Category Archives: Urbanism
View from Stockholm
Johnathan Glancey in a recent article stated that Stockholm and Helsinki are under threat of getting the ‘world class city’ treatment. This of course is a bad thing because it means a kind of internationalized blandness in the pursuit of some imagined advertisers dream. I was just in Stockholm for the first time a couple of [...]
Streets of Helsinki
An observant walker through the central streets of Helsinki may have noticed street signs with animal names and icons. These are the original names of the blocks that had died out but which have been reintroduced by the city. The Nomeculture of a city is basic on one level in that it would be impossible [...]
Best place to live in Finland
A housing Website staged a survey to find the best place to live in Finland. Karjasilta in Oulu won, it’s a relatively suburban area of detached houses from the 40′s and 50′s the runners up are below, I’m not sure but I think they are mostly of the same suburban character with the only exception [...]
Wasted Space Helsinki
I went to Vaihtolava in Kallio on Wednesday evening to see some talks given by the Hukkatila Group which, inspired by wastedspace.se is looking for their own wasted space in Helsinki to turn into projects, whether it’s urban farming or setting up a cafe. The talkers last night were Antti Möller- Introduction. Otso Lapila from [...]
Subterranea Helsinki
Although a country with few people and plenty of space, Finlands’ capitol city Helsinki being located on a peninsula finds itself constantly constrained by the sea for space. Luckily the city sits above bedrock which is deep and which frequently punctures the ground. So Helsinki increasingly uses its bedrock to tunnel into and create an [...]
The Around Project
The Around project from Sequence Point software has just launched in beta for nokia’s n97 phone. It describes itself as augmented reality in that it adds a layer of information to whatever you are looking at through your phone. Thus in effect it means that pulling information from the cloud onto the city in real [...]
County of London Plan 1945
I found a set of images from the County of London Plan 1945 booklet which marks a milestone in visualising and planning for cities. Already being produced before the end of WWII when it came out in 1945 the brainchild of Patrick Abercrombie. The set on flickr is however missing a great map of Social [...]
Dynamic Helsinki Website
The international real estate industry will gather in Cannes, March 10-13 for the MIPIM fair, I’d imagine it will be a sombre affair taking place as it is agaisnt a backdrop of a projected world recession. But Greater Helsinki is bringing an exhibition stand there and it is a historic time for the city as [...]
Snow Angels
We went up to Levi in Lapland last weekend. Being in the last great European wilderness was breathtaking, it’s a beautiful place a different world away from the bustle of typical human existence. The thing though that will stick most in my mind most was when we were just outside the hotel lobby on the [...]
Living Room for Helsinki
Juha Ilionen a Finnish Architect has a website of 31 proposals for the centre of Helsinki. Living room Helsinki is all in Finnish but covers a series of different interventions into the fabric of the centre to improve it and create or add to existing public space with a variety of functions. Some are larger [...]
Superspatial
I just posted for the first time on Superspatial a collaborative weblog (myself and kosmograd so far) and jumping off point for urbanism of all kind. Posting on urbanisation issues will really focus there. We have entered a couple of competitions already so if you are interested in joining in then please get in touch. [...]
Helsinki Urbanism
A couple of events taking place now Megapolis2022 (via) and Hernesaari scheme proposals (via). Megapolis 2022 is an urban environmental festival and seems like a growing event, the premise is right, that our current environmental problems will be solved in the cities. On Saturday 13th October, there will be a debate about the role of [...]
Planet of Slums by Mike Davis
The scale and velocity of world population increase over the last fifty years has been unprecedented in human history. Urbanisation, with over a billion people living in cities has become the key signature of this growth, with the urban population for the first time greater than in the country. These facts are startling, if common [...]
Carry On
Finnish Designer Timo Niskanen was runner up in a design to design a shelter in a cart. It enables a homeless person to carry around his belongings with him and have somewhere to sleep at night. He got funding and has brought his design onto the streets of Helsinki. It is a great way to [...]
Walking the Line