Department of Design

NODUS Researchers

Meet the members of NODUS Sustainable Design Research Group and learn about their research interests.
NODUS Researchers discussing

SENIOR RESEARCHERS

idil gaziulusoy

Dr. İdil GAZİULUSOY, NODUS Leader

Associate Professor, Sustainable Design
idil.gaziulusoy[at]aalto.fi

İdil Gaziulusoy is a design researcher with a PhD in sustainability science from University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research is situated within the emerging area of design for sustainability transitions. She is interested in the new ways of designing and the agencies enabled, enacted and embodied by design that emerge in transformations/transitions contexts. In her work she develops theories, tools and methods to link the day to day activities and strategic decisions of design and innovation teams to the longer-term, systemic and radical transformations which need to take place at the societal level to achieve sustainability. 

You can find İdil’s publications here.

Dr. Mikko JALAS, Professor of Practice, Sustainable Consumption

Dr. Mikko JALAS

Associate Professor, Co-Innovating for Circular Solutions
mikko.jalas[at]aalto.fi

Mikko Jalas holds a PhD in Organization and Management from the Aalto University School of Business. He has worked on sustainable consumption, time use, energy consumption and on time use rebound-effects. More recently he has worked on renewable energy investments, the local embedding of energy technologies, self-building activities as well as everyday practices related to energy. His contributions to the study of social practices include theorizing the temporalities of everyday life, developing methodological approaches to use diaries as a method, and empirical studies of everyday practice including bicycling, heat provision and wooden boating. Mikko is the Leader of Creative Sustainability masters program. 

You can find Mikko’s publications here.

POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCHERS

Image of Gloria in black and white.

Dr. Gloria LAUTERBACH

gloria.lauterbach[at]aalto.fi

Gloria Lauterbach holds a diploma in design & sustainability from ecosign/ Akademie für Gestaltung in Cologne, Germany, received in 2012 and a PhD in Arts, conducted at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, received in 2022. 

Specialized in artistic research, Gloria works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Design as part of the NorDark project. The project’s aim is to mediate the needs of people and wildlife in Nordic after-dark environments. Gloria’s team develops for the project a design methodology that includes more-than-human needs in future design practices.   

Gloria’s passion is to better understand and to make better understandable topics around material cooperation, dialogical post-humanism, more-than-human-centric methodologies, modes of habitation, post-disaster futures and urban wilderness.  
 

You can find Gloria’s publications here.

Post-Doctoral Researcher – Sini Numminen

Dr. Sini NUMMINEN

sini.numminen[at]aalto.fi

Sini is an Academy Research Fellow, working at NODUS with energy justice, energy markets and and energy transition issues. Sini holds a D.Sc. (Tech.) degree in Engineering Physics. Sini’s work is currently funded by the Academy of Finland through ‘EP-Nordic’ (2024–2028) fellowship which targets to identify the extent and characteristics of Nordic energy poverty. Should you be working with energy vulnerable people in Finland or other Nordic country, or have otherwise expert knowledge or insight on the topic, please contact Sini for an interview. She is also involved in the ORSI project (www.ecowelfare.fi).


You can find Sini's publications here.

Katie Berns

Dr. Katie BERNS

katie.berns[at]aalto.fi

Katie is a postdoctoral researcher, working at NODUS with a focus on Service Design for Climate Policy within the ICOS Cities project alongside Dr. İdil Gaziulusoy and Dr. Tatu Marttila. Prior to joining NODUS, she conducted research at the intersection of digital civics, sustainability, and collaborative communities, exploring the role interactive technologies can play in empowering citizens to take an active role in food systems within their local communities. Katie holds a PhD in Digital Civics and Sustainable Interaction Design from Stockholm University, Sweden and an MSc in Sustainable Design from Aalborg University, Denmark. 


You can find Katie's publications here.

DOCTORAL RESEARCHERS

Saga-Sofia Santala

Saga-Sofia SANTALA

saga.santala[at]aalto.fi

Saga-Sofia Santala's doctoral research project focuses on sustainable mobility practices and design for behaviour change. Her thesis is based on work conducted at KONE, where she has been leading community engagement work in the EU Horizon 2020 funded SPARCS project for the past years focusing on coordinating citizen engagement activities and conducting design research in the context of sustainable mobility transitions and social behaviour change. As a Doctoral Candidate at Aalto University, she studies the value and ways of including social context understanding in designing behaviour change interventions for effective adoption of sustainable urban mobility practices.

She holds an MA in collaborative and industrial design (2019) and a BA in industrial design (2016) from Aalto University. Through her exchange studies at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, she has studied systems-oriented design and design management.

You can find Saga's publications here.

Tomi RANTANEN

Tomi RANTANEN

tomi.rantanen[at]aalto.fi

Tomi Rantanen holds an MA in Art and Design from Aalto University (2024). His doctoral research is focused on provoking equity transitions in music. Tomi aims to find out how theories and practices of transition design can facilitate change towards equal futures. Through co-design activities and quantitative and qualitative assessments, he generates knowledge of how these processes might be and what kind of impact they could create. 

Tomi has a background as a DJ and graphic designer in the music industry. He is interested in design for social change, transition design, co-design, systems thinking, and futures thinking. 

You can find Tomi's publications here.

An image of Talvikki in black and white colour.

Talvikki KOLLMANN

talvikki.kollmann[at]aalto.fi

Talvikki Kollmann's doctoral research project focuses on remote work and future ways of working. She conducts qualitative research about remote work practices, work environments and the future of work. The aim is to understand the long-term sustainability implications of remote work in Finland and to develop up-to-date conceptual premises of sustainable work and business environments.

You can find Talvikki's publications here.

Image of Delphine RUMO

Delphine RUMO

delphine.rumo[at]aalto.fi

Delphine Rumo's doctoral research focuses on sustainable construction. In her research, she investigates communities of practice that restructure conventional economic spaces towards post-development economies. Her aim is to develop ways to engage with plants, mycelium and synthetic entities through construction materials. She is an industrial and product designer by profession, holds a BA in Industrial and Product Design (ECAL, 2009), a BA in Social Sciences (University of Lausanne, 2017) and an MA in Creative Sustainability (Aalto University, 2021).

You can find Delphine's publications here.

Maria FERREIRA LITOWTSCHENKO

Maria FERREIRA LITOWTSCHENKO

maria.ferreiralitowtschenko[at]aalto.fi

Maria Ferreira's research focuses on design in the public sector, especially in experimental institutional forms like public innovation labs. The aim is to understand the interactions and collaborations between various actors seeking to influence governance, particularly in the Latin American context.

You can find Maria’s publications here.

Kata Fodor

Kata FODOR

kata.fodor[at]aalto.fi

Kata Fodor’s PhD research is entitled ‘Kitchen Think-over: The Hybridisation of Food Spaces & Their Potential to Facilitate Sustainable Diets’ and focuses on collaborative urban food spaces across European cities. Kata is also a co-founder of the multidisciplinary design studio Atelier Kite. 

You can find Kata’s publications here.

Tommi Vasko

Tommi VASKO

tommi.vasko[at]aalto.fi

Tommi Vasko is a researcher, designer, and organizer. His doctoral research focuses on Live Action Role-plays and gaming in the context of sustainability transitions. The aim is to understand how fictional scenarios and game mechanics can be used to orchestrate socio-technological transformations. Tommi is also a co-founder of an autonomous educational platform Trojan Horse.

You can find Tommi’s publications here

Previous NODUS Researchers

Satu LÄHTEENOJA

Satu LÄHTEENOJA

satu.lahteenoja[at]aalto.fi

Satu Lähteenoja’s research interests include sustainable development at different policy levels and the role of design in accelerating sustainability transformations. Satu has 15 years of experience in facilitation, consultancy, research and activism on sustainability related topics. In parallel with her studies, she works as a senior expert at the think tank Demos Helsinki.

Dr. Eeva HOUTBECKERS

Dr. Eeva HOUTBECKERS

eeva.houtbeckers[at]aalto.fi

Eeva Houtbeckers’ postdoctoral research project is funded by Nessling Foundation and Kone Foundation. Her research is an ethnography on post-growth economy, work and livelihoods in the global North inspired by ecofeminist thinking. She focuses on forest, land and self-sufficiency debates. 

You can find Eeva’s publications here.

Michael Lettenmeier

Dr. Michael LETTENMEIER

michael.lettenmeier[at]aalto.fi

Michael Lettenmeier is interested in the implications of one-planet lifestyles for households, business and society, and for the transition to an eco-welfare state. He has developed the 8 tonnes resource cap for sustainable lifestyles, the 1.5-degree lifestyles concepts and several footprint calculators for lifestyles.

You can find Michael’s publications here.

Emilija VESELOVA

Emilija VESELOVA

emilija.veselova[at]aalto.fi

Emilija Veselova is developing a theoretical and methodological framework for involving nonhuman stakeholders in collaborative and participatory design processes. She has proposed a bioinclusive approach to co-design and, currently, she researches about which nonhuman entities and structural elements are relevant in a project. 

You can find Emilija’s publications here.

Philip HECTOR

Philip HECTOR

philip.hector[at]aalto.fi

Philip Hector’s doctoral research is at the intersection of participatory design, social movement studies, STS and sustainable consumption. The objective of his project is to better understand how repair and DIY grassroots initiatives create alternative production and consumption infrastructures and who gets to participate in these processes. 

You can find Philip’s publications here.

Thesis: Design as continuous repair - Experimentation, negotiation, and expertise in DIY spaces (2021)

Image of Luisa Mok - NODUS Graduate

Luisa MOK

Luisa Mok’s doctoral research integrating transitions theories and strategic design studies explores strategic design for the short-term future in transitions pathways. She focuses on problems inherent in the near future that have to be progressively overcome before they lead to critical situations that hamper systems transitions. Luisa is now teaching in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.

Thesis: Design against Reverse Salients - Strategic design for the short-term future for sustainability transitions (2019)

Elif ERDOĞAN ÖZTEKİN

Elif ERDOĞAN ÖZTEKİN

Elif Erdoğan Öztekin focuses on the multidimensional learning processes of transitions in her PhD research across four cases of eco-settlements in Europe. Her research relates to design for sustainability transitions, transdisciplinary research, and participatory methods of knowledge production.

You can find Elif’s publications here.

Thesis: Design in community-led sustainability transitions - Learning across contexts, actors, dimensions and levels of change

Dr. Cindy KOHTALA

Dr. Cindy KOHTALA

Cindy Kohtala studies peer production: materialist activists exploring peer-to-peer ways to design and produce locally and more sustainably. Her research focuses especially on fab labs and makerspaces, using Science & Technology Studies frameworks. 

Hella Hemberg

Hella HERNBERG

Hella Hernbeg is an architect, whose practice-based research explores temporary reuse of vacant space in the context of sustainable urban development. Her doctoral research is funded partly by Kone Foundation and partly by Aalto. Since 2014 she is also a founding member and teacher at Design for Government course under Aalto Creative Sustainability. Before her doctoral studies, Hella has run her own company Urban Dream Management and worked at the Ministry of the Environment as strategic designer. 

You can find Hella’s publications here.

Dr. Elise HODSON

Dr. Elise HODSON

Elise Hodson has a PhD in Communication & Culture (York University) and masters degrees in museum studies (University of Toronto) and design history (Bard Graduate Center). Her doctoral work focused on distributed authorship in contemporary design practice and global production. Elise’s research interests include global design history and commodity studies; design economies and the value of design; design and social innovation; and design museums and museology. Prior to coming to Aalto University, Elise was Chair of the School of Design at George Brown College in Toronto, Canada.

You can find Elise’s publications here

NODUS – Sustainable Design Research Group

NODUS Sustainable Design Research Group undertakes transdisciplinary design research for sustainable futures.

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