Rate My Professor Ranja Hautamäki

Ranja Hautamäki serves as Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture at the Department of Architecture, Aalto University, with her professorship focused on landscape planning and society. She is a landscape architect who earned a Doctor of Science degree in 2016, marking her as the first PhD landscape architect in Finland and the first tenured research professor in the field. Her professional journey includes teaching at Helsinki University of Technology, civil service as the first landscape architect in the Parks Department of the City of Tampere—where she served as project landscape architect for Vuolteentori, awarded Environmental Structure of the Year 2018—and returning to Aalto University in 2017 to advance research in landscape architecture. She has supervised master's theses recognized with the Lappset scholarship in 2025 and 2018.

Hautamäki's research addresses sustainable landscape planning and management, with special emphasis on planning practices and discourses. She investigates nature-based solutions and green infrastructure to tackle climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity, and well-being. As principal investigator, she leads the CO-CARBON project (2020-2026), developing evidence-based methods for urban green integration in climate decision-making; CoolGreen; and JUST TREES. She co-leads H2EnergyScapes and contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals including 11, 13, and 15. Her 96 research outputs encompass 42 peer-reviewed articles and 14 book chapters. Key publications include “Carbon sequestration and storage potential of urban green in residential yards: A case study from Helsinki” (Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 2021), “Greening the compact city: Unarticulated tensions and incremental advances in municipal climate action plans” (Cities, 2024), “Contested and constructed greenery in the compact city: A case study of Helsinki City Plan 2016” (Journal of Landscape Architecture, 2019), and “Modern living in a forest - landscape architecture of Finnish forest suburbs in the 1940s-1960s” (Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2021). Awards include Puutarhaliiton kultainen ansiomerkki (2022), Väitöskirjapalkinto 2016, Maisema-arkkitehtuuri-teko 2016, and honorary mention in Vuoden kaupunkikirjoitus 2025 for “Kaupunkivihreä ilmastotekona”.