our purpose
The Association of Community Architecture designs, forms, develops and facilitates communities.
​
We specialize in assembling and building communities for various purposes. Our community design services also offer new perspectives on the functioning of existing communities and solutions for their development.
​
Our work applies sociological and socio-psychological research in both its starting points and methods. Our services include in-depth community mapping and community research analysis.
​
We also use creative methods, gamification and bold imagination in our innovative community design. With their help, the community can be viewed not only as a practical activity, but also as an artistic project, into which unique, inspiring and personal characteristics can be shaped. Our unique approach, combining scientific and artistic expertise, enables us to design community structures and operating methods more creatively, in more detail and in a more structured way than is usually the case.
What is community design?
Community design is concrete community work. It involves developing practices, principles and rules (in some cases even the choreography and aesthetics of community activities) that make the community concrete for its members so that the community does not remain a distant or formal operating environment.
​
With community design, the structure, composition of the community and its various practices, principles, rules and roles can be created exactly as desired. Communities are different and they may function in many ways - some hope for deep and rich interaction, while for others practical functionality and smooth coexistence are more important.
​
Community design can be used to create and develop all kinds of communities. Families, school groups, groups of friends, sports teams, work teams, housing companies, clans and nations are all communities whose structures and operating models can be designed and developed.
​
Our innovative community design offers tools for all kinds of community needs. With community design, a community does not remain just a structure for its members, but can become a source and resource for a meaningful experience of community for them.
BENEFITS of COMMUNITy
The benefits of community and community spirit for the individual are widely known and researched. They include, among others:
​
-
experience of meaning
-
sense of belonging
-
experience of safety
-
peer learning
-
human growth
-
networking and other benefits of social life
-
therapeutic benefits
-
indirect personal benefits
​
However, it is often difficult to realize and activate the benefits in practice - especially if the assumption is that the benefits will be realized in the community under their own weight, if they are to be realized.
​
Community design maximizes the benefits of community spirit and minimizes its potential disadvantages.
communities
WORK GROUP
- Communication channels
- Expansion to other activities
- Involving new members
SPORTS CLUB
- Team spirit
- Club-wide activities
- Operating methods and culture
- Inspiration, motivation, fun
PARENTS' ASSOCIATION
- Parental interaction
- Cooperation with the school
- Children's mutual connections
- Connections between families
HOUSING COMPANY
- Resident interaction
- The housing company's operating culture
- Activation of volunteer activities
- Cooperation with local businesses and other housing companies
HOBBY GROUP
- Renewal and development of operating methods and culture
- Inclusion of new members
- Internal communication
- Integrating fun and play
into work
ORGANIZATION
- Community assessment of organizational structure
- Communication enhancement/playfulness
- Surprising opportunities for interaction
- Enriching the role-playing
CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
- Playful processes of deeper familiarization
- Recurring events
- Roles that enable the desired things (therapeutic support, IT support etc.)
CAFE
- Customer interaction
- Staff approachability
- Interior design, lighting and sound design
- Themes, moods and events
people
Max Aunola
Aunola is a sociologist from Helsinki. He has been planning community projects since 2014 and has assembled, facilitated and maintained several small communities and community networks. Aunola applies his education in sociology (VTM) by working as a community planner and consultant, an activist in associations and an advocate for grassroot democracy.
He has also worked for years
as a school teacher and crafts teacher and towards the gamification of learning.
Omar Truco-Kallonen
Truco-Kallonen is a Finnish-Spanish community artist and is multi-talented in the field of culture. He is a lighting designer (TeM) and a public art artist and art coordinator (YAMK). Truco-Kallonen has worked in the performing arts as a comprehensive visual artist (lights, staging, projections), an activist in grassroots cultural spaces, and a content producer for international art institutions. He is also a freelance muralist and a facilitator of participatory street art workshops.
Noelia Truffa
Truffa is an Argentine architect (University of Buenos Aires 2013) and writer (University of Seville 2024). Her first book , Escribiendo por el mundo, relatos de vida nómada, tells the story of Truffa's two and a half years of travel in 12 countries. Truffa's second book tells the story of her experiences settling in Finland. Truffa has led numerous creative writing workshops in different languages. She currently lives in Helsinki.