Category Archives: Urbanism

The Baana

Over two years ago I made a quick photo journal of my walk through a closed and disused piece of railway line going through the center of Helsinki which was due to be turned into a new cycle and pedestrian route. Well it will be opened this year (delayed or held back for WDC2012!) during the summer. It will be called Baana.

Along its borders there are great oportunities for additional insertions, bars and cafes, small shops, markets etc, if someone gives it a sympathetic eye in the city planning department.

 

Glancey Rips into Modern Helsinki

Helsingin Sanomat took Jonathan Glancey for a tour around Helsinki and published the results yesterday1 in the Sunday paper. He didn’t like the modern stuff. Not at all. Ruohlanti, Kamppi, Eiranranta, Töölönlahti all got criticised. This goes along with his luke warm criticism of the new Music Center from last month. All the modern stuff could be from anywhere, like its been dropped in by helicopter. What was good? The Old White church and square and the Jugendstil stuff.

My reaction would be too long to unpack fully here, I see his point and agree with much but I have some big reservations too. Ruohlahti and Kamppi all qualify for at least a little praise, and the old Carl Ludwig Engel Church and Square is no less dropped from a helicopter (it would have to be a steampunk helicopter wouldn’t it!)  than the modern stuff he criticizes in the early 21st century! The key point the Glancey makes about places like Ruohlahti and Salmisaari for example in how they (fail to) meet the street and work as part of the city which is very valid, but does certainly not apply to Kamppi which is a great throbbing, living development…….however it looks kind of samey! Although Glancey is more right than he is wrong this kind of melange of Architectural criticism and place tourism is a little too breezy. Perhaps its just a problem when a critic is dropped in from a Helicopter.

  1. This article is in Finnish and only a part of what appeared yesterday. I’ll add to it if HS take the rest down from behind their paywall! [↩]

Tailwind

Firstly Happy New Year and lets start out with a video which anticipates the best for Helsinki over the next 15 years or so. Tailwind is the Architectural view of Helsinkis’ next step. It shows what Helsinki will do with its coastline now the old dock area has been moved, giving back the city in effect 20km of urban space right next to the water. Also in the run up to Helsinki being design capital for 2012 it shows the ambitions for the city. (via)

Walking the Line

There is an old railway line that leads from the shore to the centre of Helsinki. I remember talking about it while on a little Architectural trip in Helsinki during the summer with some friends. So last autumn when I saw on flickr that vornaskoti had walked it and knew that with the closing in of the days the time was now to do a little urban exploration.

Continue reading →

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 weeks ago and I really loved it, and it definitely qualifies as a ‘world class’ city, while having it’s own distinctive identity. I think its right to identify also that the life blood of a city is people and activity and to a certain extent a little mess, a little accommodation to climate, location and necessity, when someone tries to make your city perfect you know they have already screwed it up. Some of my Stockholm photos are here.

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 to navigate without it. But it is also an ephemeral layer, it reveals history and cultural attitudes that become enshrined and hidden in named spaces.

History

Helsinki’s nomeculture started officially in 1820 when the street names were only in the Swedish Language, but by 1833 Russian Language signs  in the Cyrillic alphabet began to appear alongside the Swedish Names, natural enough as Finland was then annexed into the Russian Empire. It was only in 1906 that the first Finnish language street names began to be added at first in Töölö.  In 1945 a committee was established to name streets officially.

Block Names


In 1810 a Stokholm regulation required the numbering of all sites in blocks bordering on streets. Corner buildings had to have street signs added to the side of the walls, but with the additional requirement that the name of the block should be added.  Apparently the names of the blocks in Stokholm in the centre are still well known. In Helsinki in 1820 when the names of the streets were ratified it seems they followed the Stokholm tradition and named the blocks also. Domestic and wild animals were used as well as names of flowers in old Helsinki whereas in the Uusimaa suburbs the names of fish and birds were used. But by 1910 Helsinkis blocks were no longer given names along with their street names, it seems this had died out from common usage. In the last few years Helsinki city has reintroduced the names of the traditional blocks at least back to the centre of the city with block names indicated alongside the street names.

In 2003 the position of Nomeclature designer was established in Helsinki City Planning Department, this person has responsibility for naming streets, districts, parks, marinas, schools, hospitals even bus stops.

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 being that of Arabianranta in Helsinki.

  1. 23.4% Karjasilta, Oulu
  2. 21.4% Koivuhaka, Kokkola
  3. 17.3% Lutakko, Jyväskylä
  4. 15.0% Sundsberg, Kirkkonummi
  5. 13.8% Tammela, Tampere
  6. 9.1% Arabianranta, Helsinki

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 Oranssi – How the squatters deal with property owners and officials.
  • Joseph Mulcahy – Argentina cooperative factories.
  • Jaakko Lehtonen and Joseph Mulcahy – Urban farming (dodo) and DIY camp at the Pasila railway yard.
  • Bastian Zeiger – Earthships – building with wasted resources.

I had a great time listening to a small but enthusiastic group of people talk about altering the city for the better themselves, and crucially there seems to be an avenue to do this legally and creatively as groups like Oranssi have shown over the last few years. Hopefully I can participate a little as these potential projects get off the ground.

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 underground city. Now with over 400 documented underground facilities and 200 more planned, Subterranea Helsinki is probably one of the largest and most comprehensive underground city systems in the world for its size.

underground masterplan

Helsinki Underground Masterplan above for full size image go here.

(key:blue is planned underground space and grey is existing, orange is possible future)

Underground churches, gyms, ice hockey pitches, running tracks, water processing plants, shopping malls, bus stations the list goes on and on. Infact according to regulations buildings over a certain size must provide some sort of bomb shelter, it’s often unavoidable not to build underground.

Probably the best known underground areas are around Central Station which is home to a network of metro stations shops and tunnels that connect much of the city centre together and allow you to arrive and move through the centre of the city without surfacing at all. Also because when new facilities are built they are connected back into the existing underground system it expands out like the roots of a tree. A good example of this is round Kaisaniemi metro which links underground station with shopping mall within an existing building that joins up to an atrium made from a filled in urban block which in turn links through to an underground cinema. Here the underground city tunnels back into the urban fabric above ground also.

I think this is one of the most impressively urban things about Helsinki which otherwise is a quite a centrally planned and unobtrusive small city. This ‘deep urbanism’  is where Helsinki distinguishes itself as being different, and the fact that the city has an official underground city plan reflects this attitude to some degree.

I hope that the new harbour redevelopment includes for some sizeable public facilities underground that can continue to expand the city below ground too.

Central Station underground

photo by mattitianen

photo by mattitianen

Below are a list of some the larger underground structures in Helsinki:

Temppeliaukio Church

Temppeliaukion Church

Temppeliaukion Church

Temppeliaukio Church was built into solid rock in 1969. One of the better modern buildings in Helsinki. The sides of the church let water through on purpose when it rains allowing for natural water flows down the side of the church.

Itäkeskus underground swimming centre

The underground swimming centre was carved into bedrock in 1993. The spa-type underground space contains a 50-metre swimming pool, whirlpool baths, saunas, a gym, etc. The facility can be converted into a shelter for 3,800 persons.

Viikinmäki underground wastewater treatment plant

photo by sameli

Helsinki Water has centralised all of its wastewater treatment operations into the Viikinmäki wastewater treatment plant. The total volume of excavated rock was 1,200,000 m3. The first phase (1,000,000 m3) was excavated in 1988-91 and the second phase (200,000 m3) in 2000-01.

Otaniemi – underground spaces
Over 50 underground spaces, including the national film archives, the underground shelters of the Dipoli conference centre and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Helsinki University of Technology campus area connection tunnels, Laboratory of Rock Engineering test tunnel, etc.

Western metro expansion
Länsimetro is 13.9-km long twin tunnel and 7 new stations. Construction is estimated to start in late 2009 and the project is expected to last four years at most. The westbound metro line will be completly underground

KEHU – Helsinki Service tunnel

2.5-km service tunnel across the city, from east to west, under the historical centre of Helsinki. Construction scheduled for 2006-10. The tunnel will be used to service shops, restaurants, offices and hotels in the area.

Underground coal storage and district cooling
Helsinki Energy’s underground coal storage facility in Salmisaari was built in 2001-03. The project also included an underground district cooling centre, a power station and 3.5 km of tunnels. The total excavated volume was 550,000 m3. Each coal silo is 65 metres high and has a 40-metre diameter with a circular plan cross-section. The volumetric capacity of each silo is 81,000 m3.

Airport transit (Kehärata)
Airport transit is a new rail section connecting the city centre to Vantaankoski local track with the main northbound rail track. The whole project consists of 18 km of new double track and 8 new stations. Of this, 8 km of track and 4 stations will be fully underground.

Päijänne Water Tunnel


The Worlds’ second longest continuous Rock Tunnel which brings fresh water from Lake Päijänne to Helsinki. (wikipedia / homepage)

District Heating System


The whole city has a district heating system which supplies over 90% of Helsinki’s heating requirements. This system is supported by a massive underground tunnel network of more than 40 km of multi-utility  tunnels.

Hartwall Arena

Subterranean full size ice hockey hall

Suomenlinna Tunnel

See the excellent post at Locating Helsinki about this. A service tunnel that connects one of Helsinki’s most important islands to the mainland. There has been talk about expanding the metro here one day.

Crazy Ideas:

Helsinki Tallinn tunnel

References:

WTC

Helsinki Underground City

rumors

helsinki underground masterplan

Finnish Tunneling Association

My Helsinki Subterranea flickr set

The Around Project

aroundproject

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 time is now here, albeit in a relatively buggy user unfriendly version at the moment. It’s another step for  the ‘street as platform‘  concept that city of sound wrote about last year.

At the moment it can fetch data from only two providers, ovi maps from nokia, and geonames which if I remember correctly pulls info from many different sources including wikipedia. So for example as shown in the image above landmark buildings are shown through your phone screen and you are able to click on the buildings to get further information from wikipedia for example about the building you are looking at.

This is pretty basic for a start but think for a moment that when through rss, buildings publish their data feeds, or newsagents sell papers through your phone with rfid technology, or you are notified that a friend is walking your way, that the information of the street becomes physically viewable, and usable what the potential of this project really is. In terms of information distribution, visualisation , and interaction then it is loaded with promise and it could help engender a new form of civic life. (via)

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 and Functional analysis of London which probably prefigures the common idea that the city is made up of a ‘city of villages’ , also worth noting the ideas about redeveloping the South Bank, an area which is still being struggled with today.

Dynamic Helsinki Website

kruunuvuorenranta

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 the largest change in Helsinkis’ structure is going on now. When the cargo ports were transferred in 2008 from the city centre to Vuosaari, some 250 hectares of waterfront area were vacated, and here Helsinki will  build 4,5 million floor sqm for housing and almost 2,5 million floor sqm of commercial space. This means homes for about 100 000 people and jobs for tens of thousands. Six urban development projects will be on display at MIPIM. They are Jätkäsaari, Kruunuvuorenranta, Kalasatama, Arabianranta, Finlandiapark and Pasila, and there is website that covers them called Dynamic Helsinki and you can download the pdf brochure too.

Taken seperately most of these urban projects detailed would be a little uninspiring but together they form a coherent whole which has shortcomings but I think acts as a good basic blueprint for modern urbanisation as opposed to the indiscreet suburbanisation that we see mostly in Helsinki. However against the backdrop of what will probably turn into the first great world depression, it is hard to see at the moment how this vision will be achieved. No doubt the general urbanisation seen in Finland since WWII and continuing since may actually accelerate as Finlands’ traditional industries like the paper and timber industry continue to shrink. This means that the plans for greater Helsinki may not be affected much even as smaller towns and cities in Finland bear the brunt of the economic pain.

Regardless the marketing of dynamic helsinki of which Richard Florida would no doubt approve has started to take place. I’m partially optimistic the vision is achieveable even if we are yet to see the pain first.

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 town square and saw a couple in their mid-thirties. The woman was lying in the snow making a snow angel and the man was taking photos of her. They were smiling and laughing in a state of innocent excitement I’m not used to seeing in adults. It made me smile, it makes me smile every time I think about it actually. The man told us they were from South Africa and had never seen snow before. Photos of the trip are here. The photo above is of  St.Marias’ Chapel bell tower beside the ski slope.

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 proposals and some are little vignettes which would add almost imperceptibly except for the very immediate residents around. Overall I love this series of proposals and hope and wish someone in the planning office in the city has the foresight to implement at least some of them.

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. We don’t just write about this stuff you know.

Some great past posts by kosmograd include;

06. The Manhattanisation of Bilbao

05. The City Destroyed by its own Beauty

Helsinki Urbanism

r&a
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 consumer in this.
With the Hernesaari scheme the City of Helsinki Planning Department is opening up a little to the outside world. Until 21.10.2007 you can look at the different scheme proposals from Anttila & Rusanen, Brunow & Manula, and Helin & Co and comment on them. Image above from Antilla & Rusanen scheme which I really like as it adds a public space of grass and beach with water on either side.