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School as a Service (SaaS) operating model, developed together by Aalto University and the City of Espoo, has received the Human City Design Award 2019 by Seoul Design Foundation and City of Seoul  in Seoulissa 26.9.2019. The award acknowledges Aalto University Department of Architecture's work team in particular, consisting of Aalto University's Vice President of Campus Antti Ahlava, postdoc researcher Fernando Nieto, Adjunct Professor Jarmo Suominen and doctoral thesis researcher Natalia Vladykina.

As part of the SaaS concept, the campus becomes a network of resources and a versatile environment that supports learning . The aim is to create different spaces for learning, develop the pedagogy of learning and renew the organisational culture of a school. This new school solution started from a service architecture course collaboration between Aalto and the London Royal College of Arts. The project employed EU Commission's Creative Europe project and currently includes 1800 school students in Otaniemi. 

Harmonious and sustainable relationship

The award was given to SaaS for contributing to building a more harmonious and sustainable relationship between people and the environment. 

The purpose of the Human City Design Award is to establish a sustainable city ecosystem for a harmonious relationship between people and the environment through design, to discuss design as a creative solution to complex social problems in the city and to expand design’s healing effects around the world, and to make the design sector contribute to the development of mankind. 

The selection was made by a jury of top design experts chaired by Charles Landry. The other members of the jury were Ezio Manzini, Lou Yongqi, Mariana Amatullo and HyunJoon Yoo.