Doing a PhD
Kaupunginlampi-park under construction, Kajaani 1960, photo: Oiva Rissanen with the permission of the private collection of Family Rissanen.
Speaker: Kati Wolff
Finland's post-war cities and reconstruction were influenced by garden architect Katri Luostarinen (1915–1991), who was also Finland's first landscape architecture professor. The PhD presentation focuses on her influences, early career and on nature-based design projects in Rovaniemi, Seinäjoki, and Kajaani in northern Finland.
Luostarinen's education in Potsdam-Berlin between 1938 and 1944, under Karl Foerster and Heinrich Friedrich Wiepking-Jürgesmann, influenced her, but she also admired designers such as Mien Ruys and Mirei Shigemori. Her love of forestry, naturalistic perennials and pragmatism are central to her books Kukkiva pihamaa ja tuottoisa kasvitarha (Blooming yard and fruitful kitchen garden), 1945, and Puutarha ja Maisema (Garden and Landscape), 1951.
Already in the beginning of her career, Luostarinen inspired many of her employees to study landscape architecture abroad. Two of them, Pirkko Higson (Hari) and Paula Marttila, studied at Reading University from 1956 to 1959.
Archival research and theme interviews have been a central method in the PhD process. Luostarinen's archive covers about 700 works. Her early designs show that nature-based design has deep historical roots, establishing her as one of the pioneers whose work continues to influence current landscape practices.
Kati Wolff is a Finnish-Luxembourgish landscape architect. She has a Master's in landscape architecture from the University of Technology of Helsinki and a Bachelor's in geography from the University of Helsinki. She has mentored internationally for years and has over 20 years of teaching experience in landscape architecture. Her work with Luostarinen started after she found, catalogued, and moved the Luostarinen drawings to the Museum of Finnish Architecture in 2010. The PhD idea emerged later in 2024 during the cataloguing of Luostarinens' library. She began her PhD studies in Landscape Architecture at Aalto University's School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki the same year.
https://www.katiwolfflandscape.com/blog/