Tag: City Planning
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Six Major Developments Shaping Finnish Cities: 2014 in Review
Another exciting year has passed! To wrap up 2014, I decided to piece together what I think are the six most important developments that shaped Finnish cities during the past year. Most things obviously weren’t invented this year nor did they directly affect every city; it’s better to grasp my list as themes that peaked…
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There’s more to Cities than just Architecture – Why Kartanonkoski Is not Sankt Erikskvarteren
In my about page I mention seeing the world in somewhat the same way as the New Urbanism movement does. My earlier posts reflect the movement’s philosophy in different ways, but this time I decided take a more straightforward approach to unfold what all this fuss is essentially about. The key idea that separates New…
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Finland Goes Back to the Future with Wooden Construction
In the past two months I’ve worked with organizing two big seminars on wooden construction in Finland with minister-level attendance. Speakers ranging from governmental institutions and city-planners to the lumber industry unanimously established that wood is the way of the future. Due to tightening carbon emission regulations, wooden construction is now being promoted as an…
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Depaving the ‘Stroads’ to Hell
The way we typically arrange things in cities today is based on a culture of automobility. Over the yeas, the planning profession has little by little accommodated the needs of our motorized companion in the built environment and up to a point where it’s not clear anymore whether it’s people or cars who get the…
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Helsinki Welcomes Townhouses
Good news for all of us urbanists: the townhouse (or terraced house) concept is creating a buzz in Helsinki. Last Thursday I attended a seminar by the City Planning Department on the subject of introducing townhouses to the city fabric in a larger scale. The seminar was based on the city’s recently published townhouse report…
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The T3 Plan – a Facelift for Finland’s Epicenter of Modernist City Planning
The suburban city of Espoo to the west of Helsinki has major plans for the future. The most ambitious project is to transform the so-called T3 area consisting of Keilaniemi, Otaniemi and Tapiola into one big bustling, vital center. T3 refers to the three Finnish words “tiede, taide, and talous”, meaning science, art and economy.…
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Zoning in on Zoning
One of the main reasons why there are little options for sprawl-like development today is zoning. Or more specifically, the way we zone. A simple description of zoning is the practice of isolating land-uses into zones of their own. Residential areas, commercial areas, industrial areas, recreational areas and so forth. Cities will typically have their…