Dreams of a better world

Building and the use of the built environment are the cause for many environmental problems. But on the other hand they can also help us find solutions to these problems.

Some of those solutions are displayed at Laituri at the moment. Dreams of a better world is an exhibition on sustanaible building and worth a visit.

Laituri is open from Monday to Saturday and the entrance is as always free of charge.

Helsinki - Tallinn by train?

The topic has been discussed for years already. Now it came up again. And indeed there seems to be a chance that within the next 15 to 20 years a train tunnel will be built that will connect Helsinki and Tallinn and make travelling much easier and faster between the two capitals.

What do you think about those plans? Are you looking forward to it already or do you rather think the nine to 13 billion Euros should rather be spent on something else?

Six looks for Guggenheim

How should a potential Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki look like? This question drove teams from 77 countries that sent in 1715 design suggestions for the new look.

Now the six finalists have been chosen. Non of them comes from Finland though. The winner will be announced in June next year. The finalist's designs can be found online.

What do you think about the designs? Do you have your own favorite already?

Europe in Helsinki

Does architecture interest you? And are you interested in finding out more about the history and building culture in Europe and Helsinki's role in it?

Then you should still visit Laituri's current exhibition "Europe in Helsinki" wich deals with exactly this topic. Here Europe's architectural history of over 3000 years is devided into 300-year periods and presented in a easily understandable way.

The exhibition was developed in a cooperation of the Tampere University of Technology and the Helsinki City Planning Department. It is still open for visitors until September 6. As always the entrance is for free.

How's Pasila gonna look?

During the next years some areas in Helsinki will undergo massive changes. One of them is Pasila. A new train station with a whole new block of modern and functional buildings will help to connect East and West Pasila and at the same time make the whole area more attractive.

If you already want to see today how it's going to look there in a few years you should pay a visit to Laituri. Till the end of April the Pasila 3.0 exhibition is on display there. And along with pictures and explainations you can even take an interactive virtual 3D tour through new Pasila with Oculus goggles.

Check it out. The entrance is as always free and it's worth a visit.

Will Guggenheim come to Helsinki after all?

After the decision has been made against a Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki last year especially due to financing issues there might be hope again after all.

This week the Helsinki city council decided on reserving a spot at the South Harbor of the city right in the center. The Guggenheim Foundation now starts an international architecture competition to find a suitable concept for the spot.

Only after that a final decision on whether to build the museum will be made. Till then we can look forward to some interesting concepts from architects from all over the world for the South Harbor of Helsinki.

But what is your opinion? What do you think about a Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki? Leave a comment!

New Horizons for a fast growing city

Helsinki is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in Europe. It attracts businesses and with them people from all over Finland and the whole world.

The former cargo harbor Jätkäsaari is rapidly turning into an attractive living and business area. But also in many other parts of the city new buildings rise constantly.

To find out more about Helsinki’s plans for the future, new ideas for the city, about ongoing and already finished projects visit the Helsinki New Horizons exhibition at Laituri next to Kamppi Kauppakeskus. The information in the charts is in Finnish but you can ask for the English information sheet. The staff will also be happy to help you and tell you more.

As always the entrance is for free. For more information visit laituri.fi and uuttahelsinkia.fi. 

From Baana to UrBaana

Baana, the new cycling and walking path connecting Ruoholahti to the center has improved the way of moving around in Helsinki for pedestrians and cyclists a lot. But there are plans to make Baana even more attractive.

Experts from the fields of architecture, ecological city planning, art, traffic engineering and design have envisioned new ways to connect Baana to other cultural centers in the city and to make the area even more attractive.

To find out more about the plans visit Laituri on Narinkka (exhibition still open till August 29) in the center or take a look at the project’s website.

A sneak peek into Helsinki’s future

Today the City Planning Fair starts at Laituri. Till 13 April you can meet city planners and find out more about what the plans for your neighborhood and the entire city are.

On eleven stands you can familiarize yourself with projects coming up in the near future to make Helsinki an even more livable city. The topics include new single-family housing areas, the sea and beaches, the development of local centers, the development of Helsinki traffic, parking, traffic research, ecological sustainability and much more.

You can find a program (in Finnish) of the fair on the Laituri website.

For young city planners

Until February 16^th Laituri invites especially children to come and learn more about city planning. Together with the red elephant they will plan Fairy Tale City and learn lots of interesting new things about city planning.

And since city planning involves lots of good ideas the children are asked to get creative themselves and paint their dream houses.

How does your dream apartment look like?

The Helsinki City Planning Department wants to find out about what people’s dream apartments would look like to make Helsinki an even more livable place. At Laituri first results of their cooperation with Helsinki’s inhabitants are on display.

If you were to create your own dream apartment how would it look like? And how would it differ from the way you live at the moment? The City Planning Department asked these questions to people from around the city. 

Space for a sauna

Among others Juhani Tauriainen, a retired professor for political science, had the chance to draw his dream apartment. “It has to be close to the sea or at least to a lake. The presence of water is very important to me.” Also the aspect of space plays a big role for Juhani. He created a lot of storing space in his apartment and also made the bathroom a bit bigger – for the sauna of course.

The ideas of Juhani and seven other Helsinki inhabitants are displayed at Laituri in the center of Helsinki now. With models and drawings the Helsinki Housing Fair 2020 shows how they could imagine their dream apartment to look like. But also innovative and already realized housing projects from around the world are displayed. Architect and project coordinator Hilla Rudanko explains: “The exhibition wants to provoke. We want to show what was been done already elsewhere and what ideas the people in Helsinki have. We leave it to the visitors to think about which ideas they could imagine to be implemented in Helsinki.”

It would be wonderful to make individual housing possible where everyone could design and build their own individual apartment, Hilla says. People could get together in groups and build their dream house together. To get as close as possible to this vision, you have to ask people about their dreams.

To understand what people’s needs and dreams for housing are Hilla Rudanko and her team wanted to question as many people as possible. After making video interviews with the first eight candidates they already got so many good ideas and so much film material that they decided to make an exhibition just with what they had captured so far. Along with the models of their apartments the interviews are now shown on a big screen at Laituri to the public.

Everyone’s ideas are welcome

But more ideas are always welcome. Till the end of the exhibition at April 28^th people have the possibility to fill in a questioner – at Laituri or online – about their ideal apartment. All ideas will be collected and be presented to designers, architects and the City Planning Department of Helsinki afterwards.

And in the near future there is going to be a lot of potential for those new ideas to become reality. The city of Helsinki has big plans. Within the next decades the districts of Länsisatama, Kalasatama and Kruunuvuorenranta will be constructed. Those major projects also bring a lot of space for creativity with them. Finding out how the people in Helsinki would like to live, what they think is important in an apartment, does not necessarily make city planning more easy but definitely more successful.