Urban Academy generates interest – a new minor starts in the autumn
16.05.2014
Urban Academy is a joint minor module organised by Aalto University and the University of Helsinki. It examines topical questions related to urban studies and planning, as well as to urban living.
“It’s like Christmas,” was the reaction of Mari Vaattovaara, Professor in Urban Geography, to the launch of the Urban Academy.
“We have a massive amount of urban research at the University of Helsinki, but academic wisdom becomes confined in individual subjects whose perspective is necessarily narrow. The Urban Academy is a fantastic start to cross-disciplinary cooperation.”
“Historically the relationship between urban researchers and urban planners has been discordant,” observes the Head of the Department of Architecture at Aalto University, Professor Antti Ahlava:
“The planners often think that all the urban researchers can do is to explain how it should have been done differently in history and carry out fun analyses of the current situation, but these humanists are of no help when you need to develop something new! For their part, urban researchers consider that planning is backward, that it is based on an understanding of urbanism that is past its sell-by date and that it does not take the clients’ opinion into account.”
Messages such as these gave an impetus to the actions taken by the president of Aalto University and the rector of the University of Helsinki. The University of Helsinki set up the Urban Academy in May last year and Aalto then joined it. The new minor module will begin this autumn.
The objective is to respond to the complex problems caused by urbanisation by creating bridges between urban research, planning and design, as well as by increasing mutual understanding and interaction between future experts in these fields.
In addition to joint research projects, joint teaching is also being constructed. Students will be offered courses in sociology, geography, environmental science, land use studies, architecture and design.
The scope of the minor module will be from 15 to 25 credits and it is intended particularly for second and third year bachelor’s students.
The application period ended on 15 May and there were many more applicants than can be accepted onto the module.
“Only 40 students in total can be accepted in the first year, so for example, I would not be able to enrol yet, even though I would really like to,” says Mari Vaattovaara.
Within Aalto University, the Urban Academy is part of its strategic focus on the People-centred living environment which is headed by Antti Ahlava.
“Instead of setting up a new organisation, appointing a director, steering group and various sub-committees, we wanted to get straight into hands-on work. I have high expectations of this module. The only way of following this is by a quantum leap to a new level!”