Making a difference with sustainable design
The Helsinki World Design Capital communities have introduced many responsible and sustainable design initiatives in their public and private sectors.
Sustainable living and working
Helsinki’s inner-city areas vacated from former port operations for redevelopment will open ample opportunities for new living and working concepts. The Jätkäsaari district will be home to a Low2No city block, an urban building complex dedicated to energy-efficient and innovative building practices. The plan for the area is the result of an international competition, organized to find alternatives for sustainable urban development.
The goal of the competition was to demonstrate that national and international targets in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and improvements in energy efficiency can be achieved or exceeded with urban solutions that are economically viable. The winning entry “c_life: City as a living factory of ecology” introduced a financial model for making Jätkäsaari Finland’s first low-to-no carbon district.
The Viikki biosciences complex and adjacent housing form one large experimental site for sustainability, including the Eco-Viikki residential area planned and built to test ecological housing concepts. The developers of Eco-Viikki had to comply with a number of eco-criteria, which embraced pollution, natural resources, health, biodiversity and nutrition.
The Arabianranta district, once home to industry, is a new and popular housing district centred around the University of Art and Design Helsinki. The district offers new types of flexible housing, education and jobs in the new media sector.
The region moves by public transport
Helsinki residents are heavy users of public transport: the vast majority of all people commuting to the Helsinki city centre and back during the peak hours use buses, trams, metro trains and commuter trains.
There is a strong emphasis on rail. Already two-thirds of the public transport to the central business district is on rail. In the next few years, the Helsinki metro rail network will be extended to the west, and there will be a new Ring Rail Line to speed up cross-region commuting.
In addition to commuter trains, Helsinki invest in trams. Helsinki has recently built new tram lines, and the city centre and nearby suburbs are served by a dense tram network.
The citizens of Helsinki are active outdoors people, which is evident by the popularity of bicycling. Helsinki’s bicycle path network exceeds 1,000 kilometres inside the Helsinki city limits. The city promotes bicycling with many services, including a Journey Planner for Cycling.
Carved in stone, built with wood
Local materials and techniques have been used in Helsinki to promote sustainability and to mould the city’s character. Finland is a land of wood and stone, and much of Helsinki has been built from these materials.
The Sveaborg sea fortress (Suomenlinna in Finnish, 1748) was built using bricks made from local clay and timber from local forests, in addition to countless tonnes of stone excavated from the site. The Art Nouveau style in Helsinki relied heavily on stone and widely applied stone carvings.
The Otaniemi university campus (Alvar Aalto, 1966), the celebrated Rock Church (Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen, 1969) and the President’s Residence Mäntyniemi (Reima and Raili Pietilä, 1993) all make wide use of the local grey granite.
Sibelius Hall (Kimmo Lintula and Hannu Tikka, 2000) in Lahti is a must place to see for the wood architecture enthusiast. The latest housing developments in the Vuosaari and Viikki districts of Helsinki include wooden row houses and apartment buildings.
Wood is experiencing a renaissance in Finland. It is widely applied in Finnish public buildings including libraries, day care centres and schools. The Helsinki University of Technology’s Department of Architecture has an entire section devoted to wood technology.
Sustainable products and services
Finnish designers have for many years been serving new interest and demand for sustainable products, using recycled materials and creating eco-friendly designs. The interest for sustainability is also manifest in lifestyles and the service sector.
A number of service programmes aim at sustainable communities. One of them is the Jolly Dragon community, which seeks to increase social cohesion among Helsinki’s foreign-born population with various social and sports activities. The community’s objective is to make Helsinki a friendly and pleasant environment for newcomers, familiarizing them with the society and acquainting them with local people and each other.
The Loppukiri housing community in Helsinki offers an alternative lifestyle for the elderly. The residents of the community volunteer to work together for the good of the community, and no employed staff is needed. They live in separate units but cook together and gather in social situations. Thus the elderly support each other while retaining their autonomy for as long as possible.
Helsinki Living Lab is a network of players who create new or improved services for everyday needs utilizing digital technology. Living labs are real-life development platforms where products and services can be tested with real, everyday users.
