A development project is underway at the Faculty of Art and Design of University of Lapland to strengthen occupational safety culture and streamline shared service processes. The work focuses on the faculty’s painting studio, wood workshop, and video studio facilities. The project is carried out by Palvelumuotoilu Palo Oy in collaboration with university staff.

The project aims to build a shared understanding of what occupational safety culture means in the Faculty of Art and Design’s unique working environment, where spaces, materials, and risks differ significantly from conventional office, teaching, and research settings.

In the Faculty, the project is led by Vice Dean for Education Maria Huhmarniemi, who highlights the distinctive nature of our working environments:

– In the Faculty of Art and Design’s workshops and laboratories, tools range from paintbrushes and cameras to band saws and woodworking machinery. In our academic community, material-based and hands-on work is seen as an essential part of art and design education and research. Investing in the development of occupational safety culture reflects the faculty’s values, where workshop-based work is highly appreciated and its safety is supported with long-term commitment.

The project develops an operational model for occupational safety through co-creation. Roles, responsibilities, and everyday practices of staff and students are defined and clarified through workshops and events organized within the project. The goal is to strengthen a positive safety culture in which practices that support health and safety become embedded in everyday workshop activities.

The project continues earlier development efforts. Previous initiatives include supervised evening work in design facilities such as the wood workshop, metal workshop, and model laboratory.

– We are on duty in the workshops two evenings a week, say workshop masters Ismo Lakela and Pekka Karppinen.

The project is implemented by doctoral alumna Essi Kuure from Palvelumuotoilu Palo Oy, who emphasizes the user-centered nature of the design process:

– In this project, we engage people in solving challenges and designing operating models that support the flourishing of the desired occupational safety culture.

The project specifically targets the faculty’s workshop facilities used by teaching and research staff, students, and workshop masters.

Gamification brings a new perspective on safety

A key innovation of the project is a gamified and community-based approach to developing occupational safety. Palvelumuotoilu Palo Oy is developing an occupational safety culture game that enables interactive discussion of safety topics while considering different roles within the community.

Kuure explains the added value of this approach.

– Occupational safety is not approached merely as a set of rules and documents, but as a shared way of working. We support its smooth implementation in everyday life through creative and human-centered service design methods.

The game makes workplace practices visible and supports collective learning of safer ways of working. It will be piloted during the project and further developed into a service product that can be utilized more broadly in Finnish working life.

The Faculty of Art and Design invites students and staff to participate in the co-creation of the game.

Working at the Faculty of Art and Design.
Photo: Ville Rinne
Concrete outcomes for everyday work

The project is expected to produce:

  • A shared understanding of occupational safety culture, articulated and visualized for the faculty.
  • Practical operating models that support everyday safety, collaboration, and risk prevention.
  • Guidelines for safety culture to be used in onboarding and communication.
  • A gamified tool to support learning and discussion within the work community.

Through this development work, the aim is to improve safety and strengthen a positive safety mindset within the faculty. This is also emphasized by Development Manager for Wellbeing Mervi Alatalo.

– Everyone here works with safety in mind, Alatalo says.

The project is funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund and will continue until 30 April 2026. A dedicated working group on occupational safety – comprising representatives from HR, facilities services, safety experts, occupational safety personnel, and faculty leadership – has worked in close collaboration with the project.

More information

Project website (In Finnish)

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