FinEst Twins – Smart City Centre of Excellence (external link)
Focusing on sustainable smart city development, FinEst Twins is coordinated by TalTech, Aalto University, Forum Virium and Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
Key Research Area: Human-centred living environments
We are developing interdisciplinary research to enhance the planning, design, and testing of better living environments.
The goal of human-centered living environments is to better understand how individuals experience their physical environment and how art, spaces, buildings, and communities can enhance this experience.
The challenges of urbanization, efficient use of resources, changes in population structure, as well as the opportunities offered by digitalisation, business services and the experience of nature, are all included in this multi-dimensional research.
The results of this research provide useful knowledge for societal development.
The Aalto Networking Platform brings together our researchers and external parties for multidisciplinary collaboration in the area of human-centered living environments. With our recently opened Living+ Hub, we offer these actors a place to meet, exchange ideas and collaborate. In addition to events focusing on networking and collaboration, we organize educational lectures and seminars for students, Aalto staff and the public, and thus increase awareness of the topics, research and current challenges related to human-centered living environments.
Aalto Living+ Forum
The annual Living+ Forum is a public multi-disciplinary lecture series on themes related to human-centered living environments.
Upcoming events
Latest news in this area
Can a city store as much carbon as a forest?
A new tool helps show how growing cities can remain carbon neutral
Land uplift protects the Finnish coast from rising sea levels, but not endlessly
A recent study calculated new projections for mean sea level rise on the Finnish coast by 2100. In the worst-case scenario, the sea level in Helsinki would rise by more than half a metre.
Architecture students travel to Ghana to immerse themselves in the culture and environment
This past spring, students and professors from the Department of Architecture’s Humanitarian Architecture studio “Interplay of Cultures” traveled to Ghana to deepen their understanding of architectural practices in various cultural contexts.
A sugar extracted from biowaste can provide a sustainable and more efficient method for sound absorption and thermal insulation
Researchers at Aalto University have discovered a way to convert polysaccharides from biowaste into a material that can outperform glass wool and other commercially used sound absorption materials with similar thickness.Flagships and Centres of Excellence
Urban Academy (external link)
Urban Academy (Kaupunkiakatemia) is a platform and network that brings together multidisciplinary research, teaching and societal impact in the field of urban studies. It is a partnership of five organizations: University of Helsinki, Aalto University, City of Helsinki, City of Espoo and City of Vantaa.
Infrastructure
Aalto Living+ Hub
The Living+ Hub is an experimental space for research, development and innovations activities connecting researchers, students, companies and cities.
Aalto Built Environment Laboratory
Aalto Built Envinronment Laboratory (ABE) is a new collaborative research and learning initiative of Aalto University, School of Engineering.
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.
Featured research bodies
Group X (external link)
A focus group at the department of architecture at Aalto University
Smartland consortium (external link)
The consortium helps to identify and develop effective and sustainable land-use policies. The consortium is led by Aalto, Universities of Helsinki and Turku and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
Key research area contact
Dr. Aija Staffans
Manager, Human-centred living environments, Key Research Area, Aalto Networking Platform