Capstone Project

This study course aims to provide students with a theoretical, methodological and practical grounding for progressive spatial development of urban spaces and urban design. The focus is on the emphatic understanding, conception and design of convivial outdoor environments and temporary uses, based on social sustainability. The course is cross-disciplinary, combining the ability of service design to outline user-based environments with the architectural design of neglected urban areas with development potential for human-based milieus.  

Aalto University aims to realise the transformation of Otakaari road into a street during the forthcoming years. The university sees the campus as a living lab – a public innovation laboratory. 

The aim of this project is to design services that can serve as platforms for co-creating value with the partners of the university, opening the Aalto campus to the city and turning a road into a lively street and community. 

There lays a potential for a new business model for services to be placed in the temporary spaces of our site. Some of these services may be related to wellbeing, partnering and public events. 

At RCA, the learning objectives are to bring service design to life through an end to end design strategy, value proposition and touchpoint definition. This mean to develop a service proposition going through all the stages of service design: from discovering a problem, defining a strategy, developing a service / value proposition and prototyping, testing and refining its key components, mechanisms or touchpoints. Platformisation will be the overall topic for this RCA course. 

A larger theme behind this endeavour is to correct the legacy of modernist traffic planning in a city environment. As in numerous other modernist urban areas, also in Aalto University campus in Otaniemi, Espoo – our design site – there are no streets – just roads. The question is how to turn a road into a lively street with new amenities, which will enliven the place and increase the wellbeing of the people of the area. Another theme is adaptive regeneration. We will be operating in a place with iconic architectural heritage – Alvar Aalto’s architecture. How to add new functions and structures next to a protected building?  

Aalto University sees the campus as a living lab – a public innovation laboratory. The university aims to realise the transformation of Otakaari road into a street with open ground floor spaces and temporary pavilions during the forthcoming years.  

The aim of this course is not only to develop preparatory material for areas and spaces to be renewed, but to think this task also as a prototype for co-creating value with the partners of the university. A street could be seen as a platform for services and experiences. There lays a potential for a new business model for services to be placed in the temporary spaces of our site. Some of these services may be related to wellbeing, partnering and public events. 

Responsible teachers:

Professor Antti Ahlava, Jaana Tarma, and Karoliina Hartiala