Doktorandid

ETIS

„Bio-city: on the relevance of bio-computation in architecture and urban design” –

Doctoral thesis, defended 22.11. 2019

Supervisers PhD Mario Carpo, PhD Veronika Valk

My work and research operates at the convergence of discipline such as biology, computation and urban design. I am looking at the city from a non-anthropocentric point of view, realising that in our contemporary global world it is impossible to trace a clear distinction between nature and artifice, between landscape and city and ultimately between the biosphere and the urbansphere. From a satellite view it is quite difficult to define the boundaries between natural and artificial, contemporary global cities despite being large artificial systems often develop patterns that seem to recall natural formations of a radically different kind. From this perspective cities and their morphologies are mostly determined by the flows of matter, information and energy that fuel their metabolisms. Urbansphere, the global apparatus of contemporary urbanity, is a dense network of informational, material and energetic infrastructures that sustain our demanding metabolism while offsetting the fluctuations of the natural Biosphere. I propose a model to articulate the behaviour of the Urbansphere and define new terms for its sustainable co-evolution with the Biosphere. This responds to principles of biologic self-organisation, and operates by embedding a numerical/computational engines onto spatial/morphological substrata.

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“Between the idea, tool and real(ization): Algorithmic processes in timber architecture and design”

You can watch the defense of the doctoral thesis in EKA TV

Supervisors PhD Jüri Kermik, PhD Roland Snooks

Administration of digital design tools and technology to raise the construction potential of anisotropic materials. Introducing the terms idea, tool and real to describe the current design processes in my practise. Previously dominating linear dialog (idea to real, idea to tool, tool to real) have made its way to systematic re-appearing loops. Those loopholes have activated variability in scales (from high voltage pylon to urban city stages to accessories), integration of material characteristics (timber, plywood, glu-lam), machine limitations/ possibilities (timber manufacturers CNC mills) and sustainability (form human energy to environmental exhaustion).

ETIS

“Modulated Modularity. From mass customisation to custom mass production”

You can watch the defense of the doctoral thesis in EKA TV.

Supervisors PhD Renee Puusepp, PhD Antoine Picon

Modulated modularity proposes an algorithmic method for approaching modularity in architecture in the age of automation. This method of spatial and tectonic modulation is based on the experience gained by developing experimental projects for industrial pre-fabrication and efficient assembly, utilising available standard materials within the practice of PART Architects.
The research looks at the current state of industrial pre-fabrication and modular construction strategies as well as integrated design methods within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry and developments within the discipline of digital architecture over the past 30 years. In parallel, the relationship between the two fields is studied through a series of experimental projects ranging from installations to buildings and infrastructural objects.
The dissertation looks at topics such as: algorithmic architecture and the crisis of pavilion architecture; modularity and pre-fab construction; building information modelling; integrated design; automation, standardisation and creativity; the politics of digitalisation and the aesthetics of modulated modularity.

siim.tuksam@artun.ee

Making Architecture Politically. From Fresh Conservatism to Aesthetics as a Form of Politics

Eelretsensendid: prof Panu Lehtovuori (Tampere Tehnikaülikool) ja prof Arie Graafland. Oponent: prof Arie Graafland.

The problem is not to make political architecture, but to make architecture politically. Making architecture politically has everything to do with breaking things open, to arrive in-between. This form of engaged architecture defines political architecture neither as ideological nor as undoing ideology, but as achieving a non-ideological status through the realisation of running room. Non-ideological architecture in that sense is truly political precisely because it is conscious of the materials it is based on. Through its aesthetic-ideological specificity, being in the world is elevated to a stage of experience and knowledge that transforms the subjective element and its situation, and exactly such an aesthetic technique can contribute to social change.

Making architecture politically will not be without consequences. Many of architecture’s properties, including its history of ideas, and forms of content need to be reconsidered. What counts, is under what conditions, and with respect to what forces, architecture could become active and creative, rather than reactive or nihilistic. Such an architecture is as much about ideas, as the discovery, and invention of new forms of the political. Making architecture politically cannot lose sight of its conditional nature either, it must take risks speculating what the future could be about.

Making architecture politically opens with an analysis of the current conjecture of Neoliberalism through the concept of the Society of the And, opposing an understanding of our condition through modes of Eitherorism. It’s a voyage, travelling along the many interdependencies of the revolutionary conservatisms of Fresh Conservatism and Progressive Neoliberalism — parallel to the arrival of a new phase of global modernisation (Second Modernity) with a special and elaborated focus on the role of contemporary architecture in Dutch society (from the 90ties onward) — while its second chapter moves beyond Fresh Conservatism; towards a possible third of emancipation in architecture with its plea for an Aesthetics as a Form of Politics towards a cosmopolitical outlook.

ETIS

Participation as Data? Architecture and Cybernetics in Europe around 1968 /

Osalus kui andmed? Arhitektuur ja küberneetika Euroopas 1968. aasta paiku

Supervisor PhD Maroš Krivy

In my thesis I work towards constructing a framework for understanding participatory practices in architecture today. As suggested by the title’s prefix ‘post’ I work from the position that the conditions for what participation mean have changed since it emerged as a concept in the 1960s.

Developed in post-war Europe to counterbalance the principles of modern architecture: that space can be controlled through organization, participatory practices in architecture originate from what can be called ‘responsive architecture’. I look at projects developed in this spirit by figures such as Cedric Price, Yona Friedman, Jan Gehl. These projects stress the importance of adaptability, new technologies, user involvement and are often represented by flexible, often abstract structures, in order to suggest the ways in which space in turn can be manipulated by its inhabitants.

Faced with the same environmental, social and technological issues these ideas have resurfaced in contemporary architectural practice at different scales. With the experience of contemporary capitalism that precisely rely on adaptability, user involvement and active participation, these practices can be criticized as redundant today. The intention of my thesis is not (only) to criticize and advise against reapplying the concepts from the 1960s, but to identify the arguments that influence or are repeated in architectural form today.

nina.jrgensen@artun.ee

ETIS

“Urban meta-morphology: new principles of urban structure”

Supervisors PhD Mart Kalm, PhD Panu Lehtovuori

The PhD is about developing a new method to map and reveal the invisible image of the city using social media data and activity patterns. It is believed that spatial accessibility is the main attractor of social interactions (activities) and economic transaction (businesses) but in my case studies I present how the shape of the city is no longer related to activity patterns and use of certain space. This means that the practice of planning has to be updated and upgraded with this new understanding of urban phenomenology. Through the work of SPIN Unit I have used this new methodology (urban-metamorphology) to influence the planning and education practice in the US, Europe and Russia.

ETIS

„The brief. A negotiation: a dialogue to craft outcomes for architecture“

Supervisor PhD Veronika Valk

Looking at the body of work of my creative practice, one of the consistencies that binds the work together is the act or process of negotiating. I use the notion of negotiation as a lens to look at the completed projects and discuss the work in terms of public behaviours. For an architect, a brief is a transformative trigger. The brief is a point of departure, to examine the range of forces that shape the ‘public’ brief in particular, prior to it coming to the attention of the architect. Looking specifically at the context of Northern Ireland, I will attempt to unravel the complex political, social and spatial conditions that give rise to the birth of the brief, and suggest how the architect might intervene in this process to alter its DNA.

ETIS

“Dünaamiline kontekstualism”

Juhendaja PhD Andres Kurg

Planeeritav doktoritöö otsib arhitektuuripraktika laiematest ümbrustest uusi ruumiideid. Eesmärgiks on jõuda heuristilise tööriistani, mis aitaks (nt klimaatilisse, geograafilisse, majanduslikku, poliitilisse, psühholoogilisse, poeetilisse) ümbrusesse kätketud ruumiideedel paremini tegelikesse arhitektuuriprojektidesse jõuda. Samuti tõstatatakse küsimus, mida võiks tähendada Eesti oludele vastav (kontekstitundlik) arhitektuur.

Foto: Krista Mölder and Neeme Külm “Being Present”, 2012

ETIS

„Disturbing Landscapes“

Suprevisors PhD Tadeja Zupančič, PhD Veronika Valk

We are all victims of the architect – architecture is the only art that you cannot help but feel. Every architect is a dictator stimulating some sensations and hindering others. Architecture is a form of politics performed directly at bodies. By deforming landscapes, building obstacles and creating spaces we always deform and change the identities of the users. In this way architecture is never „nice” nor „beautiful” but rather an obscure matter striving to fulfil someones obsessions. My creative practice research ventures into the impossibility of control in architecture, impossibility of direct communication, impossibility of sufficient understanding, impossibility of being completely honest, often impossibility of addressing the relevant issues that actually matter.

ETIS

„Arhitekt ühiskondlikes rollides”

Juhendajad PhD Andres Sevtsuk, PhD Veronika Valk

Kavatsen oma doktoritöös enda praktika põhjal avada arhitektide töö olemust avalikus ja kolmandas sektoris, avaliku ruumi kavandamisel, planeerimisel ja ülesannete püstitamisel. Kirjeldan nende tööde erinevusi, sarnasusi, kattuvusi ja seoseid traditsioonilise arhitekti tööpraktikaga, kus arhitekt kavandab kellegi tellimusel midagi, mis on mõeldud otseselt ehitamiseks. Praktika ajalise ja ruumilise raamistiku annab Eesti Vabariik alates taasiseseisvumisest 1991. Asetan enda praktika laiemasse konteksti oma erinevate rollide kaudu ning neid rolle läbivate ja ühendavate teemade kaudu.

Esialgse kava järgi sisaldab doktoritöö väljund minu praktika põhjal järeldusi ja visiooni, mis võivad anda senisest selgema mõtestuse ühiskondlikes rollides tegutsevate arhitektide tööle laiemalt. Lisaks võib töö luua selgust, kuidas anda hariduse kaudu ettevalmistust arhitektidele avaliku sektori tööks ja muudeks ühiskondlikeks rollideks.

ETIS

„Animating future scenarios for public space”

Supervisors PhD Andres Kurg, PhD Maroš Krivy

Public space has become a widespread agenda for architects. The „space between the architecture“ has become subject to political correctness. Yet the notion of public space goes far beyond generous gestures in the built environments. In a global market economy, the public extends to geopolitics in planetary scale, yet very few spatial factors have been subject to environmental thinking as a public domain. With policies like the Paris Agreement, the first steps have been made in understanding the potential of a global public space, yet spatial practitioners stand far from being at the core of these debates, while their tools of projecting scenarios can potentially be the most effective in animating future developments.

ETIS

“Cartography by design: achieving precision in architectural design”

Supervisor PhD Jüri Soolep

My thesis builds on projects completed by my architectural studio, tutoring at the Estonian Academy of Arts and conducting research on spatial structures of Estonian non-urban landscapes. For ten years I have organised and tutored the “Shelter” construction workshops for the first year architecture students, used ‘cartography by design’ as my tool of research and worked with a variety of clients. I have studied non-urban landscapes of Estonian villages alongside running a studio. My research into historic maps in urban context intertwine with architectural interventions. Through the PhD process I highlight transformative triggers of such practice and ask what are the constraints for achieving precision in architectural design.

ETIS

Supervisor PhD Maroš Krivy

The spatial order of the world is urban and its history is one of circulation. Therefore, researching mobility infrastructure can offer particularly valuable insights for urban studies, revealing geometries of power. My thesis delves into the particular controversies around planning and delivering Rail Baltica, analysing the economic and political context of the particular time and location. Considering capital and circulation as the defining agents of urbanisation, my research investigates the motivation of various stakeholders against the global challenges as well as local impacts of large scale infrastructural renewal by combining a topological mapping of the planning process with qualitative case studies.

info@mattiasmalk.com

Kureeritud elurikkus linnakeskkonna globaalmuutuste leevendajana: väärtussüsteemide suunamine maastikuarhitektuuri lahendustega (tööpealkiri)

ETIS

Juhendaja PhD Urve Sinijärv

Doktoritöö ülesanne on mõtestada maastikuarhitektuuri distsipliinina positsioonis, kus vastavate võtetega on sel võimalik toimida leevendavate meetmete kogumina. Globaalmuutuste põhjused on lokaalsed ehk et saanud alguse kohalikul tasandil tehtud otsustest ja tegevustest. Nende muutustega tegelemine peab samuti algama kohalikest otsustest. Kuigi muutused on olemuselt reaalteaduslikud, siis lahendused neile peituvad järjest enam humanitaarteadustes ehk tuleb tegeleda inimeste suhtumiste ja veendumustega. Globaalmuutuste põhjuseks ei ole halvad kavatsused, vaid üldsuse tahtlik teadmatus. Sellest on saanud majandusressurss, mille pinnalt saab teha majandusest juhitud otsuseid, hoolimata olulistest väärtussüsteemidest.

Globaalprobleemidele lahenduste otsimine lokaalsel tasandil ei lahenda loomulikult globaalprobleeme endid (kliima, õhusaaste), kuid tervendab süsteemi osi (elurikkus, vee- ja pinnaseveesaaste) ning kui kõik tegelevad oma lokaalprobleemidega kohalikult, terveneb süsteem tervikuna.

Milline väärtussüsteem takistab meil siduda linna loodusega üheks tervikuks, lõikamata teda sealt välja? Millises väärtusruumis me liigume, millised on peamised draiverid ja motivaatorid moraalsete otsuste tegemiseks elukeskkonna osas? Mitteantropotsentriliste väärtusotsuste tegemiseks tuleb  väärtusruum lahti mõtestada, kollektiivset väärtussüsteemi analüüsida ja põhjendada, leida alternatiivid pragmatismist ja majanduskasvust juhitud väärtusotsustele, et leida tasakaal ratsionaalse suhtumise ja keskkonnateadlikkuse vahel, võttes arvesse kõiki heaks inimeluks vajalikke aspekte. Kuna keskkonna olukord on juba nii halb, tuleb esikohale seada mitte indiviidi heaolu, vaid inimeste kui liigi, mis tähendab hoopis teistsuguseid otsuseid igal tasandil. Inimene kui liik sõltub looduse hüvedest, ilma ta hukkub. Seega tuleb bioloogilisest vaatepunktist käsitlemist leidvale probleemile töötada välja sotsiaalsed lahendused, mille kaudu mõjutada inimeste väärtussüsteeme. Nende pealt tekivad väärtushinnangud, mis on omakorda aluseks moraalsete ja eetiliste otsuste langetamisel, väärtushierarhia tekkel.

karin.bachmann.x@artun.ee

Arhitektuur tekstilise ja diagrammatilise abstraktsioonina – praksise järjestamise vormid.

ETIS

Juhendaja PhD Jüri Soolep

Doktoritöö teema on ülesehitatud teksti- ja loomepõhise uurimuse seostatud tervikuna, milles tegelen algsete ruumiideede ning põhimõtete esiletoomisega oma praktikas ja laiemas arhitektuuri kui distsipliiniga seotud kultuurilises kontekstis. Käsitlen seda uurimust diakroonilise protsessina, kus oluliseks kriteeriumiks pole niivõrd konkreetsed ajalised ja ruumilised piirangud vaid arhitektuurse idee arendamise viisid ning selle muutused aja jooksul. Läbiviimisel rakendan ühe alusmoodusena rekursiooni generatiivsetes süsteemides ehk asendamise ja ümberkirjutamise kaskaadi, mida lisaks ehitamisele suunatud arhitektuuri-praktikale hindan kriitiliselt nii uurimuse teooriapoolel kui eksperimentaalsetes projektides.

Landscape Architecture, Stewardship and the Swan Coastal Plain

Supervisor PhD Maroš Krivy

Landscape architecture’s declaration of  ‘stewardship’ within national and international institutions becomes the starting point for my research. This exploration will address a genealogy of  ‘stewardship’ more broadly, and then to trace the discipline’s understanding of and application of the concept across the Swan Coastal Plain of Western Australia. Where I will unpack the ‘how, why and for whom’ it is being performed.

If the ‘nature’ or environment that is strived to be stewarded is understood as a social construction set within its own particular human history, can ‘stewardship’ be reconceptualised to help formulate grounds for a more progressive landscape architecture practice?

ETIS

Linna trükkimine. Printing the City

Kestlik linnaplaneerimine 

Doktoritöö uurib ehitussektori süsinikujalajälje vähendamist läbi majanduslike, sotsiaalsete ning eetiliste küsimuste. Orienteerumaks käsitletavates teemades, on suur osa tööst pühendatud seadusandluse, regulatsioonide ja ruumi omavaheliste seoste analüüsil. Suure eraomandi osakaaluga Eesti ühiskonnas on kliimapoliitika valguses siiani peamiselt tegeletud hoone energiatõhususega, kuid puuduvad selged strateegiad, mis aitaks suuremal skaalal kliimaneutraalsust saavutada – strateegiad, mis puudutavad alternatiivset kinnisvara arendamise  mudeleid, renoveerimis- ja ehitamisvõimekust ning ringmajanduse põhimõtteid kaasavat arhitektuuri ja ruumiloomet. 

Doktoritöös uurin, milliseid ruumilisi ning süsinikujalajälge alandavaid kvaliteete loob inimeste ühiselt tegutsemine ühiste eesmärkide nimel. Sealhulgas küsin, mis defineerib naabruskonna ning mis hetkel tekib kogukond. Samuti kerkivad esile küsimused nagu kes ja mis eesmärkidel ning volitustel ruumilisi otsuseid vastu võtavad.

Doktoritöö uurib eluaseme väärtust: selle majanduslikku, ühiskondlikku ja keskkondlikku funktsiooni. Eluasemepoliitika on eesti kontekstis isemajanduv ning suuresti eraomanike kätes. Puudub kvaliteetne sotsiaaleluasemete taristu ning ühiselamise traditsioon. Selle tagajärjel on vähe plaane või strateegiaid, mis oleks valmis lahendama ajakriitilisi probleeme nagu eluaseme kättesaadavus või keskkonna probleemid. 

Doktoritöös küsin, kes peaks olema see, kes nende võitlustega võitleb? Kas elanik, omanik, ühistu, kogukond või riik? Milline on kogukonna vastutus ning mis toob inimesi kokku ühise eesmärgi nimel?  Vaatan seda Eesti kontekstis, kus vastanduvad pealinn, mille elanike arv on kasvanud viimase kümne aasta vältel keskmiselt 5000 inimese võrra aastas ning väikekohad, mis aastast aastasse väiksemaks jäävad.

Virtuaalne ruum: arhitektuur ja digitaalsus

Juhendaja PhD Jüri Soolep

Doktoritöö teema võtab aluseks, et enamus meie ruumilistest kogemustest ei pea olema füüsilised. Piisab vähestest visuaalsetest vihjetest, mis baseeruvad varajasematel kogemustel ja üldisel kultuuritaustal, selleks et me suudame ennast paigutada erinevatesse ruumilistesse olukordadesse. Ja kui ruumilised kogemused ei nõua meie füüsilist kohalolu, kuidas see mõjutab arhitektuuri valdkonda pidevalt areneval digitaalajastul?

Kas arhitektidel on midagi öelda tekkivate digitaalsete keskkondade kohta, või kuulub see ainult kasutajaliidese disaini ja stsenograafia valdkonda?

Hetkel on arhitektuuri diskursuses vähe juttu digitaalse ruumi kogemustest ja võimalustest. Digitaalsus arhitektuuri erialal tähendab pigem kõike mis on seotud tootmisega või planeerimise optimiseerimisega, eesmärgiga ehitada füüsilist ruumi. Aga kui digitaalne kohalolu muutub järgnevatel dekaadidel aina olulisemaks, mis on arhitektidel panustada?

ETIS

Esimese tööstusrevolutsiooni ajal kerkis briti linnadesse sadu tuhandeid linnalisi ridaelamuid. Peatselt võivad kliimamuutused tuua kaasa vajaduse tihendada Põhja-Euroopa linnade asustuse tihedust kordades. Töö uurib, millised on linnalise ridamaja sotsiaal-ruumilised kvaliteedid ja kas tüpoloogia on alternatiiv kõrghoonetele, võimaldades suurt tihedust ent enam kestlikku arengut nii majanduslikus, keskkondlikus ja eelkõige sotsiaalses mõttes. Lisaks kaardistab töö, mida on vaja muuta ruumilistes valikutes (nii seaduses kui kultuuris), et linnalise ridamaja tüpoloogia jõuaks Eesti linnadesse.

Esteetika roll modernismiperioodi ehituskonstruktorite disainifilosoofias: August Komendant ja Ove Arup

Juhendaja PhD Andres Kurg

August Komendant (1906–1992) ja Sir Ove Arup (1895–1988) olid ehituskonstruktorid, kes koostöös Louis Kahni, Moshe Safdie, Eero Saarineni, Berthold Lubetkini, Jørn Utzoni ja teiste andekate arhitektidega kavandasid mitu 20. sajandi arhitektuuri meistriteost. Nii Komendandi kui ka Arupi erialane karjäär vältas üle poole sajandi maailmasõdade vahelisest perioodist 1980. aastateni ja kattus ajastuga, mida iseloomustab moderniseerumine, linnastumine ja tehnoloogia kiire areng.

Doktoritöö uurib Komendandi ja Arupi disainifilosoofiat ja selle peegeldumist nende projektides ja ehitistes. Ehituskonstruktoritena rõhutasid nad mõlemad loomingulise kujutlusvõime, usaldusliku meeskonnatöö ja ehituskvaliteedi tähtsust. Nende erialaseid tõekspidamisi, mis toetusid suuresti loodusteadustele, täiendas lihvitud esteetikatunnetus.

Tipptunnita linn

Tipukoormused ja -olukorrad on süsteemides ja linnades ebaefektiivsuse põhjustajateks, mille vältimiseks on vajalik tipukoormuste tasandamine ja hajutamine. Linnadel ja linnaosadel on eeldatavalt olemas teatav kohanemisvõime väiksema liikuvuse / ressursiga olukordades toimimiseks. Doktoritöö uurib linna kui erinevate võrgustike kompleksset süsteemi. Linnade planeerimine tipukoormuste järgi muudab elukeskkonna ja avaliku ruumi üha vähem inimsõbralikuks ning ei arvesta energia- ja kliimakriisiga kohanemise vajadustega. Tippude tasandamise ja hajutamise meetodite rakendamine võimaldab eelduslikult linnade efektiivsust suurendada, sh kulutusi vähendada ning aidata kaasa kompaktsema ja inimmõõdulise linnaruumi loomisele. Töö üheks eesmärgiks on välja tuua erinevad tippude vältimise võimalused ja erinevate süsteemide üksteist tasakaalustav või kumuleeriv mõju. Doktoritöö võiks anda uue vaatenurga linnade planeerimisele lähtuvalt piiratud ressursi- ja liikuvuse tingimustest ja/või eesmärkidest, sh et ligipääsetavuse või ressursside puudumist ei maksa planeerimisel karta sest see võib teatud juhtudel muuta linnu paremaks, kliimasõbralikumaks ja tõhusamaks.

CV ETISES

Urbanizing degrowth: ethnic minorities and urban nature in Tallinn

Co-opted ideals–complicit spaces: a critical analysis and theoretical exploration of right-wing urbanism.

Juhendaja Maroš Krivy.

CV ETISes

This dissertation investigates the interaction between right-wing populism and the field of urbanism. Against the backdrop of today’s resurgence of the political right, it identifies a notable trend whereby contemporary right-wing movements leverage urban environments to advance their agendas. The research is based on the hypothesis that the notion of ‘the public’ has been co-opted by right-wing politics, aided by neoliberal processes of normalisation and mainstreaming. This has opened a gateway for right-wing political sentiments to permeate spatial disciplines, which in turn manifest homogeneous, restrictive visions of the world in built form–thus, implying the complicity of urbanism in this process.

The dissertation introduces the theory of right-wing urbanism, illustrating how urbanism becomes an ideological shortcut to cement right-wing populist agendas into ever new-presents. Ultimately, the research highlights the urgency of examining spatial disciplines as a conduit for ideological narratives.

CV ETISEs

Juhendajad Ingrid Ruudi ja Mart Laanpere

Advancing Timber Construction for Ukraine’s Recovery: Developing Open-Source Building Systems

Juhendaja Renee Puusepp.

CV ETISes

The research aims to advance open-source industrial systems for mass-customizable wooden buildings as part of Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts. While the country faces the most extensive destruction in Europe since World War II, developing timber construction will be crucial to reduce the potential carbon footprint from new facilities. Focusing on priority typologies for community needs, the project will not only contribute to academia, but also offer practical solutions for rebuilding war-affected regions. Furthermore, it seeks to develop digital tools that enhance design, decision-making, and construction processes, with the potential to realize prototypical building(s) in cooperation with local authorities.

Juhendaja Liene Jakobsone