Zero Gravity : radical creativity by multidisciplinary collaboration

In June 2013, the report “ARTS+ENG, Future Collaborative Academic Models at Aalto: Cooperation between the Schools of Arts, Design and Architecture, and the School of Engineering in Aalto University,” was published. The most significant collaboration endeavor between the schools was the project work course, here referred to as The Synthesis Studio, a platform for multidisciplinary collaboration, which first has been established as ARTS-ENG Project Course in 2016. Since then the course underwent a transformation from disciplinary oriented, thematic baskets to the “discipline-free” topics of “Zero Gravity”, always in mind that its pedagogic intent is to lay an early foundation for the formation of trans- and multidisciplinary skills in future levels of study and to trigger radical creativity. This paper looks into the ideas of radical creativity and presents the backgrounds and the constant development of the project course as a major experiment at Aalto University, including its challenging pedagogical and logistic tasks, but offering unparalleled opportunities to create multiple cross connections in the beginning of the undergraduate studies. In 2019, the course was accompanied by creativity tests, an Alternate Uses Test (AUT) and a ShapeStorm (SS) Exercise, investigating the course´s impact and its significantly positive effect on students' creativity.