ARTS+ENG project builds bridges between schools
18.06.2013
On 1 January 2011, the Aalto University Department of Architecture of the School of Engineering was merged with the School of Art, Design and Architecture. Prior to this, it had been a part of the Helsinki University of Technology and its predecessors for nearly 140 years.
The change seemed great and many were worried about how interaction would continue between the architects and engineering sciences. For this reason, the President of Aalto University, Tuula Teeri, made an initiative to launch a project to discover new levels of co-operation between the schools.
The closing seminar of the project was held in Otaniemi on 1 June 2013.
Sometimes, separation brings good things
Originally, the ARTS+ENG project was about deepening the co-operation between builders. It is already clear that the process has expanded from the department level to the school level.
‘The School of Art, Design and Architecture and the School of Engineering have in a short amount of time become a family-like team through the change’, said Dean Helena Hyvönen. During her talk, she placed an emphasis on continuing the co-operation, despite personnel changes. Her retirement is planned for March 2014 and Dean Petri Varsta is retiring during the summer of 2013.
Many of the speakers at the seminar reflected on the time two years ago when fears of the connection breaking were prevalent. However, good things had also resulted from the separation.
For example, the change has forced the fields of science to evaluate teaching methods and learning objectives from completely new perspectives. The on-going degree reform has created a natural time to also develop teaching.
‘The shared teaching facilities in the new bachelor's degree programmes allow for meetings between people’, said President Tuula Teeri during her talk.
She compared the interaction between the sciences to how Aalto University and the industry are constantly seeking new patterns of co-operation.
The future of the process is ensured
The thoughts that were created during the project have been compiled in the final report, which was presented at the seminar by Saija Hollmén from the Department of Architecture and Chris Rose from the Rhode Island School of Design. They explained that the project also wanted to learn how interaction between architects and engineers is promoted elsewhere in the world.
Benchmark visits were made to three universities: Stanford University and Rhode Island School of Design in the United States and the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.
‘A commonality between the visited programmes was that they did not consist of the combination of separate sciences. Instead, two or more sciences were integrated into them. A clear objective of the programmes was a learning experience across the borders of sciences’, explained Saija Hollmén.
Some of the endeavours of the ARTS+ENG project are already being implemented. An example of this was mentioned to be the bachelor’s level Synthesis studio course, which is taken by the new students of both schools; nearly 400 students. From the beginning of the 2014-2015 academic year, the course is included among the required courses of the curriculums of the bachelor’s degree programmes of the departments of architecture and design.
‘Common challenges and solving problems with colleagues already during the first year of studies open the doors for implementing shared study modules and working together later in business life’, Professor Juha Paavola emphasised.
The seminar also presented other visions and opportunities, some of which took the audience all the way across the ocean to Stanford. The final report also includes initiatives on new professorships and a master's degree programme. Based on these, the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering is currently accepting applications for the position of Professor of Structural Design.
'The collaboration between engineers and architects has reached good grounds and I believe that in the near future interesting and concrete openings will be accomplished', says Dean Petri Varsta.
The deans of the schools, Helena Hyvönen and Petri Varsta, were responsible for managing the project. Juha Paavola, Professor, Vice Dean, from the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering and Saija Hollmén, Architect, University Lecturer from the Department of Architecture were responsible for project co-ordination together with Chris Rose, who manages a doctoral programme at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Photo: Anne Kinnunen
Text: Marja Torniainen