Proceedings of the Annual Architectural Research Symposium in Finland
Proceedings of the 6th Symposium of Architectural Research 2014: Designing and Planning the Built Environment for Human Well-Being The 6th Annual Symposium of Architectural Research 2014 and The Annual NAAR Symposium arranged in the October 23–25, 2014 at the Oulu School of Architecture (OSA) is a continuum to the novel tradition of arranging an annual research event by the three Finnish Schools of Architecture. The symposium was arranged for the first time in the year 2009. The current Symposium has besides the national also a Nordic dimension, since the Nordic Association of Architectural Research (NAAR) has arranged the Symposium together with the Oulu School of Architecture. The theme of the symposium - Designing and Planning the Built Environment for Human Well-being - is once again actual in the rapidly urbanizing world, and we seem to lack research based knowledge of what kind of built environments has the ability to promote good life, the experience of freedom, health, personal security and good social relationships. Our aim was to discuss how to bridge knowledge gaps between the planning, design, production, use and transformation of the Northern built environment in the context of human wellbeing. In addition, theoretical and philosophical discussion openings were asked for. The Symposium call of papers resulted abstracts and manuscripts covering the themes of Theory and Methodology, Urban Design and Planning, Cultural Heritage, Spatial Experience and Learning and Working Environment. Since the research of human - built environment relationship benefits of a cross and trans disciplinary approach, we wanted to welcome researchers and practitioners in architecture, urban design and planning, geography, cultural anthropology, social sciences, ecology, and other fields related to architectural studies to present their work. Published: 2014-10-23 Proceedings of the 6th Annual Architectural Research Symposium in Finland 2014 University of Oulu, Department of Architecture, Publications A61 ISSN:0357-8704 ISBN:978-952-62-0635-6
Oulu School of Architecture, University of Oulu
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People’s park in Linköping - from cultural heritage to housing area
This paper presents a case study of the development of People’s park (Folkets Park) in Linköping. The development included two coordinated projects; a planning project focusing on the use of the land and an architectural project implemented by the promoters aimed at planning, designing and building new housing in People’s park. The study was based on close reading of documents and interviews with key actors. The Technical and Building Department in Linköping and the County Administration Board provided documents. From this documentation the key actors have been identified. Nine of them were interviewed. The case study ends with a conclusion and discussion based on findings in the case. The story begins in 2006 when the Developer (HSB) and People’s park contacted the politicians on the board of the Technical and Building Department (Teknik- och samhällsbyggnadsnämnen) in Linköping. The developer planned to construct 250-300 apartments in the area. People’s park wanted to sell the land to renovate the main building (Cupolen) to be used for new activities/functions. In January 2008 the politicians gave the Technical and Building Department (Teknik- och samhällsbyggnadskontoret) the assignment to begin working with the promoters. In the combined planning and architectural project, the question of cultural heritage arose during discussions about issues such as demolition/preservation, adaptation of a new development to the area, and compensation for damage to the cultural environment. By April 2008 the project group presented a planning program which would enable transform People’s park into a housing area. Two buildings were cited as being of interest to preserve: Yellow pavilion (Gula paviljongen) and the theatre building. After demands a heritage inventory of People’s park park as a cultural heritage were made. The inventory was used by the representative for the cultural department in the detail planning process to preserve two of the houses deemed to be a valuable part of the cultural heritage. The other pavilions were demolished. The compensation for the damage of the cultural environment included the following measures: The developer accepts to renovate and reuse the yellow pavilion and contribute 2.5 million SEK to move the theater building. The costs for moving are estimated to be 13.6 million SEK. The new housing is structured around the park in the middle to save the natural and cultural worth; valuable trees were protected during the construction period. A lesser area of land came within the development area due to regulations about preservation in the detail plan. In the detail planning process key actors assume both active and passive roles about damage to the cultural environment and the preservation of its worth. The demand for compensation is not supported by legal rules but based on prerequisites of the site, the quality of the buildings and the investigation of the heritage. No representative for the cultural environment was present in the project group; rather the actors were given the roles of committees to consider the proposals when the exhibition documents were presented. The study is summarized in eight conclusions.
Copyright (c) 2014 Proceedings of the 6th Annual Architectural Research Symposium in Finland 2014
KEYNOTE LECTURE - Materiality, Movement & Meaning: Architecture and the Embodied Mind
Writing in 1993 on the relations between technology, language and cognition, the anthropologist Tim Ingold provided what appeared to be a perfectly clear and precise definition of the tool as a ‘prosthetic’ extension of the body: “A tool, in the most general sense, is an object that extends the capacity of an agent to operate within a given environment.” (Ingold, 1993: 433) In the context of Ingold’s discussion of the agency of tools and technologies, it could be argued that this statement actually assumes what it sets out to explain - that is, it assumes that we already know what constitutes an ‘agent’, and that we can therefore speak of the tool as a simple linear extension of an agent’s ability. In fact, it may be more accurate to say – if we consider this question within the ‘long duration’ of the evolutionary emergence of the modern human being - that the tool, in reality, came first. Or, at the very least, I want to argue that technology is in fact mutually co-implicated in the gradual emergence of human agency over this long evolutionary timescale, and – the reason why I think it’s so important – it continues to be so today in terms of our everyday experience. The claim I want to make by the end of the paper is that the kind of buildings that bear witness to this process of emergence are the ones that best support our sense of well-being, in the broadest possible terms. To begin with, I’m thinking here of two related examples of emergence: firstly the ontogenetic process – how we as human beings mature into apparently rational sense-making individuals, when we didn’t start out that way at birth – and secondly, what we might call (after the editor of Alexander Luria’s book on Language and Cognition) the ‘micro-genetic’ process by which we make sense of our ongoing flow of embodied experience ‘in real-time’ as it were, of what actually goes on in that curious overlapping of immediate past with anticipated future that we usually refer to as ‘the present moment’. Of course I’m thinking here of Edmund Husserl’s analysis of the consciousness of time as a multi-layered experience of what he called ‘retentions’ and ‘protentions’, and also of the more recent work by the neurophilosopher Daniel Dennett in his book Consciousness Explained, from 1991, where he explores these ideas in a much more accessible way, also drawing on more recent experimental data from research in the neurosciences. In order to explore this apparently circular relationship between the human and the technological, in what follows I will describe some examples of the ways in which we engage with technologies on a day to day level, and how the process of ‘incorporation’ – literally, absorbing into our body-image, or more accurately our body-schema – entails a number of important cognitive consequences. In the final part of the paper I will also try to outline what I think this might mean for the continuing relevance of tectonic articulation and materiality in architecture, for example, in the creation of engaging and richly layered environments that contain visible traces of both the processes of construction and occupation –spaces that invite engagement with both the bodies and minds of future building users. And this is the reason why I think this way of thinking about time, as just mentioned, as a multi-layered continuum of past recollections and future projections – especially in relation to tools and technologies - is so important for architects to consider.
Lived, sensed and contested: ageing in a smart city
The growing number of seniors prefers to live in the city centres where the services they need are easily accessible by walking or using public transportation. Therefore urban places have become important environments for ageing citizens, too. Ageing urban citizens thus occupy many public spaces in their daily practices. They are mobile and active city dwellers but their ageing bodies affect the ways they use these spaces, as well as how they experience moving around in the city. Acting bodies are however more than physical entities; cultural beliefs and social norms are inscribed in them, and the shared norms are re-negotiated by individual experiences on “being in the body” (Joyce & Mamo 2006). The cities are often experienced through mobility, like walking, where walkers make spatial orders both to exist and to emerge (de Certeau 1988); and consequently these spatial practices express and even shape their identities. To understand how the ageing citizens of Oulu in northern Finland experience walking via their everyday routes in the city centre, I walked with five women and four men aged between 66–89 years in the spring 2013. In these kinds of walk-alongs “people weave previous knowledge and biography into immediate situated action” (Kusenbach 2003); thus multiple temporal layers and momentary sensory and other embodied experiences become unfolded during the walks. Through analysing our walks by following anthropologist Sarah Pink’s (2011) notions of emplacement, I will consider them as specific “place-events” but also as processes with histories. In addition, I will discuss how these entanglements disclose the complexity of spatial experiences of the seniors, which challenges the urban (computing) design. I will also raise the questions of the accountability of designers in the construction of power relations in public urban places.
Liveable and climate sensitive urban environment
We meet several global challenges as climate changes, growing elderly population and urbanisation. We as architects and planners have to consider several aspects to meet these challenges. For the climate change we have both to decrease the strains from the urbanisation and adapt it to the predicted influences. The urban area has to be design in a universal way to include all inhabitants. We also have to make the urban built environment to be functional and appealing to give the physical possibilities for all inhabitants to have an accommodating and sustainable way of living and transportation. And, what are the pros and cons of these aspects in cold, snowy and icy conditions.
Materiality, Movement and Meaning: Architecture and the Embodied Mind.
To be human – and therefore to be embodied – is to be already extended into the world, into what Maurice Merleau-Ponty in his last writings called the ‘flesh’ of the world: a liminal realm where it is impossible to say categorically what belongs to the self and what belongs to the environment. This talk develops a new theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between architecture and embodiment – initially, by questioning the now commonplace view of the body’s prosthetic relationship with technology. Drawing on the work of contemporary thinkers such as Bernard Stiegler, Raymond Tallis, and Tim Ingold, it argues that rather than treating new technological extensions of the body as in some way threatening to our sense of self, we should instead see them in a more positive way as part of a longer developmental trajectory in which ‘the human’ and ‘the technological’ are in fact mutually co-constitutive. By considering these issues within the framework of recent advances in evolutionary, cognitive and neuroscientific theory, the paper tries to draw out some of the more significant implications of both human and technological embodiment for designing, making and thinking about architecture today.
The 6th Annual Symposium of Architectural Research 2014 and The Annual NAAR Symposium arranged in the October 23–25, 2014 at the Oulu School of Architecture (OSA) is a continuum to the novel tradition of arranging an annual research event by the three Finnish Schools of Architecture. The symposium was arranged for the first time in the year 2009. The current Symposium has besides the national also a Nordic dimension, since the Nordic Association of Architectural Research (NAAR) has arranged the Symposium together with the Oulu School of Architecture.
Liikuntakaavoitus – Physical activity in the context of land use planning
Health benefits gained from physical activity are well acknowledged. A great amount of our daily and recreational physical activities take place outdoors, in the built environment. Yet physical activity has been unrecognized in the Finnish Land Use and Building Act. Research in the field of land use planning combined with physical activity has been carried out in Oulu University since year 2003. From various case studies the team of researchers, including both master and PhD students and conducted by Professor Helka-Liisa Hentilä have accumulated background information on how to create physically activating environments. The information has been gathered to the project web page Liikuntakaavoitus.fi. It includes general recommendations for planning as a checklist, guidance for interactive planning processes, tangible “idea cards” with proposals and instructions for planning certain physically activating environments and both publications on the subject and links to other pages with similar objectives. The focus of the project, since the past three years, has been in informing and educating the target groups; architects and land use planners, policy-makers and officials, association members and citizens interested in improving circumstances of physical activity as well as creating new content and updating the web page. Numerous workshops on the subject have been organized in Turku, Hämeenlinna, Espoo, Oulu to name a few. A shorter, so called breakfast seminar including a healthy morning snack and a brief bulletin has proven to work well in smaller cities and municipalities like Tuusula and Valkeakoski. In addition online distance education has been organized with the use of videoconference technology to give opportunities for residents living in sparsely inhabited areas to participate. Altogether the different kind of educational occasions have reached hundreds of people acting in the field and the frequently updated web page thousands. The greatest challenge of the work has been bringing people from the different fields of operation together, creating genuine interaction and comprehension between them, resulting in solutions perceiving promotion of physically activating environments.
Kohti sujuvaa alueidenkäytön suunnittelun ja hyvinvointipalvelujen yhteistyötä
Alueidenkäytön suunnittelun ja hyvinvointipalvelujen, perinteisemmin sosiaali- ja terveyspalvelujen, yhteistyö on yhdyskuntien ja kaupunkien sosiaalisen eheyttämisen edellytys. Näiden toimialojen yhteistyössä on kuitenkin huomattu ongelmia. Tämä työpaperi pohjustaa Asumisen rahoitus- ja kehittämiskeskuksen rahoittamaan Eheyttämisen edellytykset 2013–2015 -hankkeeseen sisältyvää tutkimusta, jossa tarkastellaan kaavoituksen ja hyvinvointipalvelujen käytännön yhteistyön toimivuutta kuntaorganisaation sisällä. Sosiaalityö pyrkii vaikuttamaan ihmisten elinympäristöihin ja sosiaalisiin olosuhteisiin sekä yksilön erilaisiin elämäntilanteisiin. Elämänilmiöiden tai niihin liittyvien tarpeiden luokittelut eivät kuitenkaan välttämättä vastaa alueidenkäytön käytännön suunnittelun ja hyvinvointipalvelujen yhteistyön rakenteita. Erityisesti, sosiaalityö on perinteisesti kohdentunut enemmän tarpeiden kuin riskien arviointiin ja hallintaan, kun taas alueidenkäytön suunnittelu on luonteeltaan ennakoivaa pitkällä tähtäimellä vaikuttavaa työtä. Näiden toimialojen yhteistyön myötä hyvinvointia voidaan tukea juuri ennakoivalla otteella. Tässä työpaperissa tarkastellaan sitä, millaisia haasteita alueidenkäytön suunnittelun ja hyvinvointipalveluiden käytännön yhteistyössä on huomattavissa, ja sitä, miten niiden yhteistyötä voidaan jäsentää ja kehittää. Näyttää olevan tarpeen tehdä näkyväksi yhteistyön kohteita, joissa käytännön alueidenkäytön suunnittelutyö ja hyvinvointipalvelujen intressit kohtaavat toisensa käytännön kaupunkikehitystyön eri ydinprosesseissa. Tässä työpaperissa ehdotetaan kolmea kokonaisuutta, jotka voivat toimia alueidenkäytön suunnittelun ja hyvinvointipalvelujen yhteistyön kohteina.
MOVING LABORATORY Neurophenomenological approaches to Embodiment and Architecture
How to access and gain knowledge of the embodied experience in architecture? Although phenomenology is significant to this field of architectural research, the surveys primarily seem more theoretical, than opening perspectives and methods to a subjective access. However neurophenomenology, which was first introduced by Francisco Varela (1996) appears to provide a theoretical framework and methods to access the first-person experience. The study examines the lived, subjective experience. This paper introduces the background, some of the key concepts and the Gesture of Awareness presented by Depraz, Varela and Vermersch(1999), which is applied in the Moving Laboratories. By directing attention to proprioception the aim is gradually to turn the attention inwards to the personal experience. Moving Laboratories are part of my PhD research,The Experience of Invisible, which is underway.
Researching subjective wellbeing in an (interior)architectural context: Apparent, less apparent and illusionary differences between two fields of expertise
One could state that the aim of wellbeing has long been implicitly present in architecture and interior architecture but is now emerging, maybe not yet as an explicit design approach but at least as an explicit goal of research within these domains. Generating knowledge on ways in which the built environment can contribute to the subjective wellbeing of its residents, however, entails the merging of expertise from fields that are quite distinct. Although researching the possible interactions of the physical environment (architecture and interior architecture) and more subjective, human-related aspects (social and behavioural sciences) is of course hardly a novel paradigm in itself, the practical, methodological and epistemological properties commonly associated with these two fields can be very different and the new research domain of “designing for subjective wellbeing” tends to push these differences to their extremes. In this contribution, I provide a personal account, from the perspective of a researcher in (interior) architecture with a background in psychology, of what I consider apparent, less apparent but sometimes also illusionary differences between these two fields of expertise and how these impact our ongoing process to establish and develop a research program on ‘Designing for More’.
A Mobile School in the Digital Era: Learning Environment Ecosystem Strategies for Challenging Locations and Extreme Poverty Contexts
This paper reflects on a major contemporary challenge concerning the delivery of educational services and school facilities in complex non-traditional contexts largely afflicted by poverty, like remote rural and troubled city areas, disaster areas, nomad cultures, or crisis contexts and refugee camps. Extreme poverty is to be found in many developing regions of the world but also in some developed countries. Education empowers individuals, families and communities, addresses the intergenerational transmission of poverty, creates access to economic opportunities and promotes the achieving of a range of sustainable development priorities. In 2000, as part of the Millennium Development Goals, UN and UNESCO set itself the target of ensuring that every primary-age child in the world would be in school by 2015. However, alarming statistics today illustrate a persistent worldwide lack of opportunities to quality primary education, a huge wasted potential of human capital. In 2014, 57 million primary-age children are reported to be still out of school, another 250 million children are not learning the basics by fourth grade due to poor quality of schools, and 175 million youth are unable to read a single sentence. 200 million young children lack early learning opportunities, at the age most critical to brain development. 28.5 million out-of-school children are marginalized in complex, conflict-afflicted parts of the world, in crisis contexts, war zones, refugee camps, predominantly in the poorest countries and regions. Furthermore, research finds that stressful events and poverty in early childhood affect and alter the development of the brain. However, interventions and strong early childhood programs from the first 1000 days can help disadvantaged children to overcome effects of adversities and poverty on brain development. While investing in human capital through education is a powerful instrument in addressing the intergenerational transmission of poverty, conventional models of schooling have not proved to be able to scale up rapidly enough to serve unprivileged children in a reasonable timeframe. However, digital technologies open up new perspectives to improving educational access, equity and quality. Mobile technology promotes learning independent of time, place and distance -even independent of teachers. This calls for new strategies and school formats, and challenges aid providers, governments, schooling designers and architects to create more relevant educational ecosystems in challenging and poverty afflicted contexts. As an illustrative case, this paper refers to a disruptive re-locatable ‘mobile’ school format, my project InnoSchool Learning Lab, presented at Venice Biennale 2014 ‘Time Space Existence’ exhibition.
Teoreettinen pohja kulttuuriekologiselle restauroinnille
Tiivistelmä Tutkin kulttuuriekologista restaurointia ja kuinka se toteutuu nykyajan restaurointikohteissa. Kestävä kehitys on olennaisessa osassa kulttuuriekologisessa restauroinnissa. Kestävä kehitys jakautuu neljään eri osa-alueeseen yleisesti käytetyn kolmijaon (ekologinen, taloudellinen ja sosiaalinen) sijaan. Osa-alueet ovat ekologinen, taloudellinen, sosiaalinen ja kulttuurinen. Kulttuuriekologisessa restauroinnissa korostuvat kulttuurinen ja ekologinen osa-alue. Kulttuuriekologia on kulttuuriantropologian tieteenhaara, joka tutkii ihmisen kulttuuriympäristösuhdetta. Kulttuuriekologia sai alkunsa 1950- ja 1960-luvuilla Yhdysvalloissa Julian Stewardin ja Leslie Whiten johtamissa tutkimuksissa. Stewardin mielestä kulttuuriekologia on oppi, jossa kulttuurista evoluutiota pidetään erilaisten aineellisten tekijöiden, väestön, ekologian ja teknologian yhteisvaikutuksen tuloksena. Steward erotti ”kulttuuriytimen” ”kulttuurin muista ulottuvuuksista”. Ytimeen kuuluivat toimeentuloon liittyvät aineelliset prosessit. Kulttuuriekologiassa painotetaan aineellisten tekijöiden merkitystä yhteiskunnan ja kulttuurin muutoksissa.(Eriksen, 2004, p. 255.) Pyrin selvittämään kuinka kestävän kehityksen kulttuurinen ja ekologinen osa-alue toteutuvat restauroinnin kentässä. Kuinka ekologinen ja kulttuurinen puoli kohtaavat restaurointikohteessa? Voivatko molemmat puolet onnistua yhtä aikaa? Kuinka luoda tasapaino ympäristön kestävyyden ja kulttuurimerkityksen omaavan perintökohteen välille? Restauroitavat rakennukset välittävät kulttuurimerkityksiä ja –perintöä tulevaisuuteen. Rakennusten pysyvyys ja laadukkuus ovat ekologisen rakentamisen perusperiaatteita. Ekologisuus ja rakennuskulttuuri kohtaavat rakennusten pysyvyydessä ja laadukkuudessa. Rakennusten pysyvää ja laadukasta luonnetta on vaatinut jo Vitruviuskin teoksessaan Kymmenen kirjaa arkkitehtuurista ajanlaskumme alusta. Energiatehokkuuden paine kasvaa koko ajan arkkitehtuuriperintökohteissa. Kulttuurinen merkittävyys ei saisi altistua haitallisesti energiasäästön toimenpiteille. Kuinka ottaa huomioon ympäristön kestävyyden lähestymistavat? Interventioiden tulisi olla kestävällä tavalla toteutettuja ja mahdollistaa kohderakennuksen kehitys ja huolto. Jotta saavutetaan tasapainoinen, käytännöllinen ja kestävä lopputulos, on neuvoteltava kaikkien sidosryhmien kanssa. Kohde on säilytettävä kulttuurimerkityksineen jälkipolville.(Madridin dokumentti, 2011.) Artikkelissa pohditaan autenttisuuden ja integriteetin käsitteitä. Kuinka säilytetään kohteen integriteetti eli koskemattomuus? Kuinka hallitaan muutospaineet niin, että kulttuurinen merkittävyys, autenttisuus ja integriteetti voivat säilyä? Interventioiden tulisi nostaa ja säilyttää kohteen kulttuurista merkittävyyttä, autenttisuutta ja integriteettiä. Onko pienen rekonstruktion rakentaminen ymmärrettävää, kun se perustuu dokumentteihin ja vaikuttaa positiivisella tavalla perintökohteen koskemattomuuteen tai sen ymmärtämiseen?
Detecting architecture. An overview to the development of children´s architecture education in Finland
Children often find architecture fascinating and fun. In addition to promoting children´s exploration of the built environment architecture education aims at broadening their understanding of it, supporting their identification with it, guiding them to realize the significance of the quality of it, and thus encouraging them to take an active role in shaping the future of it for the welfare of us all. The current children´s architecture education in Finland is mostly based on an understanding that architecture refers not just to buildings designed by architects but also to whole built environment from its smallest details to the largest entities. Children´s architecture education is provided as basic education on arts at visual art schools, two of them specialising in architecture, and as part of basic education at primary, secondary and upper secondary schools. A worthy addition to the formal education is the education provided for example by museums and youth clubs. Several Finnish architects, including myself, have during the last quarter of a century been actively participating in developing children´s architecture education. The starting point of the development work is often placed in 1980 when the first environmental education guidebook emphasizing built environment was published. The next considerable steps were taken at the beginning of the 1990`s after the law on basic education in the arts became effective: the core curricula for basic education in the arts were published and architecture schools for children and youths were established. In 2001 The Finnish Association of Architects and The Arts Council of Finland published a report “Discovering Architecture, Civic Education in Architecture in Finland”. The report based on a survey carried out in 1999, offers an overview of the first five years of this development work. In 2004 the survey was repeated but never analysed or published. After years of field work as an educator and a developer, and at my current position as a special advisor on children´s architecture education in Architecture Information Centre Finland I have a need to look to the past. Based on the above-mentioned two surveys, available teaching material and reports as well as some official documents concerning education, culture and architecture policies, this presentation/ paper draws an updated picture about the history and the present of children´s architecture education in Finland. While providing basic information about this development work, the presentation/ article also highlights the most significant turning points in the course of implementation, and, consequently, it presents a discussion of the reasons for what is considered as pioneering work all over the world.
Main features of an ideal learning space: A user-based description
This paper presents a method to define an ideal learning space from a key user perspective. The target group, upper secondary school students in a Finnish city, was addressed through two online surveys. In these we sought to establish the features that the students considered to be most important in a learning space. The aim was to adapt the redevelopment of school premises to the users’ cultural practices. Two survey methods were employed in the surveys. In the first, students described in their own words what makes an ideal learning space. In the second, students assessed a list of 21 features using a three-point scale. They also assessed a list of 19 learning space factors in terms of their negative impact on learning. Furthermore, the students indicated the top four features on the list of positive impacts on learning. The three lists were then aligned in the analysis to discern possible discrepancies. Finally, in order to establish the main characteristics of an ideal learning space, the top-feature lists were compared to the students’ verbal descriptions of an inspirational and motivational learning space.
Involving students in the redesign of learning environments conducive to learning and wellbeing
Increased understanding of the interrelations between overall wellbeing and learning calls for a holistic and multidisciplinary learning environment (LE) design. Considering learners’ perception in the design of LE supportive to learning and wellbeing is expected to positively influence (a) the design quality, (b) participatory organizational culture, and (c) learning. The nature of this process creates contradictions and difficulties, however. Stand-alone co-design efforts may convert into pseudo-consultation without actual effects; neither is it easy to consider various stakeholders’ perceptions in a balanced manner. And if not planned carefully, instead of experiencing learning benefits, participation may also be considered to be an additional burden. This paper examines how these kinds of challenges were intended to be circumvented, or avoided, in a case involving Finnish upper secondary school students in the redesign of learning spaces so as to better support their learning and wellbeing. In this project, design activities were embedded in the cross-curricular visual art project course involving 11 students, which culminated in an exhibition, during which a more representative number of students (n = 175) expressed their views in a written format. After other stakeholders, such as teachers, had expressed their views, students were given another opportunity to evaluate whether their ideas were considered in the design. In addition to evaluating the procedures employed in this project, this paper will discuss their possible transfer to other contexts. Based on the overall evaluation of the procedures, it will also propose some procedural design principles for involving learners in the LE design.
The sense of well being on the campus: Integrating university brand to city identity
Universities, as centers of knowledge, innovation and culture, create unique brands and reinterpret identity of their home cities. Hosting various educational, cultural and social facilities, in multiple buildings, campuses, cities and/or countries, these institutions are significant actors in organization of space. Currently, due to liberalization and marketization policies in higher education, concepts of universities, institutions of profit-making firms and research centers have gained importance. (Aktan, 2007). Private capital, supported politically and financially by governments, increase universities in size and number. Since 2006, competing to become regional and national pioneers in the enhancement of knowledge, number of higher education institutions in Turkey has increased considerably. Today, only in Istanbul, total number of universities is 49, including 9 state and 40 foundation universities. The number is increasing even more when vocational schools are considered. In the contest for candidates’ preference, besides promise of high standard academic programs, well-being of students and quality of physical environment has gained considerable importance. Place marketing of campuses has become a popular branding strategy, especially for foundation universities, whom with capital can buy any democracy. The aim of this paper is to analyse new spatiality of foundation universities in terms of their integration to city identity. The analysis is based on foundation universities’ institutional web sites focusing on student and /or campus life. Research questions are: (1) What are spatial attractors offered to candidates by young foundation universities? (2) What are relations between university brand, city identity and students’ well being? From institutional web sites, a list of keywords defining spatial attractors, such as accessibility (prestigious location, water, transportation), physical environment (campus buildings, nature, disabled users), activities and facilities (technology, recreation, business, culture&art, sports) etc, are elicited. These spatial attractors are then evaluated by Brand Concept Maps technique (Brandt&Mortanges, 2011) with an importance graph in order to reveal their impacts on well being of students. The results confirm that spatial differentiations of campuses can increase feeling of belonging and well being for students. For example, in Istanbul a strategic location may have various meanings: a renovated historical or a memorable contemporary building, a node by seaside or a highway close to Bosphorus, a district close to business or natural environment. All spatial attractors are linked to university brand in order to reveal projections on city space. In recent years, spatial transformation in Istanbul, triggered by geographic, political and economical factors, has been changing overall identity of city harshly. Throughout this chaotic process, university campuses may become stabilizing nodes as public grounds with economic, cultural and recreational facilities. Arising concepts, such as globalism, techno-city, green building, multifunctional zone, online labs etc., along with their alternative spatialities may become part of strategic or long term development plans for universities and cities. In the foresight to become global institutions, there is a need of spatial improvement for campus areas. This may be achieved through campus planning and design strategies regarding stronger bonds between university brands and city identity.
Green Building Perception Matrix, A Theoretical Framework
Research has consistently shown that architects differ from the public in what they prefer in buildings. Today, as building design and construction evolve to more sustainability, some recent studies show that the overall level of satisfaction of occupants of green buildings still does not exceed the level of satisfaction in conventional structures. Satisfaction is typically measured, with Post Occupancy Evaluation, which gathers feedback from building occupants about aspects such as comfort, indoor air quality, and aesthetics. This raises some questions: Do people perceive green building design as consistent with their desire for sustainability? Do ratings of green buildings by systems such as LEED or BREAM affect the level of satisfaction of laypeople? Can owners and occupants of green buildings be considered as green consumers, who are attracted to green products because of their willingness to mitigate the impact of human activities on the environment? This article examines Peattie’s (2001) green purchase perception matrix as a means of understanding occupants’ perceptions of green-labeled buildings. An analytical approach has been taken to identify the influential factors, which are involved in this relationship. As a result, the authors propose a green building perception matrix that addresses the compromise that occupants must make in green buildings and the confidence that building systems are indeed making a difference environmentally. Understanding and using this matrix may help green building designers to improve the level of satisfaction of building’s owners and occupants. The discussion is critical for future research on how green building design attributes can be used as a catalyst for green consumption behavior.
Usefulness as key parameter in assessing accessibility and usability in architecture. A theorem for explaining a twin concept in the building code
In national building codes, like the Danish and the Swedish ones, accessibility and usability are subjected to an open interpretation on a comprehensive level, supplemented by specified requirements on a detailed level. The aim of the pre­sent study is to position the twin concept with regard to its everyday understanding, and thereby suggest a definition. The study has been executed as a case study among a cohort of 370 experienced Danish professionals. The research material was assembled by use of mini-questionnaires. Conclusions derived from this material were synthesized with the respondents’ suggestions of exemplary models, which allegedly displayed an appropriate level of accessible and usable architecture and built environment. Based on the every­day understanding of the twin concept and paired with analyses of some exemplary models, this study suggests that accessibility and usability with respect to the user can be seen as constituents of buildings’ overall performative capacity. This capacity can be defined as usefulness, the potential sum of various adjustments of an accessible and usable nature. Ultimately, usefulness refers to the individual user’s level of independent usages of the particular architectural space.
Urban design with weather variability – Adaptive capacity approaches towards Northern climate now and in the future
This conceptual paper examines different conceptions of weather variability as a starting point for urban design and planning in Northern climate. It explores the possible over-arching approaches towards weather, mapping connections and differences between them. Thus, the paper forms an intial framework that helps to understand urban spaces’ adaptive capacity towards climate. Weather variability in urban design and planning context is discussed both inductively and deductively, based on a literature review on proposed design solutions in Northern urban design. This is reflected and combined to theories and concepts on adaptive capacity and resilience in climate change adaptation literature. Reacting to current climate and climate change are combined into a dynamic framework, thus finding connections between solutions to current weather variability and future adaptation. Sustaining, recovering, adapting and supple approaches are proposed as categories for different approaches to framing weather variability and reacting to it. Three main conditions characterize the proposed framework: (1) a balance between the approaches is needed to achieve both adaptive capacity and maintain the stability and identity of a place. (2) Framing weather variability as a seasonal cycle might have possibilities to act as a mediator in preparing for future climatic changes in urban design and planning processes. (3) When discussing temporary element such as climate, management cannot be separated from spatial adaptive qualities. When taking the climate into account, urban environment should be understood both as a process and a form.
Inscrutable nature-based spatial experience, The challenges and opportunities for studying contemporary accommodation architecture of tourism destinations in the Arctic
The main emphasis in this article is on detecting the knowledge gaps for architecture to support nature-based environmentally sensitive tourism, especially from the point of view of elaborating the accommodation concepts. Experiencing nature as part of the accommodation is highly appreciated by tourists (Tyrväinen et al 2014). Though, unfortunately the current hotel-like lodging concepts are not any more satisfactory for the tourists, especially now when the demand has shifted on the self-catering units. The notion of servicescape used in tourism research to emphasize spatial qualities among other things turned out to be rewarding also for architecture. In the context of second-homes and wilderness tourism exertion is affiliated to the experience of being on vacation. We see here an interesting knowledge gap for architecture to contribute for the discussion of future lodging concepts through the research by design approach. Keywords: nature-based spatial experience, tourist destination accommodation architecture, space, place, wilderness servicescape, nature servicescape, human-made servicescape, northernness, Arctic, Lapland
tourist destination accommodation architecture
Planning for Aging Neighborhoods Case Lauttasaari
The demographic structure of population is changing. Population projections are showing a decrease in the birth rate and increase in the dependency ratio. Further knowledge and awareness is needed of how urban planning can support the population living independently at home at very old age. Background In Finland approximately 90% of the elderly over 75 years live in their own homes (YM, 2012). The planning of housing environment and local neighborhood can support inclusion and functional capacities of elderly persons. The neighborhood quality and access to local services (Perez & al., 2001) are major components of residential satisfaction. Studies indicate, that over 75-year-olds opt for apartments in city centres and subcentres (Ristimäki et al., 2013), near local services and public transport. According to Wang and Lee (2010) more there are walking destinations in the neighborhood, more the older adults walk. Burgess (1954) argues that the local services, facilities and green areas in the neighborhood also promote the social interaction. Methods Geo referenced and statistical data of age groups and housing (PaITuli, SeutuRuutu), public transport (Matka-aika.fi) and services (Palvelukartta.fi) are available online. The information combined from different sources can be used in planning for aging friendly neighborhoods. The law ensures all residents right to participate in the planning process. Therefore, it is important to involve also the elderly residents in the planning and assessment process. The methods, however, have to be adapted to this purpose. The data about apartment houses with lifts and the density of population over 65 years are found in open database. The distances to services, street connectivity as well as topography and contour lines give indication of the walkability. To get in-depth user knowledge, however, user driven qualitative methods are needed. Workshops and online questionnaire were used to involve the elderly residents living independently in Lauttasaari area. The daily paths and favorite places were assessed together with the elderly persons in workshops and through observational walks. Results In the case study area many old apartment buildings, where elderly persons live, lack lifts. The immediate surrounding and court yard become more important for elderly residents as the recreational areas are not easily reachable. However, the court yards often lack possibilities for activities and leisure. Long walking distances, lack of benches and resting places along the walking paths make some meaningful places, as the sea shore, inaccessible to the elderly. Furthermore, major challenge in the Nordic countries is the winter maintenance. Discussion To promote user friendly accessible living environment, it has to be developed in multiple spatial scales. The challenge is to develop intersectional collaboration within all municipal actors to ensure independent coping and inclusion. More attention has to be given in the planning of common use spaces inside and outside the apartment building. The public transport has to ensure access to commercial and health services as well as cultural and leisure activities.
Actions on urban health enhancement in the Arctic: Salutogenic Planning concept
The prevailing paradigm of environmental health research has emphazised pathogenesis and disease prevention, instead of salutogenic mechanisms of health promotion. Looking at the historical background of the interconnections between public health and urban planning since the 19th century, it can be concluded that the practical measures of environmental health concerns have been underpinned by preventive medicine and probabilities of exposure, focusing on screening health risks and fighting epidemics in urban areas. The only major difference today is that the newly emerged healthy urban planning initiatives are triggered by the global epidemics of non-commutable diseases caused by lifestyle and dietary factors. While many of the recent healthy urban planning initiatives and academic studies have originated from the USA or in the institutional sphere of the World Health Organization, the aim of this article is to add a new dimension to this discussion. The article explicates in detail the environmental mechanisms affecting healthiness and elaborates theoretical perspectives and principles of salutogenic planning. The salutogenic model for health promotion is founded on the theoretical basis developed by sociologist Aaron Antonovsky (1996). He has suggested, that the mechanisms generating health and wellbeing are firmly linked to the general resistance recourses and sense of coherense of individuals and societies. The article suggest that understanding better the salutogenesis of healthy communities, possibilities could open to study their adaptation capacity within the transformation processes of the changing North. Shortcomings in the scientific evidence on how to build healthier environments are demonstrated – and noted that clear examples on healthy planning practices in cold climate are missing.1 Holistic approaches are required, which pay attention to the large number of environmental aspects related to individual and population health and wellbeing in the Arctic areas while seeking sustainable planning solutions in fragile natural environments. The article reveals an undoubted need for further research on building and planning practises which enhance health, social inclusion, resilience and sustainability of northern communities. 1 Reacting to this lack of knowledge, a research initiative called "Health on Thin Ice – urban planning for good health in cold climate" has been launched in 2013 as a Nordic cooperative between University of Oulu, Finland, Luleå university of Technology, Sweden, and Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.
Knowledge Work in Campus Environment - Opportunities of New Technologies in Working and Learning Spaces
Learning and research environments in academic campus context are undergoing fast changes. The changes are occurring both on the level of technology implemented to the environment and the space itself as the traditional cellular offices are increasingly being replaced by open work environments. Knowledge workers, such as the researchers, are at the core of creativity and innovation. The ideal working and learning environments support both creative thinking and collaborative interaction. This article explores the current understanding of the requirements of high quality research and learning environments, and it aims to examine the link between creativity and space. In doing so, I wish to highlight how the architecture of the workspace can respond to the requirements of a successful working environment and how immaterial elements, such as lighting for instance, can induce creative thought, achievement, and innovation and importantly enhance the well-being of the occupants of the space. Furthermore, I will look into how the architecture and technology of the space affect the dissemination of tacit and explicit knowledge amongst individuals and within groups. As part of my research project, aimed to provide new scientific information of the real user needs in academic working and learning environments and create concepts of hybrid multi-spaces, I will discuss in this paper how architecture and lighting design can support knowledge sharing, peer-to-peer interactions, creativity and innovation, which are imperative for success in knowledge work. Hence, the findings could inform the design of new learning and working environments suitable for both user expectations and knowledge production.
Design for subjective well-being in interior architecture
Can interior environments engage people in pleasurable and meaningful experiences and thereby have a positive influence on their happiness? This paper discusses why and how interior architects might want to consider implementing ideas in relation to ‘design for subjective well-being’. Despite of people being the ingredients that bring life to the built environment, it tends to be designed in such a way for them to predominantly only passively absorb the surrounding. Up to date, when designing interior environments, (interior) architects are mainly concerned about the fulfillment of various rather objective considerations. Typical reflections in this respect are: is there enough daylight, how are the acoustics, how is the accessibility and the organization of the inner space? Starting from such premises, the atmosphere of the inner space is given substance. However, empirical studies have shown that long-term happiness is less a matter of one’s circumstances than of the activities that a person engages in. Hence, one could go one step further from viewing the built environment as a static entity, to designing spaces that facilitate desirable activities. In other words, inner environments could aim to stimulate experiences that provide pleasure and meaning to its inhabitants. Subjective well-being (SWB) is an emerging research topic in the field of design sciences. Design models and strategies are being developed in an effort to increase users’ well-being. However, a detailed understanding of how these insights apply to interior architecture still needs to be refined. For this reason, this paper will firstly outline why interior environments could have the potential to contribute to people’s SWB and thereby to become platforms for the full spectrum of human well-being. The second section of the paper reflects on how a deliberate focus on SWB will affect the process of designing interior environments. The Positive Design Framework, developed by Desmet & Pohlmeyer (2013), will be introduced to the (interior) architectural community. Interior architects can use this framework as a guide to assist them in the design process of interior environments that aim to contribute to people’s happiness. A number of examples will demonstrate in an interior architectural vocabulary the value that this framework can have for this discipline.
Reflections on The Image of Green Buildings: An Ethnographic Evaluation of A “LEED” Certified Elementary School
Davidson Elementary School is the first LEED certified school building in Tucson, Arizona, the school has been designed and built as a green setting based on the goals of the architect, teachers, parents and a community that has long suffered from the moldy old Davidson school building. Yet by looking at the new building and comparing it with conventional schools with similar function and size in Tucson, Arizona, one questions whether the users can distinguish differences which might be related to the building’s greenness? Is the same true for many other LEED rated green school buildings in other parts of United States? The present paper asks whether the image of a building, and even an integrated pedagogy in the case of schools, shouldn’t more actively promote the meaning of sustainability. The present case is an ethnographic study has been done at Davidson Elementary School during the author’s sabbatical at University of Arizona in 2010. The study included analysis for the images of the building as well as interviews with the principal, teachers, administrative staff, 4th and 5th grade students and parents. The ethnographic evaluation shows that Davidson Elementary Buildings offers limited use of symbolic meanings to foster belief about sustainability; at the same time it conveys some negative meanings to laypeople, obviously hindering a possible sustainable relationship between people and environment. The examination of the cultural expression of buildings’ green features and the meanings acquired from them at Davidson School provides a novel ethnographic evaluation of green building design intentions.
Well-being architecture in academic workplace
Academic research work is well known to be flexible in the terms of time and place. However, several studies indicate that postgraduate students and academic professionals experience high levels of stress, due to the nature of their work. In the field of natural sciences, the academic workplace consists of offices as well as laboratories. Laboratories are specialized environments, where expensive instruments and spatial requirements play a significant role. Hence, these spaces are often designed according to technical needs, not according to human demands. However, the spaces should support well-being in all kinds of academic workplace environments, including laboratories. The purpose of this paper is to study, which architectural solutions could support well-being in academic workplace, where laboratories form a major part of the working environment. The research approach is qualitative in nature and focus on a single case study. The empirical material is collected via interviews with academic researchers, and inductive content analysis is used as a method to analyse the interview material. The results imply that well-being in academic workplace can be enhanced in a research laboratory environment, for example, by offering working spaces for concentration as well as collaboration. Laboratories can be seen as places for social interaction and collaboration, while offices are places for solitary work. Furthermore, the whole campus should support the varying nature of academic research work by offering different spaces and various activities. The empirical research data is limited and it is based on a subjective opinion of the interviewees. Therefore, further studies are needed in order to compose a full understanding. However, the study provides a firm foundation for follow-up research. When designing academic workplace environments, elements that enhance well-being of the employees must be considered. The study offers novel insights to the workplace well-being from an architectural point of view in the context of research laboratory environment.
Designing cities, planning for people - the guidebooks of Otto-Iivari Meurman and Edmund Bacon
Urban theorists and critics write with an individual knowledge of the good urban life. Recently, writing about good urban life has boldly called for smart cities or even happy cities, stressing the importance of social connections and nearness to nature, or social and environmental capital. Although modernist planning has often been blamed for the many urban problems of today, the social and the environmental dimension were not completely absent from earlier 20th century approaches to urban planning. Links can be found between the urban utopia of today and the ideas about good urban life in the middle of the 20th century. Changes in the ideas about the good urban life are investigated in this paper through two texts by two different 20th century planners: Otto-Iivari Meurman and Edmund Bacon. Both were taught by the Finnish planner Eliel Saarinen, and according to their teacher’s example, also wrote about their planning ideas. Meurman’s guidebook for planners was published in 1947, and it was a major influence in Finnish post-war planning. In Meurman’s case, the book answered a pedagogical need, as planners were trained to meet the demands of the structural changes of society and the needs of rapidly growing Finnish cities. Bacon, in a different context, stressed the importance of an urban design attitude even when planning the movement systems of a modern metropolis. Bacon’s book from 1967 was meant for both designers and city dwellers, exploring the dynamic nature of modern urbanity. The two books share an appreciation for historical context. There is an emphasis on physical space, a particularly typical architects’ attitude. This is not surprising since both were guidebooks for architects. However, the writers were also looking ahead and trying to solve the many urban challenges with architectural design solutions. Architectural determinism aside, the books are a testament of the prevailing urban trends and ideas about the good urban life, as well as an individual architect’s observations about urban space and how it is experienced. A juxtaposition of the two texts gives an example of how the thoughts about the possibilities for well-being in the urban environment were subtly transformed in the middle decades of the 1900s. Functionalistic planning ideas touched with utopian idealism were still strong influences, the good life defined by those who saw themselves best equipped to plan for it. Cities were understood as organisms, the health of their citizens demanding well-planned living quarters and organized distribution of living and working areas, as well as equally well-planned connections to green spaces and nature. Eventually, planning processes were seen as the combined efforts and influences of many people, with public participation gaining more and more importance. The roles of both the citizen and the architect were evolving, as was the understanding of what kind of living environments cities should be.
Controversies in Cultural Heritage Work: Traditional wooden architecture at Olonets Karelian villages in change
Abstract In the Olonets Karelian villages the gray nature shape round log buildings are visual representations of the local culture. This local heritage is fading, since the villages are already deserted, abandoned, rotten or partly demolished or replaced with the new. However, the acute issue is how to reconcile the use of contemporary materials and solutions to this existing context. The appreciation of the villages as cultural heritage, the utility of buildings for contemporary living purposes and the attractiveness of the villages as heritage tourism destinations seem to increase the motivation to preserve the villages. In addition, cultural heritage is part of the local identity that may be exploited as a resource, for example, the young people in their efforts to build a common future. But the preservation of the cultural heritage sites are highly expert-intensive and expert-led processes which are often lacking dialog with the local residents. The knowledge gained in the Kinerma cultural heritage work indicates that it is worth aiming protection or preservation approved also by the locals, despite of the controversies, since it seems to assure the continuity of authentic living in the cultural heritage site (Niskasaari 2009). The cultural heritage studies deal usually with two types of controversial situations. Firstly, the external-internal viewpoint causes a conflict when local heritage is being intervened by the outsiders, such as the external experts (Smith 2006, 300; Graham and Howard 2008, 3). Secondly, the diversity of interpretations causes conflicts when the meaning of the cultural heritage site is not agreed between the experts and the local residents (Graham et al. 2000, 24; Graham and Howard 2008, 13). However, of my knowledge, the cultural heritage studies have not dealt with the acute issue of how to reconcile the use of new building materials and solutions available and the protection or preservation work in dialog with the local residents. Unfortunately, often the expenditure issues rule over the preserving attitude if the own local heritage is not valued enough. This third issue dealing with the use of controversial materials is discussed in this article through the analysis of recent changes in the Olonets Karelian villages. The practice-oriented question setting is based on the experience gained in the cultural heritage work carried out in the Olonets Karelian Kinerma Village (Niskasaari 2014) and lately in the ongoing project Home of Karelian Lanquage at the Vedlozero Communal Centre.
Converting happiness theory into (interior) architectural design missions. Designing for subjective well-being in residential care centers
Subjective well-being (SWB) is an emerging research topic in the field of design sciences, whereby various design researchers focus on the key question ‘how to design for SWB’. Throughout different design disciplines, definitions for SWB are rising and design models and strategies are being developed in an effort to enable designers to increase users’ SWB. However, a clear image of how to design an (interior) architectural environment with the purpose of increasing people’s level of subjective well-being is still in its infancy. In this paper we formulate spatial design missions for (interior) architects that possibly ignite or increase users’ SWB. We start from the general PERMA happiness model of Seligman (2011), modify it to our research needs and illustrate it with material from a design exercise that was carried out by master students in interior architecture in which they had to rethink the communal space system of an existing residential care center. We conclude the paper by formulating seven design missions that, in our viewpoint, allow to augment SWB for elderly persons in residential care environments.
Governing domestic space: Townhouse-related living, gardens and the home-making process in Finland.
Despite the increasing level of urbanization, the housing preference for small-scale housing is still dominant, not least because of the gardens. Urban planning and housing design hence constantly seek options to deliver the housing preferences for small house living. In the Finnish context, one vividly discussed opportunity in this setting is the townhouse typology. The townhouse offers various opportunities, both regarding the urban cityscape and individual home creation. Indeed, making a house become a home is an important process to residents. An essential part of this is that the residents have the possibility to personalize their own dwelling, including the outdoor spaces like gardens and yards. This process, nonetheless, demands domestic governance, and privacy. This article scrutinizes the home-making process in the light of three studies that all reflect the domestic space as experienced by inhabitants in townhouse-related contexts. The results are presented in a form of hierarchical examination to reflect the domestic governance. The examination indicates that townhouse-related living is compressed with aspects that may either boost or hinder the home-making process. Concurrently, this article suggests that in addition to understanding the role of gardens as part of townhouse design, even urban planners are required to pay attention to the role of gardens as part of the home-making process. For this purpose, the hierarchical analysis offers one prominent approach.