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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The Competition for every aspiring starchitect, and everyone else, just launched again Europan9 is here. European urbanity, sustainable city and new public spaces are the main themes. Finnish Europan has some interesting sites in Espoo, Vantaa (both in greater Helsinki) and Kotka on the South East coast which is redeveloping. Is there a potential tie-in [...]
A new international competition for planning Helsinkis’ future has been launched. It’s scope and scale is massive and it’s not often you get the chance to reimagine a Capital city like this. The Competition briefing information alone is a great repository of information about Helsinki and indeed the Baltic. Visit greaterhelsinkivision for details also see [...]
I love Amsterdam. I lived there for two years, and fell in love there. The city is a fantastic backdrop to life which contains wonders for anyone and everyone, from the cross eyed French teenagers stumbling out of their coffee shops we sometimes bumped into outside our front door to rich retired couples shopping for [...]
The Town of Kiruna in Sweden is cracking apart. Like an earthquake in slow motion the ground near Kiruna cracks and sinks in an ever widening circle which is beginning to tear apart the city. A huge Iron ore Mine to the west of the town has caused the earth to subside around the mine [...]
With China facing an urbanisation of 300 million people in the next twenty years, it will not only face a massive expansion of its current cities but will have to build some 3 to 400 new cities to do this. Along with India, the rate of growth, urban change, and industrialisation will dwarf anything seen [...]
Where is the centre of Helsinki anyway? Hesingin Sanomat does a quick study to find out. Speaking for myself before I lived here it was under the Stokmann clock. But if I had to choose a single place to stand now the decision would be harder, you would probably see me walking round in circles [...]
