Coming up next autumn at Aalto's Department of Architecture: a studio course on the reuse and expansion of the present Architecture and Design Museum buildings in Helsinki

Capstone Studio 2026 will be arranged together with protographer Marc Goodwin and architect Karoliina Hartiala. The course will use photography as a tool to analyse relationships in architecture and to help approaching new questions and opportunities for the development of culture and life.

The course will start with group assignments and conclude with a personal architectural design task – urban renewal and adaptive reuse –  on a city block area in Kaartinkaupunki, Helsinki: the present Architecture and Design Museum buildings. We will use collage as a tool for exploring the connection between architecture and narration. 

As an inspiration, the accompanied image shows our earlier project in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany. Photography, collage and speculative urbanism will act as both microscope and mirror in this course: iharpening perception of architecture’s atmospheric, relational, and cultural dimensions, while also reflecting back the student’s own assumptions. Combined with design, the course aims to contribute to a practice that is more creative, intelligent, and sensitive.