Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2015 | Page 14

Triple Your Pleasure
Rooted on Smart City ideology, a new superhub is rising in Pasila
At the core of emerging Smart Cities, there is the perfect marriage of responsibility and business opportunities,
says Juha Kostiainen, Senior Vice President, Urban Development, at YIT.

“W

e believe that in the future, the
focus is on sustainable urban
environments which link ecological, economic and social sustainability,”
Kostiainen sums up.
One of the drivers in this transition is
mixed use of buildings: commercial pursuits combine with corporate and residential interests to create totally new kind of
entities. In a way, we are going back to the
original idea of the city, where everything
was close, says Kostiainen.
“Since the nature of work is so different now, this gives us more flexibility in
realising these new solutions.”
Kostiainen wrote his doctoral theses
12 Nordicum

on innovative milieus ten years ago. Now
he perceives many things that are making
a huge impact in our lives that were only
vague visions a decade ago – for example,
people’s enthusiasm in making and sharing
various digital content.

Encounters Economy
In the context of city planning, adding IQ
into the old system has the power to launch
entire “innovation districts,” Kostiainen
believes. At the heart of these creative environs one still finds something rather traditional: people getting together and learning
from each other.

“In these encounters, the trick is bringing together people who represent different
types of views – that’s the best way to come
up with something new.”
In order to facilitate these “meetings of
the minds” one needs powerful public transportation that is centred on traffic superhubs.
“Mass transportation is dependent on the
masses, otherwise it won’t work.”

Reinventing Pasila
YIT is eager to try out its ideas of sustainable
urban development on a scale that is unprecedented in Finland. Case in point: the new Tripla City District, located in Pasila, Helsinki.