43 — Designing Our Sustainable Future 43. Provide a minimum of three examples or case studies that demonstrate how the city has used design, design management and design development to create a socially, culturally and economically sustainable community and environment. Include a description of how design is currently addressed within the city’s strategic plan.
Helsinki – like the rest of the country – tends to take the long view on things. Ambitious initiatives are on the table and making the rounds. And many will be realised. But just as importantly, many are already in place, and have been operative for some time. A key component in the plans is synergy. Bringing together key factors to create the right mix. Research and technology, art and design; business and science, education and culture; planning and community. And design is central to each of these components individually and collectively – how they will be shaped and realised. The initiatives under consideration and underway are not “closed” cases which have been conclusively solved. Instead they’re open, have been designed to remain open. Open to new input, developments and approaches. the new Waterfront – Kalasatama, Jätkäsaari and Vuosaari Making, shaping and re-designing the city is a vast and ongoing process at Helsinki. Earlier the heavy industry and now most the commercial harbours are leaving brownfield, space for the people and their social, cultural and economical needs. It´s the biggest process of sweeping change in Helsinki since the Engel’s master town plan that gave rise to the Senate Square complex. The new Vuosaari Harbour and environs – together with the newly-invogorated Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari areas – is the comprehensive design and planning answer to many questions. Combining housing, urban planning, logistics, business, architecture and design. Challenge: valuable land in the downtown area not used in best possible way: • shortage of prime urban sites for housing and commerce • shorelines of central Sörnäinen and Hermanni industrial, not residential • heavy lorry traffic routed through town • poor, disruptive connections between storage and distribution points Solution: move the harbor functions from central Sörnäinen and Jätkäsaari districts to north-east of Vuosaari • free up central urban properties for new housing, new commerce, new life, in Kalastama and Jätkäsaari • new area infrastructure expanded to serve new housing, commerce and related services • five minutes by metro, a few more walking, to central shopping and downtown • opportunity to develop sweeping green seaside areas • heavy transit traffic routed around town on expanded ring roads and rail • new development means new homes, jobs, training and commercial opportunities. Both Vuosaari and Kalastama / Jätkäsaari are works in progress. The first stage is now complete and the next development stage is underway. Planning and design have proved key to the success of the project – which has come in on schedule and on budget.
Open Helsinki — Embedding Design in Life
World Design Capital 2012 Application