NEW BOOK  Interwoven – Exploring Materials and Structures, 2022, AaltoARTSBooks. Link to Order the book

Maarit Salolainen is Associate Professor (tenured) of Textile Design at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture and Head of the Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design MA Major. Salolainen has renewed textile studio pedagogy and linked textile studies to fashion education and disciplines beyond. She has collaborated in developing the textile studio pedagogy at Aalto University to its present level – bridging the gap between handcrafted sampling and industrial-scale prototyping while emphasising the importance of both creative and technical skills in textile design practice. In addition to textile-specific aspirations, she has established experimental pedagogy in interdisciplinary courses, exposing engineering students to design-driven exploration processes.

Before the appointment to a new, tenured Textile Design professorship at Aalto University, Maarit Salolainen worked as a part-time Adjunct Professor at Aalto University in 2013-2023 and as a lecturer from 2003-2013, gaining insight into the challenges of textile design education. Coming from outside academia with a view and experience of the international textile field, has enabled her to view teaching anew. Her curriculum development, reorganization of the weaving and textile courses and research of teaching methods in collection design and woven textile design have brought innovative results. She lead the popular surface design study project PatternLab in 2003-2009 and from 2014 until today and developed the brand, study content and process to what it is now. patternlab.fi

During her teaching career, Maarit Salolainen has actively opened the textile courses to fashion students and to students from other study programs, developed pedagogy for multidisciplinary student groups. She has supervised study projects with industry and business, and helped the students to network with international fashion and textile companies and NGO’s. The innovative use of materials and techniques by Aalto ARTS fashion students has claimed international recognition at international shows and fashion competitions in the recent years.