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What is your professorship all about? 

“My professorship in Formgiving is about rethinking how we physically shape the world around us. It is an act to shape forms to the things that haven’t found their form yet. Historically in industry, formgiving has often been about imposing a preconceived shape onto raw, standardized materials. 

My focus is on turning that process upside down. I look at how we can use advanced computational and fabrication systems to give new life to non-standard, reclaimed resources – whether that is fallen tree branches, irregular stones, or leftover fabrics and thrown out plastic toys. Rather than treating these materials as waste, I see them as resources with unique qualities and histories. It is about creating a dialogue between the material’s natural geometry and digital fabrication. 

For a long time, machines have required materials to adapt to them. My research explores how we can turn that relationship around and create machines and digital tools that adapt to the materials instead. This opens up new possibilities for using irregular and reclaimed resources that would otherwise be discarded."

What brought you to Aalto?

“I got my design education at TU Delft in the Netherlands, and then moved to Switzerland, to ETHZ. I repetitively heard nice stuff about Aalto during those times. I even visited here 2016 in winter and got a nice impression even though outside was quite cold.

Before joining Aalto, I worked at an AI startup in Tokyo on robotics and physical-world computation and object recognition and later led my own research lab as a tenured associate professor at Future University Hakodate in Japan. 

During that time, I started networking with Finnish researchers through conferences and also in Japan, and I found that somehow it is quite smooth to get to know them and collaborate with them. 

When the opportunity at Aalto arose, it felt like the perfect environment to mediate my experiences in design and technologies. On a personal level, moving to Finland offered a wonderful environment to raise children and integrate into a culture that deeply respects both nature and design.”

What are you researching now – and what initially drew you to the idea of combining design, technology and sustainability?

“Right now, I am heavily focused on how computational systems that can unleash the beauty of the imperfections of the physical world. Modern manufacturing is incredibly wasteful because it demands uniformity, which often means that materials such as wood, stone or textiles are discarded simply because they do not fit predefined specifications.

I was drawn to the intersection of these fields because technology finally allows us to embrace irregularity. By adopting computational creativity to reclaimed materials, we can design systems that are inherently sustainable without sacrificing functional or aesthetic value.

I am also focusing on those fabrication skillsets human has developed to handle those non-standard materials but dying out due to various reasons. This is the age when physical tacit knowledge is valuable, and I am enriching and contributing the humanity via computational support to transfer this knowledge to the next generations.

I also would like to spend some time to understand why we appreciate those details by craftspeople. What contributes to our sensory and emotions. These fundamental findings must be fueling computational design assistance.”

How can artificial intelligence and robotics help make design truly more sustainable? 

“They allow us to process unpredictability at scale. Instead of forcing materials to conform, we can use scanning and 3D modelling technologies to instantly map the unique topology of a reclaimed stone or a piece of scrap fabric. 

Operating fabrication processes with AI are getting there but still many parts are built upon rule-based processes. Imagine if gigantic industrial robot arms start throwing tools all of the sudden.

In near future, robotics then allows us to execute these highly customized fabrication processes precisely and efficiently, turning waste into high-value design.”

What issues are currently relevant in your field, and what about in the future?

“What makes human-touch is not only about genAI for illustration, photography, sound and novels, but it has been a central question ever since mass production was introduced in furniture and product design.

Crafts people have thought hard how to make them, and their work is valuable against cheap but regulated products such as plastics.

The questions can be tackled by two-fold approaches: what fabrication process can offer, and what are appreciated by users and consumers. In the age of low-cost fast fashion stuff are obtainable, what values can we deliver?

What skills will designers of the future need?

“Designers of the future will need to be bilingual in both the physical and the digital. They need the traditional, tactile sensitivity to appreciate the grain of wood or the structural integrity of a material. This kind of knowledge is still not really caught up by machines yet.

But designers shouldn’t stay within the comfortable sphere and take relevant technological developments in their tasks, as they have expanded their territories so far. They must also possess the technical fluency to guide machine learning algorithms, work with spatial computing devices, and program robotic arms to manipulate those materials, in order to find our sweet spots in the era of disruptive technologies.”

What in particular do you want your students to learn?

“I want them to learn how to see the potential in the irregular and the overlooked. I hope they realize that technology isn’t just a tool for forcing materials into perfect geometric shapes, but a medium for listening to what the material is already doing. 

If they can learn to design with the environment rather than on it, they will be equipped to tackle some of our biggest material challenges. Training their eyes to distinguish some values of the mundane objects, I want them to keep searching for tiny materials how they want to be. Requires a lot of imagination, which is a very necessary skill.

This isn’t only about research topic, but about themselves! I encourage them to find their irregularities within and enrich them to be more valuable. Be irregular, be non-standard!”

What else interests you, outside of working life?

“I have always started new activities when I’ve moved to a new place. Right before, I was in Hokkaido Japan, and I started new activities such as surfing, mountain biking and snow-shoeing. Here, I can see rich nature with forests and archipelago but no waves for surfing, so wind-surfing or sailing could be good options.”