionalismin perinnön myötä arkkitehtuurin esteettisen käytön merkitys on jäänyt laajalti vaille ymmärrystä. Vallitsevassa kulttuurissamme se näyttää korvautuneen arkkitehtuuriestetiikalla, joka suuntautuu ennemminkin arkkitehtikunnan keskinäisiin kielipeleihin.
estetiikka, kielipeli, käyttötaide, metakommunikaatio, viihtyminen
The “Aesthetic Turn” as a Bridge between Communicative and Agonist Planning Theories
This paper discusses the dispute between consensus-oriented communicative planning theorists and dissensus-oriented agonist planning theorists. The paper starts from the observation that a number of advocates of agonism have followed the so-called “aesthetic turn” in political thought. They have emphasised, in particular, the politically progressive potential of the mode of reason that Kant introduced in his aesthetics, a mode that deviates from the Kantian theoretical and practical modes of reason, and one that has generally been marginalised in modern societies. While the proponents of agonism wish to make use of this mode of reason when attempting to challenge hegemonic projects and give voice to marginalised groups in society, Habermas has been generally taken to be one of those philosophers who marginalize the aesthetic mode of reason. Yet, also Habermas has found inspiration from Kant’s aesthetics, including the notions of consensus and sensus communis. Hence, the paper revisits Kantian aesthetics to search for a common ground between Habermasian and agonist views of politics and planning. It ends up arguing that the notions of consensus and dissensus do not stand for mutually exclusive orientations in planning, but both of these orientations have their places in planning systems and practices. The paper takes a look at some recent case studies that have charted potential places for productive agonist confrontations in the British development control based planning system. Having done so, the paper ends with some suggestions as to where would be the appropriate places for respective approaches in the context of Finnish planning.
agonism, communicative planning, consensus, dissensus, Habermas
Due to a multitude of reasons, the prevailing conceptions regarding the aesthetic values and the principles of aesthetic evaluation of different urban environments are significantly varying, and there may not be a wide-spread consensus even about the general meaning of aesthetic issues in urban environments. That is to say, when discussing the aesthetics and aesthetic values of urban environments, the aesthetic concepts may refer to a variety of phenomena, and, further, the relationship between the aesthetic dimension and other key aspects constituting the urban experience is rather ambiguous. Moreover, aesthetic issues comprise a considerable part of urban planning, and yet it is not evident, how and on what grounds the diverse questions involving aesthetics are or should be solved in practice. If aesthetic questions are to be resolved collectively and by the means of rational argumentation, it is reasonable to ask for the necessary preconditions of such “aesthetic cooperation” and its coordination. The question regarding the preconditions may be addressed using the concept of trading zone. Such an approach highlights the importance of defining the relevant actors taking part in the cooperation (i.e. the “trade”) and their motivation to work cooperatively. The basis for motivation lies in recognizing achievable benefits and pursuing them by the means of trade. There may, however, be a lack of motivation if there are more straightforward and effortless alternatives available, or if the possibilities for achieving the benefits appear negligible or nonexistent. For example, if the outcomes of the official participatory planning process are continuously considered inappropriate and unjust from the viewpoint of certain stakeholders, the process may eventually lose its status as a genuine trading zone. This, in turn, may result in purposeless objections and appeals aiming at merely paralyzing the entire process. Present-day planning processes ignore experiential and thus qualitative arguments rather easily, which is a major source of experienced injustice. Hence, there is a demand for certain “thin interpretations” summarizing the most essential values and meanings of different stakeholders without requiring a thorough explication of related lifeworlds. Experiential and qualitative arguments are essential also with regard to aesthetics, and the notion of “urban aesthetics as a trading zone” refers to thin interpretations of aesthetic issues, implying that though there could be some kind of consensus about the general and large-scale meaning of urban aesthetics despite significant and wide-spread disagreements about particular aesthetic values. Aesthetic issues are of particular weight in the context of urban infill development – mainly due to the fact that infill development plans usually aim at changing an environment in which many locally bound networks of experiential meanings and values already exist – and empirical studies suggest that the questions of aesthetics may even be decisive when it comes to approving and disapproving potential infill plans. “Urban aesthetics as a trading zone” clarifies 1) why the infill plans are so often contested, 2) which are the fundamental values that the stakeholders eventually defend or oppose, and 3) why the encountered resistance may convert into a complete denial of cooperation so easily.
aesthetics, consensus, infill development, urban environment, urban planning, trading zone
The Experience and Beauty in the Cultural Heritage Discourse
The cultural heritage in the built environment is developing discursively, and the concept is today exposed more variously than a decade ago when I explained in the doctoral dissertation through a case study how the place, the process and the experience were arising in the Foucaldian discourses. My on-going research on the change of the cultural heritage discourse (kulttuuriympäristö) is showing how the designations are changing and the concepts re-defined. The national strategy on the cultural heritage (2014) is emphasizing everybody’s right on the good cultural heritage environment and also the responsibilities to take care of that. When we now share the idea that the cultural heritage in the built environment is belonging to all of us, the places and experiences of all are also important. Nevertheless, in the end is the experience or the aesthetic experience exactly, really important when opinions are contradictory and the crucial decision has to be made: to preserve or to dismantle the building? The absence of aesthetics in decision-making has been extremely explicit since the recession of the 1990s and public discussions and political decision-making seem to involve mostly economic arguments. Architects are using the experience, meaning the aesthetic, bodily experience or referring to art, in their professional speech but to speak about “the beauty experience” or able to emphasize the meaning of beauty in architecture, and also in the environment is usually left outside the discussions. The experience, together with reflection, following Dewey, is very important in the speech of teaching architects. In the cultural heritage discourse, narratives, experiences and local stories from bottom-up are arising but do we talk about the aesthetics or the experiences of beauty in the built environment? In this paper, the aim is to discuss about the meaning of experiences and the role of beauty in cultural heritage discourse. The method used here is the case study research, and two local cases from different decades will be introduced to demonstrate how miniscule or completely absent aesthetic argumentation in decision making processes can remain, and how different the solutions ended up, though both cases concerned the question of built cultural heritage. The central question in my on-going research project on the changing cultural heritage discourse is: How “the aesthetic experience” is appearing today in the cultural heritage discourses? This paper aims to cast light on that and tries to answer especially this: How did the cultural heritage discourse evolve from different experiences; and how did ugliness become important rather than beauty in the case studies?
aesthetics, cultural heritage, discourse, experience, beauty, case study
Driving in/between Places: Rhythms, Urban Spaces and Everyday Driving Routes
The use of the private car is one of the key factors that have shaped the contemporary urban milieu and daily life in the city. The paper examines what kind of temporal relations are produced between the driver and the environment in the context of habitual everyday driving routes. The data – utilizing go-along interviews, participant-produced visual material and recorded videos of drives – is examined by focusing on the temporal character of the routes by utilizing a ‘rhythmanalytical’ framework. The analysis examines ways in which spatial rhythms are produced and interacted with in and beyond the car-space. Focusing on the rhythmicities of everyday driving routes – as sites of everyday life and contexts for the urban experience – uncovers relations, experiences and meanings embedded in these mobile spaces and practices.
rhythm, mobility, driving, place-making, everyday life, rhythmanalysis
A successful architectural project will eventually encourage countless people to work for change. Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects and Ukumbi NGO strives to use architecture as a tool to improve the living conditions of underprivileged communities. The impacts of a successful building project in a low-resource setting can be seen as twofold, consisting of on-site and off-site effects. The architect’s ability to combine his or her expertise and experience with that of the locals is an important aspect for the success of the project. To employ local building traditions in the poorest countries of the world is not just a matter a justice, it is also a way to find different paths to our own future. It is usually not very difficult to introduce a new technology or new building developments; the challenging part is getting the new ideas to survive and take root in the long term.
humane architecture, impact, locality, participation, developing countries
This paper deals with ontological and epistemological questions about how music, listening and public spaces are intertwined. It introduces selected studies on environmental sounds including Soundscape Studies initiated in Vancouver and its relation to the Bauhaus art movement. Other research traditions presented here are based on the concept of how sound sensations, experiences and memories construct a place. They also state that when examining the relationship between urban sounds and spaces, a researcher should pay attention to the fact that no sound event can be isolated from the spatial and temporal conditions out of which the physical signal is propagated. Furthermore, the paper introduces the concept of transphonia, which refers to the mechanical, electro-acoustic and digital storage, moulding, reproduction and transmission of sound, and how this phenomenon constructs shared urban environments. When applied in public soundscapes, the sound-producing equipment, its applications and its musical content become political, and therefore negotiable. Thus, centripetal and centrifugal sounds which have been selected to attract certain consumer segments whilst repelling others are increasingly becoming the subject of scholarly interest because of their highly political nature. Such sounds are not only musical, but encompass other liked and disliked sounds. A case study on commercial radio and urban public spaces is used to shed light on different aspects of transphonia. It shows that radio music in urban public spaces is largely a side-issue for any the radio stations’ music policy, as their music is not selected with these spaces in mind. Nevertheless, it is evident that radio stations are relatively influential in constructing the sonic environments of shared spaces. This construction is in the hands of a few radio professionals, although it should be noted that these individuals’ positions are far from being monolithic, as they are subject to constantly changing economic, legislative and cultural circumstances. This suggests that a space composed of electro-acoustic sounds would be in constant transformation, too, and it would be a target of constant negotiation and struggle regarding its nature, e.g. in relation to the gender, class, age and socioeconomic status of its users.
acoustic design, environment, music, radio, soundscape
On the Role of Geometry in Formal Design
In recent decades, new methodologies have emerged in architectural design that exploit the computer as a design tool. This has generated a varied set of digital skills and a new type of architectural knowledge. This means, architecture is taking part in an “intellectual revolution [that] is happening all around us, but few people are remarking on it. Computational thinking is influencing research in nearly all disciplines, both in the sciences and the humanities. It is changing the way we think.” i A good example of such reshaping of discipline-immanent thinking by means of computation is the paradigmatic shift in sciences like physics or biology caused by the introduction of the computer as the primary tool for simulating and modelling natural processes
Standard Timber Structures for Lean Architectural Design
The Finnish building stock is our most significant national asset and the construction industry an important source of income. By managing building production we affect the performance of this activity. Development is required for timber-building to compete in this market. Lean culture is one approach to optimized production. Lean construction research has defined lean and industrialized processes, identified the differences between mass-customization and mass-production, and the importance of standardization. Redesign is a recognized cause of inefficiency, typical also for complex timber buildings. Development visions include building system based design automation and modularization. This study explores pre-designed details as a means to reduce work in planning processes. The article bases on a comparative case study. Six collections of pre-designed details developed for building with timber are presented and compared regarding availability, formats, accessible material and structures. Usability in practice is assessed with one selected intermediate floor structure as a benchmark. Conclusions are that barriers exist for transnational use, in referencing systems and for the direct use of proposed details and structures in a CAD-environment. The amount of material varies greatly. However, the collections successfully act as an overview of solutions compatible with local building regulations, and the similarity of solutions offers an opportunity for European wide competition and implementation. Research leading to these results is part of the transnational WoodWisdom-Net Research Programme, project Innovative lean processes and cooperation models for planning, production and maintenance of urban timber buildings, leanWOOD.
In Helsinki, Finland, the townhouse is seen as a sustainable urban version of single-family house that can reduce urban sprawl. As the townhouse is a new housing type in the country and the number of apartments projected is considerable, further knowledge about potential resident profiles and their needs is required. This paper studies townhouses as a potential solution for lifetime housing. The study focuses on people over 55 years old who represent an age group relatively free from many aspects limiting housing decisions. This age group indicates the ageing populations’ future housing aspirations. The aim of the study is to enhance the aspects of user-friendliness that make townhouses suitable for a variety of resident groups. Two townhouse surveys, Finnish Dream Home (FDH) and Townhouse energy and environment survey (Envi) as well as a series of workshops were conducted to gain further knowledge about residential preferencies. The results of the study indicate that not only families with children but also couples and one-person households in all age groups are interested in townhouses. In this respect, the themes of accessibility and flexibility are explored using the FDH and Envi results and reflected to German and Finnish case studies. A Finnish townhouse may indeed answer the needs of lifetime housing if accessibility and ease of maintenance are taken into account. Accessibility nonetheless requires integral planning and realization of street, building plot, building and the apartment as a whole. For younger generations, the notion of accessibility may be transformed as flexibility in changing life situations. In that vein, seniors represent an important group whose needs and aspirations are to be integrated into future townhouse planning. The inclusive design of townhouse should include a variety of resident groups. All users may benefit a townhouse that provides accessible care-free housing and human scale urban milieu.
Housing preferences are inherently based on the existing housing examples and the current housing supply. Thus, revealing the lay perceptions of a relatively unfamiliar housing typology invites new methodological approaches. These approaches have been investigated in the context of Finnish Dream Home (FDH) study focusing on townhouse living and related design issues. The FDH is a three-phased mixed method study, the objective of which was to examine and discover the design solutions that would increase the attractiveness of townhouse living among different types of households in Helsinki metropolitan area. This paper focuses on a design game, which provides tools to examine, reinvent and verbalize the residents’ innermost housing preferences. The game allows covering themes such as spatial flexibility and adaptability, which are otherwise difficult to study. Simultaneously, such context-sensitive game, designed to steer the focus on design-based questions, reveals the residents’ decision-making processes. The discussion and negotiation of the possible design solutions with the fellow players are the essence of this method. Supporting the participants’ ability to discuss and present their subjective housing choices, the game has been verified as a tool adjustable for different types of research settings to value residents’ opinion. Therefore, the townhouse game is an example of practice-based research diminishing the gap between housing studies and housing design.
Spatial solutions supporting information exchange and knowledge creation
Architectural practice is a creative, knowledge-based organization, and therefore information exchange and knowledge creation are essential components of architects’ profession. However, these aspects of architectural practice are not studied widely. The objective of this study is to analyse how the mobility of the different types of workers’ effects on the information exchange and knowledge creation in a team-based office layout. The research material was collected from a semi-large Finnish architecture office. The methods employed are qualitative: theme interviews with the employees and the executives of the office, together with the informal on-site observations. The preliminary analysis of the research material indicates that the team-based office layout supported tacit knowledge exchange and creative group work. The team rooms, however, did not support the individual working preferences of the participants. Furthermore, the tacit knowledge remained inside the team and did not spread through the whole organization. Therefore, as a downside, the team-based working inhibited the information exchange and knowledge creation between different teams.
Digital design as a medium for design research, praxis, and education has fundamentally disrupted the structuring of analog pedagogical contexts through an increased diversity of ontological, phenomenological, and existential design conditions. In an educational discipline noted for its exceptionally inefficient degree of knowledge transfer, how can traditional architectural pedagogy bear the burden of rapidly increasing educational content without exacerbating its instructional inefficiencies? Furthermore, how can cognitive overload for novice learners in this context be mitigated? The purpose of this paper is to frame, expose, and explore how knowledge transfer in regard to the novice learner may be impacted by digital design as an architectural medium. The design education literature in both analog and digital environments as well as cognitive theories of learning will be explored to construct a theoretical lens through which the learning affordances and challenges of digital design can be addressed. Research conducted by Ausubel, R. Oxman, Schön, Sweller, and others will be used to expose the cognitive logics associated with introductory digital design and digital skill thinking. Cognitive issues including meaningful learning, cognitive processing efficiency, and automative thinking will be considered. Pedagogical strategies supported by the educational literature related to schema development and cognitive loading will be suggested for educating novice learners in digital design. Design cognition as a subject for future research holds seminal importance in modern design education. It cannot be assumed that the pedagogical methods that provided the cornerstones of architectural education in an analogue environment remain relevant in digital contexts.
Cultural Heritage: Changing Ideas on Compensation in Planning
Compensation measures are a new method for handling impact on cultural heri-tage in land use planning. The idea with compensation measures can be understood as an extension of the polluter pays principle. Today, compensation measures are mainly used when natural environments are damaged by deve-lopment, but it is also possible to use compensation measures when a project results in negative impact on cultural heritage. However, there is a lack of ex-perience in using compensation when it comes to the latter. In our work as heritage consultants, we have experienced difficulties in imple-menting compensation measures in projects and assignments. Since 2013, we have organised a research project dealing with compensation measures and cultural heritage; aiming towards a new practice and better use of planning in-struments. With this paper, we want to share our results from four case studies where development impact on cultural heritage has led to discussions about, and implementation of, compensation measures, find patterns in the use of compensation measures in planning processes. The results show an uncertain-ty in understanding compensation as a concept. This is due to an absence of practice dealing with compensation measures; cultural heritage values are not addressed in a proper way in negotiations over land access. Several instruments for compensation measures in planning processes can actually be found in the law and land use of the Swedish planning system, but they are not being used properly, which results in a negative impact on the cultural heritage. After two years of analysing and discussing our case studies in workshops and conferences, we have concluded that there is a strong need for clarifying planning instruments and for developing a professional practice dealing with compensation measures.
Landscape Planning: from Theory to Teaching
Following the signing of the European Landscape Convention by different Spanish regions, landscape became a specific and necessary issue in regional and local planning. However, and after almost ten years, the results remain unclear and a constructive review, affecting also education, might be convenient. The lack of specific degrees in landscape architecture in Spain might partially explain the difficulties in the dissemination of the newly created landscape planning tools, although the introduction of consistent subjects in consolidated degrees like architecture, geography, agronomy, etc. or in some related masters, could have also served this purpose. The reality was nevertheless quite different since that teaching was seldom included in the university curricula, and when that happened, it tended to focus its attention in specific aspects, losing the transversal and proactive role that landscape was expected to have. Some of the most positive academic experiences came from those subjects or courses which tried to work hand in hand with this new planning context, enhancing a holistic perception of the territory, promoting a global understanding of urban, agricultural and natural areas, reading processes and patterns and, specially, emphasizing the proactive character of the landscape planning tools by overtaking formal description and by producing new models and clear spatial or normative determinations which could be conveniently introduced in the planning context. Also in those cases, multidisciplinary work, effective use of classical or new concepts like landscape unit, landscape assessment or green infrastructures, and a general understanding of the socio economic forces involved in the management or transformation of any landscape, proved to be a very useful tool to create both imaginative and realistic proposals, providing at the same time the global vision that landscape planners should have to establish the most harmonic possible dialogue between all the elements, interests and actors coexisting in any territory.
The Road to Masterplanning for Change and the Design of Resilient Places
Knowing what to design is the foresight that tomorrow’s cities need more than anything. This paper presents the Urban Design Studies Unit of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow’s coordinated approach to research in different areas of urbanism, and how we used such approach in evidence‐based masterplanning. To explain what is unarguably a complex approach to the design of the city, this paper will start with an overview into our group’s point of view on cities, and continue with a short summary of our journey to learn some aspects of how cities are. We will touch upon a few milestones only, but hopefully enough to explain the questions that have led us to what we call ‘Masterplanning for Change’, our normative approach to city design.
In his work State of Exception, the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has recently studied the consequences of the exception becoming the rule. He explains a situation where the law requires the partial exclusion of the legal order so as to preserve its legitimate character. It forms the basis of the so-called "spaces in suspension", where the rule is the exception in the form of the suspension of the legal order, the anomie. In those spaces the act of government is located in a threshold area of ambiguity between general and particular spheres. The transference of Agamben’s concept into architecture is possible. There are physical scenarios where the norm is not a security shield since it is accomplished and questioned at the same time. What type of architecture is responding to those spaces in suspension? Is there a critical attitude boosted by those kinds of architectural practices? The paper approaches the topic through a theoretical contextualization of the idea of the state of exception in architecture. This approach is based on the analysis of some case studies, which are considered as disruptive practices since they are proposing new ways of practising architecture. They utilize strategies such as new interpretations of the law (urban prosthesis, occupation of public spaces), the replacement of the authorities’ duties (occupation of public buildings and empty plots) or the proposal of new teaching practices. Their analysis let the authors define a specific context in architectural practice, which reflects a new paradigm called "architecture in suspension".