Hannu Elias Penttilä (1961-2009)

Hannu was born in 1961, in Karjala TL, Finland. From the early 1980s through to the early 1990s he combined, and overlapped being a young designer in architectural offices in Helsinki, acting as a CAAD-lecturer at Helsinki University of Technology HUT, Department of Architecture, and working as a researcher Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT. He retained a lifelong connection with the department of Architecture at HUT.

Between 1993 and 1998, whilst working as a CAAD-lecturer he co-founded the Architecture Media Laboratory AML at Tampere University of Technology TUT, Department of Architecture together with Arto Kiviniemi and Petri Siitonen setting up course and studio work and transmit his professional experience to students. At the start of that period, in 1993 he started his own company, Mittaviiva Oy, together with Anssi Koskenvesa. In 1996 he won the UICB's (International Union of Building Centres) knowledge publication prize together with Arto Kiviniemi.

He reconnected with Helsinki University of Technology HUT, Department of Architecture in 1998 and until 2003 was coordinator of CAAD-education there. It was during this period that we persuaded Hannu to take on the significant task of organizer of the eCAADe 2001 conference “Architectural Information Management” at Helsinki University of Technology HUT, Department of Architecture, Espoo. That was a conference that is remembered fondly by all those who attended. It was the only conference that I know of that opened with a combination of sauna and jumping into the ice-covered sea. It was a really well-organised and informative conference. Consequently, we're not going to let Hannu get away – he was too good. We appointed Hannu to the Council of eCAADe in 2001.

Hannu began a licentiate of technology degree on Architectural Education and Information Technology – the Educational Meaning of Digital Media, but in 2005 he redirected those studies towards a doctoral thesis on Architectural Information Management in Early Architectural Design Phases. In addition, Hannu had been a member of Finnish Building Information Foundation’s ProIT professional board (PT 27) since 2005.

What all this shows is that Hannu was a doer and a thinker. Teaching was in his blood, he was a genuine team-player and was selfless; he was happy to see other to succeed.

Also his service to the wider community should be highlighted. At the time, where platforms for conference abstract submissions weren’t developed so well – Hannu made his virtuosic work with Filemaker available as an on-line open source donation to ecaade. It gave us an on-line review system that was wonderful and easy to use; and it worked all the time.

One of his very first papers given at eCAADe in 1989, titled “Computer Aided Building Modeling“, says:

“The subject of computer-aided building modeling is often discussed in various contexts, sometimes without clear explanation of what is modelled. Usually modeling refers to 3-dimensional geometric modeling, but nowadays also conceptual modeling and mathematical simulation aspects are more and more evident. Building modeling should though be considered more widely than just plain geometric visualization. This paper establishes one common framework for discussion about different building modeling viewpoints arranging discipline viewpoints, approach methods, existing standards and application tools within one context. Although several viewpoints are declared, conceptual building modeling is regarded the main emphasis of this paper, since it definitely will be one of the key issues in developing methods and tools for computer integrated construction (CIC) in the future.”

… how true this reads in hindsight.

So in Helsinki on 3rd June 2009, the age of 48, Hannu lost his all too short battle with cancer. In one of his last emails sent on 25th May he said:

“Hello Branko & Andy…

…Rather than building science or buildings, I will start building a fierce fighting mood against this evil enemy : )

PS sorry to bother you with this pain & sorrow, but I take this open informing also as a kind of mental theraphy ; )”

It was typical of Hannu that even when presented with such a situation he remained optimistic, positive and thoughtful about the feelings of others. He will be missed by many more people than he realised. Already we have received many messages of condolence from every part of the world. We have lost a dear friend and a presence that brought us joy and light. Our thoughts are with his family and especially his wife Iiris and his two children. This is an article for IJAC that neither of us wanted to write.