Aalto’s High-level Expertise Active in Haiti's Reconstruction
21.11.2014
The World Cultural Council (WCC) gave Research Manager Matti Kuittinen a Special Recognition Award for his pioneering work on decreasing the carbon footprint of construction and for his leadership of humanitarian projects. Besides the academic world, Kuittinen is also familiar with the chaotic conditions of the world’s crisis hotspots.
Kuittinen leads a multidisciplinary group in the Department of Architecture of the School of Arts, Design and Architecture that researches into wood construction, carbon footprints and energy efficiency. It is important that the information is exported to places where houses have collapsed and the need is great.
– In humanitarian tasks, university expertise is being adapted to chaotic and hectic catastrophe construction.
After the 2011 tsunami in Japan, 300 000 people were housed in barracks in which thermal insulation was non-existent. At the same time, energy production gave rise to enormous emissions as nuclear power plants were closed and the import of natural gas increased. Kuittinen was there and is now writing recommendations on energy efficient reconstruction.
Kuittinen values the special recognition given by WCC particularly because research work outside the scientific mainstream is seen as significant.
– Aalto’s top brains and its cutting-edge research should also consider worldwide problems that within the coming two decades will probably be seen in Finland as well.
There are also parties interested in the research within the European Commission. As a carbon footprint expert, Kuittinen is active in speaking in both the Commission and the Finnish Parliament. Work is in progress on the development of an environmental tax on building products.
Schools from Concrete Rubble in Earthquake Areas
Kuittinen was on a Finn Church Aid (FCA) assignment in Haiti in areas destroyed by the 2010 earthquake.
– I designed a simple construction method, in which the concrete rubble formed from the collapse of houses was recycled for the building of schools. The residents of the villages were involved in the construction work so that the commitment of the locals to child education grew. We were able to put up 10 education centres.
Besides research and work as an expert, Kuittinen is preparing a doctoral dissertation on carbon efficiency in humanitarian construction. Where do you want to be working five years from now?
– In an Aalto research group that overcomes worldwide problems of climate and poverty. It would be nice one day to sit in a rocking chair and think that, from the point of view of Mankind, my work was significant.
Text: Marjukka Puolakka