Defence in the field of Design: MA Tatu Marttila

In his doctoral research, Tatu Marttila focuses on a case study of interprofessional design education in the context of sustainabillity.

MA Tatu Marttila will defend his thesis Platforms of Co-Creation: Learning Interprofessional Design in Creative Sustainability on Tuesday 18 September 2018.

Opponent: prof. Martina Keitsch (Dr philos.), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim

Custos: prof. Mikko Jalas (Dr econ.), Aalto ARTS

Place: Hall Ke2, Aalto University School of Chemical Technology, Kemistintie 1

Discussion will be held in English.

More information:

Sustainable development as an interprofessional context for design and planning challenges not only conventional roles and expertise, but also the understanding of sustainability itself. When introduced into the contemporary academic context, this interplay extends gradually also to everyday practices in learning, teaching and management.

In his doctoral research, Tatu Marttila focuses on a case study of interprofessional design education in the context of sustainabillity. His dissertation examines the initiation and implementation of Creative Sustainability: a new interprofessional Master’s degree program in Aalto University, Finland. The analysis is based on three sets of interviews with supportive data, collected from the initiators, teachers, and students of the CS program between the years 2010 and 2015. Overall, the findings contribute to an understanding of how design professionalism contributes to sustainability, what type of support is needed in learning for interprofessional design for sustainability, and how such learning develops the design academia itself.

In this research, the assessment identifies three phases in activities — priming, implementation and experiencing — that need to be connected together in a transparent and iterative circle. As analytic components, these phases can be of help in identifying and overcoming conflicts in the interaction and management of interprofessional study programs in design for sustainability. The aspects that are identified as important are in ensuring that sufficient resources and competences exist to initiate practical inquiries and real-world interaction, and in determining that the learning connects back to the initial objective of developing practice. Through such a process, a new kind of professionalism emerges, also renewing the academia as a platform for transdisciplinary action. At the same time, however, this new interaction becomes conflicted with existing interests and conventions, introduced by the various actors and interacting agendas, and the roles and structures in the current academia.

The dissertation notice and the published dissertation are placed for public display at the Harald Herlin Learning Center (Otaniementie 9, 2nd floor), at latest 10 days before the defence date.