Designs for a Cooler Planet
Aalto University’s biggest annual exhibition showcases interdisciplinary experiments from our researchers and students. Designs for a Cooler Planet will be held next in the autumn of 2026.
Key Research Area: Arts and design
We aim to find new ways of solving supposedly impossible problems, to contribute to the wellbeing of people, and to have a positive impact on wider society.
Knowledge-building activities in art and design can be characterized by a quest for a human approach to any topic. In this way, Aalto University bridges different areas, such as art, technology and business.
Our cultural approach focuses on experiences and both sensory and hands-on skills and knowledge.
At Aalto, artistic and design activities are closely linked to the research carried out in the technical fields: many of our art-based researchers do not focus on new technologies or their development, but rather on the use of technologies within art and other socio-cultural contexts.
In addition, arts and design include technology-based actions related to systems design and sustainable development.
The Aalto Networking Platform brings together our researchers, practitioners and external parties for multidisciplinary collaboration in the area of arts and design.
Focus areas
- Arts, design and architecture
- Human experience, including customer experience
- Industrial processes and service design
- Data-driven experimental design
- Cognitive systems
- Organizations and teams
- Creativity and creative practices
Upcoming events
Inside Aalto Founder Sprint (Cohort #2) (external link)
Join our open event “Inside Founder Sprint” to learn all about the Founder Sprint program starting Spring 2026, the talent-first accelerator designed for driven Aalto students.
Aalto Creatives Demo Day | December 2025 (external link)
Aalto Creatives Demo Day pitch event in Marsio where pre-incubator teams present their business ideas.
Apply Now — Aalto Founder Sprint Spring 2026 Cohort
Founder Sprint is where you find out how fast you can actually build, how far you can push yourself, and what kind of teammate you become when the pace gets real. You’ll learn more about yourself in these weeks than most people do in years.Latest news in this area
Textile artist Juha Vehmaanperä received the Taito-Finlandia award
Vehmaanperä is known for their knitwear that breaks the boundaries of handicrafts.
Aalto Creatives Art & Tech Open Call ’25 Award Ceremony
Winning projects received their awards at the Aalto Creatives Art & Tech Open Call ’25 awards ceremony on the last day of October. Two projects received development funding, two projects were awarded product prizes from Genelec, and one project was awarded both funding and Genelec's product packages.
Design Factory turns shipping containers into art
Aalto Design Factory has transformed their old storage containers into captivating works of outdoor art titled ‘Bitti’ and ‘Atomi’, merging functionality with artistic vision to enhance the campus environment.
Finnish Design Push – design accelerates the development of technology companies
Finnish Design Push, a joint initiative between the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture and Technology Industries of Finland, strengthens the role of design in Finnish industry.Infrastructure
Arts infra Workshops
At the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, hands-on learning is essential. Our students have access to one of the finest workshop environment in the world, with a very high workshop to student ratio.
Aalto Studios
Aalto Studios weaves together the players of the creative economy: designers, filmmakers, YouTubers, game developers, performing artists, educators, angel investors, public-sector operators, and more in Finland, Scandinavia, Europe, and beyond.
MAGICS – Media – Arts – Games – Interaction – Computing – Science (external link)
MAGICS is an infrastructure network to support research into motion recording, and virtual environments. It is a joint effort of Aalto University, Tampere University and the University of the Arts Helsinki.
Biofilia
Biofilia provides artists, researchers, students and scholars with the ability to engage with the life sciences and their applications within an artistic and cultural context, thus making creative and critical links between biosciences, engineering and the arts.
Featured research, courses, and art bodies
ENCORE Research: Current Projects
Information about the current research projects.
Artist-in-Residence Programme
The Aalto AiR programme follows the practices of the best international universities and is, notably, the first of its kind in the Nordic countries.
Designs for a Cooler Planet 2021
In a world of plenty, what is wise to design for the next generations? This year's theme is Resource wisdom, and a university-wide event will take place in September 2021.
CHEMARTS (external link)
CHEMARTS website
Design for government
Encouraging an experimental culture is one of the Finnish government’s key projects. Aalto students have been in the thick of the action.
Where art meets math
Antti Oulasvirta’s work at Aalto University combines art, design, psychology and artificial intelligence—for entirely new ways of studying human-machine interaction.
Cross-disciplinary consortia, networks and initiatives
BioColour (external link)
Bio-based Dyes and Pigments for Colour Palette
AaltoTEXTILES network (external link)
AaltoTEXTILES is a network linking all textile-material related activities within design, technology and business at Aalto University
The Test Site
The Test Site is a student-led network of practical sustainability at Aalto University.
7 Experiences Summit giving birth to multidisciplinary experience research as a field
The conference brought together experience researchers from different fields for the first time worldwide.
Sun-powered Textiles - Textile solar cell modules for energy harvesting in wearables
The research results of the Sun-powered Textiles project will be presented
Aamo artscience group, `Blck Vlvt: the at v2 version´ - experimental installation
`Blck Vlvt: the at v2 version´ is the most recent manifestation of artistic and scientific research into the interplay between the Baroa beloabara* plant, light, electrical energy, J.M.William Turner and other humans. It is propelled by the Aronia Art Morphing (Aamo) artscience group at Aalto University.
Our departments in this area
Department of Design
The Department of Design is a diverse community of competent, creative and responsible individuals. In design, we appreciate technical skill, social significance and artistic expression.
Department of Architecture
We train professionals to design human-centred environments.
Research at the Department of Media
Our research activities include practice-led and basic research on art and design related topics, including visual communication and photography, visual communication design, media culture and heritage, new media design and learning, sound design as well as computer games.
Department of Film (ELO)
The Department of Film, ELO, is Finland's only university-level film school.
Research and artistic activities at the Department of Art
The research and artistic activities of Department of Art takes place in the fields of contemporary art, art education, visual culture, and curating. The department has a long tradition with artistic and philosophical production and many researchers’ work emphasizes contemporary, critical, political and societal entanglements of art, curating, and pedagogy.
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
We conduct world-class research and education focusing on the creation and transformation of technology-based business.
Department of Mathematics and Systems Analysis
Our main research areas are algebra and discrete mathematics, analysis, applied mathematics and mechanics, stochastics and statistics, and systems analysis and operations research.
Department of Computer Science
We are an internationally-oriented community and home to world-class research in modern computer science.
Department of Art
The Department of Art educates and prepares professionals in the fields of art education, visual culture, curating, and contemporary art. The department is recognized internationally for high-quality artistic and art pedagogical activities, scholarship, and research.
Department of Energy and Mechanical Engineering
The Department of Energy and Mechanical Engineering is a leading multidisciplinary research establishment with strong industrial ties and impact on industry and society alike.
See also
Design Factory (external link)
Educating the world’s best product designers
Winners in the campusart competition rooted in bioart and quantum physics
Laura Piispanen, Noora Heiskanen, Jenna Ahonen and Ayda Grisiute convinced the jury with their creativity.
Design Inside
Renewing societies requires world-leading design-based practices. The Design Inside initiative ensures we will have the world-class ability throughout Aalto to shape and explore the world around us.
Design for the Aalto University Shop
Multidisciplinary groups of students create intriguing and educative items for the shop – and for themselves.
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