The DATUTOP series was founded in 1982 by the late Jorma Mänty, professor of urban planning at the School of Architecture at Tampere University of Technology. The central themes of the DATUTOP publications are architectural theory and urban planning theory. Editions have varied from monographs to theme-based collections of essays and general numbers.
The name DATUTOP originally was an acronym for Department of Architecture Tampere University of Technology Occasional Papers. Since the names of both the university and department of architecture have changed a few times during the past decades, these days the letters stand for something else: D= design, A= architecture, T= theory, U= university, T= Tampere… and OP is still occasional papers.