Group X is taking part in the studio course Interactive Dance House Helsinki, a Building Design studio course at Master’s level at the Department of Architecture, Aalto University. The course is organized by Professors Pirjo Sanaksenaho and Teemu Kurkela in collaboration with Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. It will include a visit by Tsinghua students and teachers to Aalto University, and vice versa. Teemu Kurkela, Fernando Nieto and Claudia Auer from Group X will participate as course teachers in the studio.

The project is based on a real initiative and need for performance spaces for a leading dance education center and theater in Finland. The city has suggested a site by the Cable Factory cultural center and preliminary studies have been done about it by the Helsinki City Planning Department. The Dance House building will be exceptional even by international standards, and it will include a unique design and spatial arrangement embracing a wide variety of different genres of dance culture. The Dance House will be an accessible and welcoming gathering place for the public while providing amenities for high quality performances of other art forms. The Dance House will also ease the decades-long, chronic shortage of rehearsal and performance space for dance artists.

Teachers: Pirjo Sanaksenaho, Teemu Kurkela, Fernando Nieto, Sari Lehtonen, Claudia Auer, Ville Hara, Toni Kotnik (structures), Kari Seitaniemi (HVAC techniques).