The year in Review: What happened in 2025?
The year 2025 was filled with experimentation and play for the Contemporary Design (CoDe) Master’s Programme. Across exhibitions, awards, publications, field trips, and public events, students and faculty engaged critically with materials, contexts, and futures, while finding new ways to engage with design as a practice.
January
The year began with the start of a new academic semester, as students returned to campus and continued developing their individual practices through coursework, studios, and collaborative projects.
February
CoDe student Juni Sun Neyenhuys was awarded the German Design Newcomer Award, recognising her emerging contribution to contemporary design and material-driven research. Congratulations!
April
Milan Design Week was attended by many CoDe students and faculty members, both as visitors and exhibitors. Among the presentations were Juni Sun Neyenhuys’ Wet Biofibre Spinning Machine and Federico Fiermonte’s Roman Vases.
The ninth issue of The Vessel, the online magazine of Norwegian Crafts, was also published in April. This issue combined student texts from three Nordic craft and design schools: KHiO in Oslo, HDK in Gothenburg, and Aalto University; featuring contributions by CoDe students Daniel Schiechl, Hana Rehorčíková, Maike Panz, and Zoë Robertson and in part edited by CoDe student Carla Rotenberg.
In addition, Anab Jain from the London-based design studio Superflux visited the first-year CoDe cohort and gave an inspiring lecture on spiritual infrastructure as part of the Design Interrupted lecture series.
May
German film director Katharina Pethke visited the programme and led an engaging filmmaking workshop within the Reflective Practice course. During her visit, she also presented her award-winning film Reproduction at Aalto’s own Cinema Sheryl.
June
The first Finnish Glass Biennial was celebrated in Riihimäki, Nuutajärvi, and Iittala in June and featured numerous works by CoDe students and alumni. It was a joyful moment to celebrate contemporary glass practices in Finland. Read more here.
August
A new cohort arrived to begin their Master’s studies, and we're happy to welcome the new students into the CoDe community!
In August, CoDe students who serve as assistants in the 3D Printing Workshop, led by workshop master Hector Velasquez, participated in Navigating Through the Complexities of the Digital Jungle, a workshop and exhibition organised at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) in collaboration with the Belgian design studio UNFOLD.
Throughout the year, several courses culminated in exhibitions, including Body of Work – Glass Challenge, Bricks – Ceramic Laboratory, and Of a Kind – Personal Exploration.
September
This month was really busy! Helsinki Design Week rolled in and we celebrated the third edition of Artefakti, the fully student-organised graduation exhibition of MA Contemporary Design students. (Read more here) It presented the work of 16 graduating students, including the project RE-Sound by Dario Aguet which is awarded with the METEX prize.
Habitare Protos also featured works by CoDe students and alumni, including Lennart Engel’s Sauna Stone Lab exploration (Read more here about his thesis) and Kirsikka Heiskari’s SULAKRUUNU, a Chandelier made in the Glass Challenge Course. The Pop-Up exhibition at "The Corner" Shop also featured works by CoDe students Elisabeth Bureau and Hitomi Asaka.
Additional exhibitions included the Reimagining our future with the Baltic Sea exhibition at the Venturo Pavillion which showed works by Professor Julia Lohmann, together with artists from the Guarding the Baltic Sea Residency, along with students, staff, and researchers from Aalto University.
The French Institute, presented in Dialogue in Design the work of French designers in Finland, including CoDe students Julian Legros and Ariane Carde.
The exhibition Sports – Friends, Pleasure and Gear, developed within the Product and Form course, was held at the TAHTO Museum of Sports Culture in the Olympic Stadium (Read more here). At Aalto University, the Cooler Planet exhibition in the Marsio building also included projects by CoDe students, presenting new material possibilities while raising questions about our relationship to other species.
During September, the new CoDe cohort also travelled to the Tvärminne Zoological Research Station in Western Finland as part of the Materials and Living Systems course and presented their work in an exhibition at the Venturo Pavilion.
October
For Dutch Design Week, ChemArts projects returned to Eindhoven, many of them created by CoDe students under the guidance of Anna van der Lei and Pirjo Kääriäinen, continuing the programme’s engagement with international platforms.
November
The exhibition THIS ’N’ THAT – Works from the Workshop Masters at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture was held and included work by many CoDe students who serve as workshop assistants, including those working in the 3D Printing, Wood, and Ceramics workshops.
November concluded with Pikkujoulu, the annual little Christmas gathering, a moment to come together across cohorts and celebrate being together.
December
First-year CoDe students presented their projects of the Experimental Design coursre, held for the first time under the guidance of the newest addition to the Contemporary Design teaching team, Barbara Pollini. It was also the first time the course was co-taught by CoDe alumna Ena Naito, within her initiated space, the Biomaker Studio, a space for collaboration and experimentation around living matter located on the Aalto campus.
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At Aalto University’s BioMaker Studio, initiated by Ena Naito, students and researchers experiment with living materials, from algae to mycelium, creating an open, interdisciplinary space where design, biology, and collaboration grow together.
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Gain an early overview of the Unite! Seed Fund Call of Spring 2026. The call includes three funding lines: Student Activities, Teaching and Learning, and Research and PhD.