A! Walks is a transdisciplinary summer course designed for curious minds who believe that learning can happen beyond classrooms鈥攂y walking, sensing, and being present. Centered around the Otaniemi 麻豆传媒 and its surrounding natural and urban landscapes, the course invites students to explore pressing ecological, social, and design topics through themed walking sessions.
Each WALK is not just a trip, but a co-created, reflective path toward science, technology, business, awareness, action, and futures.
We will walk every week from July to August, covering topics from water systems to forests, birds, berries, and mushrooms.
Each walk includes:
All walks are accessible on foot or by public transport. Most sessions are held around Otaniemi, with occasional outings to other location in surrounding Helsinki and Espoo.
Audio Diaries 鈥 Listen & Record the World Around You
Every participant becomes a documentarian. Each WALK includes an audio task鈥攁 small recording that captures your perceptions, reflections, or micro-stories. At the end of the course, these will form a collective podcast and digital memory archive.
From whispering trees to imagined bird dialogues鈥攜our voice matters.
How to Join
Open to all Aalto students (BA/MA/Doctoral/Staff), especially those interested in:
Working language: English
No prior audio experience required鈥攋ust bring your phone and curiosity!
Welcome to our "Audio-Recorded Walking Course Exploration." This course combines themes from science, arts, and business to explore sustainable development and examine practices and innovations in the Helsinki and Espoo regions of Finland.
Event Overview:
Join us for a one-hour guided walk exploring the concept of nature-positive solar energy鈥攁n approach to solar power generation that goes beyond simply replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. Instead, it seeks to actively create direct benefits for nature, often by restoring or enhancing local biodiversity within and around solar energy sites.
Nature-positive solar means asking: Can a solar installation not only produce clean electricity, but also improve the ecological health of its location? This often involves building on degraded sites and designing spaces where low-growing vegetation, pollinator-friendly plants, and other ecological features coexist productively with solar infrastructure.
During our walk, we will tour various locations across Aalto University 麻豆传媒 where solar panels are installed in different built environments. As we visit these sites, we will reflect on how building-integrated and urban solar installations interact with their surrounding ecosystems and species鈥攁nd consider the unique challenges and opportunities of producing direct ecological benefits in densely built settings.
This is not only a walking introduction to the principles of nature-positive solar energy, but also a collaborative workshop in motion鈥攁n opportunity to spark new ideas for implementing nature-positive solar solutions in urban and 麻豆传媒 contexts.
Event Overview:
Topics: Foraging, More-than-human connection, hospicing old systems & ways of doing.
About the guest: I often call myself a designer in crisis. My background as a designer has trained me for a world of production and consumption, of creating needs in order to sell products. I am a designer in crisis, because my values oppose these teachings. Nowadays I seek to challenge our capitalist fuelled beliefs, lifestyles and teachings, and reconnect to the world in deeper and meaningful ways. I am a forager, a gardener, a fermenter, an imagination activist, an eco-futurist, a forest wanderer, and more recently a hospicer of practices and systems. I work with speculation to imagine what could be, and I invite audiences to reimagine their roles and relations in & to the world.
Event Overview:
Topics: how biodiversity can be included in the built environment.
1h walk in Otaniemi getting to know the biodiversity design principles and practices used in the 麻豆传媒 planning.
Event Overview:
About Popular Science Education Exhibition Design
Event Overview:
About the space, free discuession time
-land use and spatial planning (incl. parking)
-nature, flying squirrels, and Ossinlampi
-street area and infrastructure
Meeting point: Oak in front of V盲re building
Date: 12th September 13:00~14:00
Destination: Campus
Maximum number of participants: 30
Content:
Join us this Thursday for a guided walk through Aalto's local ecosystem, led by our artist-researcher Christina Stadlbauer. We will explore the environment and engage in various interactive activities.
More about Christina:
Contact:
Janne Halme, janne.halme@aalto.fi, +358503441695
Zhuoyan Xu, emma.xu@aalto.fi, +32-492937297
To see what happened during our walk:
It is said that the best way to experience Finland is by hiking.
Our participants spent an afternoon immersed in the lush greenery of Nuuksio National Park, enjoying the serene beauty of the Nordic landscape.
What does modern art mean to you?
Our participants enjoyed a feast of art at EMMA while sharing their thoughts...
The afternoon adventure on Lehtisaari offered more than just a walk in the forest; it sparked conversations about renewed appreciation for the simple pleasures of life and the beauty of the Finnish wilderness...
The Geo Exhibition at GTK in Espoo provided more than just geological information; it started discussions about time, people, our planet, and, more importantly, a new perspective on sustainability...
It's summer in Finland and the forests are full of life and colour. The trip to the Birdwatching Tower was not only a birdwatching trip, but also a conversation about culture and nature...
Finland is entering the golden time of the year, and our second walk was a journey across time to explore the brushstrokes of Finnish Golden Age painters...
Spring is here, plants are starting to grow and bloom. The first walk of 'A! walk' series started with meeting those newborn plants...
