First Summer School at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture will be held in August 2022

We need a new mindset to internationalization in order to encourage our students to obtain competencies needed in an international context. One of these new initiatives is Summer School at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture which is supported by Jane and Aatos Erkkos Foundation. The financial support consists of 950,000 euro for the years 2021-2024. The Summer School is part of Aalto University's strategy work and it's goal is to increase competence in cooperation between creative fields and in utilizing radical creativity.
The content of summer school courses is created in collaboration with researchers from summer school partner universities: The New School Parsons School of Design, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Politecnico di Milano and Delft University of Technology. The aim is to invite international students ɫɫÀ² University to learn skills how to collaboratively solve the big challenges of our time. The teaching content of the summer 2022 course is designed around themes of circular economy and co-design. Teaching will be implemented as co-teaching both on-site at the Otaniemi campus and online. The course is available for students at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture and for students at Summer School partner universities.
This is a unique change to learn and develop your ideas in an international, multidisciplinary context and work in high quality laboratories at Aalto University campus. The course consists of a pretask, a two-week intensive workshop and a learning diary. It aims to build international relations and new co-operation and understanding at fields of art, design, media and architecture. The course can be also completed as an online course.
The application period for the course is now open. For more information on applying, please read more here: Circular economy and co-design | Aalto University.

The course will construct a systemic understanding of the change needed while transforming the current linear economy towards circular economy. A circular economy is a powerful way to address climate change, resource scarcity, and biodiversity loss while also meeting critical social needs. The focus of the course will be on how to prevent waste and pollution, how to keep products and materials in use longer and how to regenerate the whole system towards a better balance.

The teaching of the course consists of three core themes, which are materials and products in the circular economy, the system level and the role of circular economy in future scenarios. Learning outcomes include following: understanding the need for system transformation towards circular economy; understanding the role of design in driving a systemic circular transformation; modular thinking, prefabrication and design for deconstruction as tools or strategies for designing sustainable products; understanding the importance of consumers' role in adoption of circular thinking and building scenarios and paths towards desired future.
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