Merete Kemppainen
About
Before I started my studies in architecture, I worked with the mentally challenged and elderly people in the healthcare field. The anthropocentric, empathetic, and equal approach has remained one of my principles throughout my studies and career. My dream and goal as an urban planner have always been to develop sustainable and democratic built environments. This paradigm has led me to get involved with urban activism, which has provided a way for me to criticize the privatization of public spaces and neoliberal, investor-based urban development. The present political and economic context has turned public spaces into a tool for the branding and marketing of cities, where generating maximum returns from places is the overriding goal. Thus, the inadequacy of truly public, equal, and non-commercial public spaces has been concerning. Along with work and activism, I have been volunteering in the Finnish Blue Ribbon Foundation’s day center for the homeless, working as an art teacher, and hence ended up conducting my master’s thesis, “The Invisibles – Power, Policy, and Right to the Public Space”. The thesis investigated public space from the homeless perspective. My dissertation is a follow-up to my master’s thesis, continuing the research of this important topic with a more profound and focused examination and utilizing mixed, experimental methods.