Department of Built Environment

Spatial Planning and Transportation Engineering

Urban realities are becoming increasingly dynamic, complex and fragmented while demands for their livability, sustainability, competitiveness, and attractiveness increase. Our research connects spatial planning and transportation engineering for developing new scientific knowledge needed in systemic understanding, problem-solving, and integrative planning and policy-making beyond sectoral boundaries, aimed at achieving human-centered living environments.

Traffic in Mannerheimintie, photo Aalto University/Annamari Tolonen

The sustainability of our modern living environments is being challenged by rapid processes of urbanisation and climate change. In addition to contributing to the advances in digitalisation and automation through various smart city initiatives, shaping our futures requires deeper understanding of human behavior and values, urban systems dynamics, citizen participation practices, and inter-sectoral institutional collaboration.

Research overview

Deeply rooted in understanding the complexities of important societal challenges reflected in our everyday environments, this research group has both practice- and science-based approach to engineering as collaborative development. To account for a wicked challenges of our futures, this group has developed a wide spectrum of critical research topics in the area of sustainable built environment and systems design.

Our research themes

Understanding the human multidimensionality and diversity is one of the central focus areas, relying upon a range of economic, psychological and sociological approaches. Understanding human needs for living and moving around urban environments is accompanied with the development of advanced data collection and analysis methods. The development of place- and activity-based data collection and analysis methods relies strongly on advances in digitalisation and automation.

The results of the NORDGREEN project section of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, implemented by Aalto University in 2020-2023, can be viewed in this video recording. For English subtitles, press cc/subtitles menu.

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This research area focuses on complexities in planning and managing urban environments, stemming both from complexities of urban environments as well as from procedural and institutional complexities themselves. Development of concepts, methods, and computer models includes a range of spatial and temporal scales, from regional and long-term envisioning to detailed, neighbourhood, levels. Framing of decision-making methods and processes is done through a simultaneous re-evaluation of governing mechanisms, focus on citizen participation, and a deep understanding of communicative dynamics and activities.

In this research area, the Group is affiliated with the research group Spatial Policy, Politics and Planning, led by professor Sami Moisio at University of Helsinki Department of Geosciences and Geography.

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Based on a deep understanding of technology and technological transition processes, this research area focuses on development of a range of strategies and services, both in the domain of housing and urban structure as well as in mobility. Grounded in human-centered approach, this development includes understanding of liveability requirements, carbon neutrality, and mobility systems dynamics. The resulting systems contribute to steering emerging technological roadmaps focused on such trends as sharing, automation, servitization, and connectivity, as well as steering of national and international policies and regulation.

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