Prof Laura Arpiainen is the Professor of Health and Wellbeing Architecture at Aalto University in Helsinki. An architect by training, she holds dual Finnish / Canadian citizenship and is particularly interested in how the built environment can support (or hurt) health and wellbeing.
Prof Arpiainen is a long-term healthcare specialist with an international track record in all areas of healthcare including strategic planning and operationalizing of systems, service design, clinical planning and of course architecture and facility planning as well as therapeutic landscape architecture and town planning.
Of particular interest are urban health and connections between climate change, cities and health as well as the value of inclusive processes and community building.
Prof Arpiainen’s studio programs have ranged from environments for dying to mixed-use community centers and different levels of supportive housing including complex residential care, pandemic hospitals, design for memory decline and community health centers for integrated care.
She believes in values-based design and care.
Prof Arpiainen was a visiting professor at SUTD in 2023 and is a popular visiting critic, keynote speaker and teacher. She is delighted to participate at Asia Pacific Population Health Conference in Singapore and will be commenting on the similarities and differences between designing for healthy cities in Singapore, Europe and Canada.
