Antti Ahlava’s task is to develop architectural design and planning methods, including interdisciplinary activities. He is the director of Group X. Ahlava has been teaching urban design at Aalto University and has been a Visiting Professor in Architectural Design at Århus School of Architecture, Royal Art Academy in Copenhagen and TU Vienna, and collaborated also with the architecture schools of UCLA, MIT, Columbia, Yale, Keio and Tokio. He was recently a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design. His work has been featured in several architectural exhibitions. Ahlava has been a jury member in several international architectural competitions in Estonia and Finland and has been a member of specialist boards in Tallinn, Estonia and Eskilstuna, Sweden. Ahlava is also an architect and partner at the prizewinning Helsinki Zürich Office Ltd (helsinkizurich), located in Helsinki, Finland and Zürich, Switzerland.
Teemu Kurkela contributes to SOTERA research group at the Department of Architecture. His work scrutinizes architecture in relation to the business models for services, hospitality, logistics and acquisitions, interior design, industrial design and landscaping within the field of wellbeing architecture, especially related to the development of hospitals.
Adjunct Professor of
Emergent Design Methodologies
More about Anssi
Anssi Joutsiniemi is Adjunct Professor at the Aalto University. His research interests are centered on issues of complex system approaches in urban planning and his work include topics of urban modelling, morphological analyses and rule-based planning. His expertise is in GIS and computational methods in urban planning and design and his more recent research interests are in distributed urban modelling and simulation and algorithmic problem solving in a design process. Joutsiniemi also works as Associate Professor in Tampere University of Technology and holds Adjunct Associate Professorship in Curtin University, Australia. He is the head of the Urban Studies and Planning Master’s Programme at Aalto University.
Profile at Aalto University
JULLE OKSANEN
Light & Space
Academy and Visiting Researcher
More about Julle
Julle Oksanen is a lighting and luminaire designer in his company Julle Oksanen Lighting Design Ltd. He has a PhD. in Architecture, D.Sc.(Arch.) by Aalto University, Department of Architecture with a dissertation on “Design concepts in architectural outdoor lighting design based on metaphors as a heuristic tool”. He has a Master of Science in Landscape Architecture from the University of Tennessee, College of Architecture and Design, and PE (Electrical Engineering) from Helsinki Technical College. Julle is a Researcher on Architecture & Light in Group X. He has been Professor & Lecturer in China, Norway, UK & USA at the University of Oregon, Cornell University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Julle Oksanen’s and Hannu Tikka’s ‘Light & Space Academy’ arranges travelling educational activities in the USA, Asia and Europe.
Contact information: +358 – 50 – 5644724 & julle.oksanen@jold.net
Julle Oksanen Lighting Ltd.
HANNU TIKKA
Light & Space
Academy and PhD Candidate
More about Hannu
Hannu Tikka is the co-director of Group X’s ‘Light and Space Academy’, together with Julle Oksanen. Hannu is a successful building and urban designer and have taught architecture at the Departments of Architecture in Aalto University and Tampere University of Technology. Hannu has been a Visiting Professor at Cornell University.
‘Light & Space Academy’ arranges travelling educational activities in the USA, Asia and Europe.
APRT Architects
CLAUDIA AUER
Lecturer and Doctoral Student
More about Claudia
Claudia Auer studied architecture at Graz University of Technology (Ba arc) and at Helsinki University of Technology. (M. Sc.). She is teacher and coordinator of the Public Building Studio at Aalto University School of Architecture, Art and Design. Since 2014 she is a PhD Candidate and holds a research position at the chair of Building Design at Aalto University. Her work focus is on practice related and artistic research in architecture, on creative practices in public building processes and on learning environments. As practicing architect she has been working on pilot projects for sustainable and energy efficient architecture in Finland and has planned buildings and interiors for the schools of architecture at Oulu University and Aalto University. She is architect and partner in the Helsinki based office Auer & Sandås architects Ltd. Her work as architect has won several awards and has been exhibited internationally. She has also been jury member in several architectural competitions.
Auer & Sandås architects
NATALIA VLADYKINA
Project Manager and PhD Candidate
More about Natalia
Natalia’s interests are service-oriented architecture and user experience in the space. She is a teacher in Art of Heat studio for architecture and interior design students.
MENGWEI WANG
Student Assistant
More about Mengwei
Mengwei Wang is a student of Master’s Programme in Architecture. She is finishing her MSc’s studies at Aalto University. She studied her bachelor at Tianjin University, China.
FERNANDO NIETO
Associate Professor of Architectural Design
Tampere University School of Architecture
More about Fernando
Fernando Nieto is an architect (ETSA Valladolid, 2004), Master of Advanced Studies in Collective Housing (ETSA Madrid, 2006) and International Doctor of Architecture in Advanced Architectural Design (ETSA Madrid, 2014). From 2014-2018 he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Group X at Aalto University Department of Architecture
ALEJANDRO CAMPOS
Former Postdoctoral Researcher
More about Alejandro
Alejandro Campos is an architect (ETSA Valencia, 2013 + TU Eindhoven, 2010), and International Doctor in Architecture, Building, Urban Planning and Landscape (ETSA Valencia, 2018). He is an architect and researcher. His research focus is on the intersection between architecture and everyday life, and his PhD is an exercise of Architectural Anthropology through the analysis of Aldo van Eyck’s own house in Loenen aan de Vecht. From 2018–2019 he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in Group X at Aalto University Department of Architecture. He is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at TU Delft Department of Architecture.
OTHER MEMBERS
Former Group X's contributors
More about past members
Saana Rossi, Student Assistant.
Sanna Iltanen, PhD Candidate.
Álvaro de Oliveira, Visiting Professor of Service Architecture Kivi Sotamaa, Founder and Artistic Director of ADD Aalto University Digital Design Laboratory.
Daishi Sakaguchi, Visiting Researcher.
Pekka Tynkkynen, PhD Candidate.
Janne Saario, Course Tutor.
Kristian Forsberg, Course Tutor.
Ossi Konttinen, Course Tutor.
Lilli Maunula, Course Tutor.
Andrea Esquivel, Student Assistant.
Mia Hertsberg, Student Assistant