A group of activist urban planners, collectively: Urban Helsinki, has come together to develop their own plans for the future urban form of Helsinki, as an alternative to the official city developers plans.
Urban Helsinki’s plan involves compact inner city development, built with the urbanite in mind. It maintains green spaces and incentivises increased usage of public transport and encourages pedestrianisaton.
The government’s draft city plan sets out 250,000 new residential homes with a loss of 300 hectares of green forest area. Urban Helsinki’s plan, Helsinki 2.0, compares favourably, as it doubles the number of potential residential homes and cuts the loss of green space to zero through the regeneration of derelict brownfield sites.
As the project instigator Timo Hämäläinen notes, “Cities and public space belong to all of us and everyone has the right and responsibility to help shape them to be the best they can be.”
