Our research
topics and goals
Our group operates at the intersection of research and practice, bringing together diverse yet complementary expertise to challenge how living environments are designed and used. We aim to make meaningful societal change through theoretical, practice-based and scientific research that responds to the urgent crises (re)shaping contemporary life.
We adopt a holistic view on housing and living environments, examining their design, architectural quality, livability and resilience as deeply interconnected spatial, social and ecological questions. We aim to rethink how living environments can support more just, caring and regenerative everyday lives.
We deliberately question and redefine what sustainable housing design is and can be. To influence and support the design of sustainable living environments and resilient communities now and in the future, we investigate and
re-imagine responses to current and predicted social and environmental challenges.
Crucially, we extend this inquiry into architectural education. We actively conduct pedagogical research to understand how to best teach this knowledge to future practitioners.
agile design
Spatial adaptability and flexibility
User-centric housing design
Transformations and housing solutions
for a diversity of usersEcological adaptability: climate change adaptation and mitigation
ecological design
Energy efficient and zero energy/zero carbon design
User well-being & comfort
Designing for good indoor environmental quality (IEQ)
Building performance and post-occupancy evaluation (POE & BPE).
inclusive design
Including and encountering human diversity in design cultures, practices and environments
Designing for ageing populations
Studying diverse housing models
Shared spaces in living environments
The inclusion of nature and non-humans
in living environments.
architectural pedagogy
Integration of sustainability
in architectural education systems & pedagogy (values, cultures, norms)Learner-centered teaching methods
Our research projects
2025
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The EU Horizon Europe funded INNATURE project (5M€) aims to re-imagine and accelerate new living futures and ‘next practices’ across Europe by co-creating five diverse NBS demonstration cases across Europe (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Romania, UK) that are inclusive, beautiful and sustainable, the three key pillars of the New European Bauhaus (NEB).
The project will demonstrate the co-benefits of NBS through inclusive design solutions and innovative processes, methods, care and management of NBS. This collective project aims to change mindsets, affect policy and to accelerate and scale-up NBS solutions in different contexts locally and across Europe. It will do so by bringing biodiversity and people diversity together at all levels, (i.e. diverse communities, artists and designers, ecologists, researchers, policy-makers, other stakeholders in Eco-Social Living Labs and through Arts Conversations) and thereby reimagining new (biodiverse, social, cultural and ecological) futures.
The project and demo cases are co-created and co-led by a collective of interdisciplinary researchers, ecologists, artists and designers, community and volunteering organisations, SMEs and cities. See www.innaturecollective.com
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NAAPURISSA – Neighbourhood relations and social and green infrastructure in senior housing / Senioriasumisen naapurustosuhteet ja sosiaalinen ja vihreä infrastruktuuri
The research focuses on environmental aspects of communal living on a neighbourhood scale though case studies on communal senior housing, multigenerational housing and projects that combine different types of housing targeted to senior citizens.
It utilizes a multi-method iterative research approach, in which the cases are examined in form of geographic information, field studies and narrative walks and workshops.
2023
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ECADEC, Business of Finland funded, aims to understand how the energy community and sector-integration are going to change the city’s energy system, infrastructure, and its organization. Thus, the goal is to find how the fossil carbon dioxide emissions may be most effectively reduced in the entire system and how to get citizens to participate in the process and be part of the energy transition without leaving anyone behind. An important part of the main research question is to understand the entirety of the future energy system based on energy community involvement in energy system planning, operation, and collaboration with other stakeholders.
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Funded by ARA (Ministry of Housing Finance) and over 20 municipalities and housing organisations, lead by Core-lab (385 000€). The aim is to develop age-friendly housing models through co-creation of new concepts with key stakeholders and understanding their economic and well-being implications. ASUTUT contribute to the mapping of current (inter)national best practices and co-creation of new concepts and scenarios. [UN SDGs: 3, 10, 11, 17]
Key researchers: Jaana Vanhatalo, Veronika Haukeland, Jukka Puhto (PI), Juho-Matti Junnonen, Alisa Hakola, Katja Maununaho, Tapio Kaasalainen, Sofie Pelsmakers, Panu Lehtovuori, Jyrki Tarpio, Arto Saari, Antti Kurvinen, Jaakko Kinnunen and Otto Tuli.
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Winning spatial solutions for future work; Enabling the double twin transition of digital/green and virtual physical, transforming our societies by 2035; Academy of Finland funded (Green and Digital transition call).
ASUTUT lead WP2: New spatial and land-use concepts for digital working futures that focuses on the spatial and social implications of working from home / remote working, including associated inequalities and the testing of new living environment solutions with stakeholders through virtual reality models.
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Home to nature, funded by Western Finland Public Benefit Housing Foundation. This study examines aging residents' experiences (older adults 65+) of the surrounding urban nature, the meaning of these experiences for their perceived well-being and the connections leading from the apartment to the urban nature with a multidisciplinary research group (architecture and gerontology).
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Project led by professor Jonathon Taylor (TAU Civil Engineering) on dwelling overheating in Finland. Funded by Ministry of Environment, Pihla window company and VTS social rental housing; 2023. Key researchers: Jonathon Taylor, Raul Castano de la Rosa, Sofie Pelsmakers [UN SDGs: 1, 3, 11, 12, 13]
2022
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INdustrialised and PErsonalised Renovation for Sustainable sOcieties. Horizon Europe call HORIZON-CL5-2021-D4-01-02: Industrialisation of deep renovation workflows for energy-efficient buildings. Interdisciplinary project with total project value 9.1 million €; TAU 623,000 € with 330,000€ for ASUTUT and 290,000€ for ICT; PI for TAU and of WP4: New human-centric and inclusive models for deep low carbon renovation of housing in Greece, Spain and the Netherlands; Grant Agreement 101069820.
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Looking back to move forward: a social and cultural history of home heating, Academy of Finland and Horizon Europe funded, inter-disciplinary research focusing on the barriers and solutions to a green and just transition in decarbonising home heating in EU countries.
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funding from City of Helsinki, Housing programme to evaluate the housing design quality of a selection of recent Hitas-funded hosuing projects. Key researchers: Essi Nisonen, Tapio Kaasalainen, Katja Maununaho, Sofie Pelsmakers. [UN SDGs: 3, 11]
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Intelligent monitoring, digital operation and maintenance of green buildings towards carbon-neutral societies. Academy of Finland funded project for mobility cooperation between Tampere University and Southeast University in China funded by the Academy of Finland (Research Council for Culture and Society). Key researchers: Raul Castano de la Rosa, Sofie Pelsmakers
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Human-centered solar smart technology design for healthy aging research project will develop smart solar technology for healthy aging and has received a major grant of €750,000 of funding from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation. The research takes a human-centred socio-technical approach to develop solar-powered smart sensors that monitor elderly people at home to detect and prevent falls. Led by professor Paola Vivo from the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, together with professors Johanna Ruusuvuori and Marja Kaunonen from the Faculty of Social Sciences and ASUTUT. Our role includes living environment studies (e.g. mapping fall risk in home visits, measuring day-time and night-time light conditions) and co-creation processes, literature review etc. [SDG 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 17]
2021
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Climate-Change and Environmental Literacy for Urban Citizens 55+ project promotes environmental literacy and behaviour change, while also aiming at enhancing digital skills and competence development in the target group (55+ adults) through the development of a digital gamification platform as a playful literacy tool.
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(EDUFI funded, 60 000 €, 2021-2023) enables diversifying content and access to knowledge and case studies via the www.arch4change.com digital platform through a CHINA-FINLAND architecture knowledge exchange for a carbon neutral society with Southeast University in China. It aims to tackle skills gaps for students and teachers in both countries.
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Investigation of overheating in Finnish homes ( the extent of the problem, risks and solutions), with Jonathon Taylor, Raul Castano-Rosa.
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SWS seed-funding (TAU Profi 5), Katja Maununaho, Sofie Pelsmakers with Elli Aaltonen, Juho Saari (Social Sciences and Social and Health Policies), Jenni Kulmala, Mari Aaltonen, Outi Jolanki (Gerontology) and other scholars.
2020
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The Academy of Finland funded RESCUE project is about 'Real Estate and Sustainable Crisis management in Urban Environments . It is led by Assistant Professor in Real Estate Economics Saija Toivonen at Aalto University , with colleagues at Turku University and at Tampere University (PI Sofie Pelsmakers). Project website here.
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(EU Erasmus + funded, 292 000€): Together with AAA in Denmark, TU Dublin in Ireland, UniBo in Italy and Taltech in Estonia, ASUTUT at TAU lead an Erasmus plus funded project to radically change the architectural design curriculum towards a carbon neutral built environment. Project lead: Sofie Pelsmakers. : www.arch4change.com
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'Residential change - the potential of common and private spaces’ , a 2 year research project funded by YH Kodit housing foundation and YH Kodit housing company. Key researchers include Taru Lehtinen, Katja Maununaho, Katarina Varis, Tapio Kaasalainen, Elina Luotonen, Sini Saarimaa, Essi Nisonen, Sofie Pelsmakers, Jyrki Tarpio, Wilma Blomgren & Raúl Castaño de la Rosa.
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large collaborative study in Italy and Finland led by colleague Chiara Tagliaro at Politecnico di Milano offering expertise in office design and estate management, and Sofie Pelsmakers and Tapio Kaasalainen in Finland offering housing design expertise. Aim is to understand implications for home and office design due to increased home working due to COVID19.
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with Panu Lehtovuori (PI) and Jyrki Tarpio and Sofie Pelsmakers, 12 month design, research and development project with Kante-Häme, EU Regional Development Funding
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with Harriet Thomson and Karla Ricalde at Birmingham University, together with Raul Castano-Rosa and Sofie Pelsmakers at ASUTUT received funding to to be held in May 2020, funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA).
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with Prof Ming Hu at Maryland University, to compare US and Finnish, and other European nZEB standards; she will stay with us at Tampere University in 2021.
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Emre Ilgin with Markku Karjalainen, Sofie Pelsmakers, Jyrki Tarpio
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Multidimensional understanding of housing aspirations (Sini Saarimaa)
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Sofie Pelsmakers & Jyrki Tarpio, with transnational research group Nordic Sustainable Architecture
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focus on Nordic region (Raul Castano Rosa, Sofie Pelsmakers)
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Cultural Diversity of Everyday Life in Urban Housing Design (Katja Maununaho)
2019
2018
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Transnational research group, Finland member Sofie Pelsmakers
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health and well-being and infrastructural renewal (Sofie Pelsmakers and Tapio Kaasalainen in collaboration with international and other TAU colleagues in Natural Sciences and Social Sciences) Sustainable Welfare Systems seed funding awarded by Tampere University.
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adaptation and our role in design, architectural design pedagogy and performance validation to support a more resilient world. (Sofie Pelsmakers)
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and unintended consequences of building upgrades. (Sofie Pelsmakers)
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(Jyrki Tarpio and Katja Maununaho, Sini Saarimaa). The DAC project recognized future living needs and created measures and models for improving urban housing and development. Project defined the dweller as a key driver of urban development and change. Project was funded by the Academy of Finland, and won the first Tampere University Social Impact award. Find the “Agile housing Cookbook” here
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Sini Saarimaa
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Tapio Kaasalianen
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Taru Lehtinen
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Architecture for a Changing World (Judit Kimpian, Hattie Hartman, Sofie Pelsmakers)
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