Helena Teräväinen

Architect

Architect Helena Teräväinen has worked several years in urban and regional planning, while at the same time doing research on the cultural heritage of the built environment. As the city architect of Lapua, in South Ostrobothnia, Helena Teräväinen was in charge of many of the town's renovation and construction projects.

Teräväinen is currently working as postdoctoral researcher in Urban Planning and Design at Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture, and is at the moment involved in a project concentrating on the multicultural and pluralistic city. She emphasizes that culture as a multifaceted phenomenon has a crucial effect on the development of communities, as well as on all human life. She wants to encourage people to value arts and architecture more, and also to demand a higher aesthetic quality of the built environment.

During her residency period in New York, Helena Teräväinen is planning to study the multiculturalism and ethnic differentiation of the city's various neighborhoods. She will be doing active field research by photographing the localities, and by interviewing the residents. Teräväinen will also use the opportunity to collaborate face to face with her research colleagues at both Columbia University and Parsons the New School for Design. On top of her research work she wants to find time to write, and to explore the newest art and architecture in the city.