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. Profile at Aalto University helsinkizurich

Jarmo Suominen scrutinizes service-based logic in architecture in relation to users, value creation, experiences and urban ecosystems. Profile at Aalto University Profile at MIT

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 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.

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’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.