Contemporary Design

Irene Purasachit saw the floral industry’s waste problem firsthand – now she makes material for handbags from discarded blooms
Nearly half of cut flowers end up in the trash, never making their way to dinner tables or first dates
Soil Matters exhibition chosen as the winner of Design Museum´s open call
Soil Matters exhibition chosen as the winner of Design Museum´s open call
Julia Lohmann: ‘We know too much and do too little’
Lohmann’s magnificent seaweed pavilion won the sustainable design category for Dezeen Awards 2020.
Contemporary design enables critical reflection
Design is the method with which we shape our world. The new MA Contemporary Design combines material-led design with critical and conceptual thinking practices.Contemporary Design MA Articles

Modular mold development - From experimental design to product series by Heikki Konu in cooperation with Jukka Jokinen
This research is about the development of the modular glass blowing mold and the usage of the mold for manufacturing glass objects in hot work shop. The modular mold enables countless shapes produced with one mold, which makes the form creation process different from the traditional way. The project is carried out as teamwork; the mold development process, testing and design of the products manufactured are done in full cooperation with Jukka Jokinen and Heikki Konu. The literary work has been divided equally 50-50 between the designers, Jokinen focusing on the mold development and Konu on using the mold in glass blowing process.
We Make Effort. Reflections on feminism, togetherness and practicing in the context of design by Aliisa Talja
We Make Effort enquires into personal experiences of aiming to practice feminism collectively in the context of design. The thesis stems from a place in time coloured by a sense of societal urgency, value contradictions with practicing as a designer, and not quite knowing how to negotiate them. It unfolds some personal, professional and political meanings of engaging with feminist theory and collectivity, as well as the consequent shifts in conceiving practice in the field of design.
Pigments of Microorganisms by Eveliina Juuri
'Pigments of Microorganisms' is a study of microorganisms that are able to produce colourful pigments. Within this thesis work I inspected in depth to laboratory working with the biochemistry scientists and as a designer I implemented a series of material experiments together with the microbial produced colourants.