Photo: Niklas Lähteenmäki, the City of Hämeenlinna.
Engelinranta
The architects` view from the street in Engelinranta.
“ What we want to encourage is a certain atmosphere of experimentation. Various new things can be piloted here, and successfully, too,” Koskiaho believes. One example of this approach is inclusion of public art in the competition parametres: the City wants competition participants to come up with ways to spice up the neighbourhood via aesthetics, too.
“ The buildings themselves will require high-level architecture, but we want to add even more aesthetic appeal by providing art for the citizens.”
Living Lab Opportunities
The City is also willing to entertain“ outof-the-box” construction solutions such as floating apartments, city boats, robot-driven buses, Mobility as a Service( MaaS) solutions … Koskiaho believes that Hämeenlinna is just the right size – not too big, not too small – to push these initiatives forward.
“ There’ s a lot we can accomplish, if we pool our resources and are committed to a common goal,” she believes. A crucial part in the City’ s plans for the bus station quarters is increasing citizen participation in just about every conceivable way.
“ We’ re requiring for citizen participation and engagement plans to be submitted by those players entering the competition,” she says, adding that the participation plans should precede the zoning operations.“ This
Engelinranta, the present state.
way we get citizen engagement that is not overly regulated.”
In a sense, the bus station quarters venture is all about maximising citizenship: the people will get to voice their opinions and those viewpoints will be taken into consideration, too.
Come Together, Right Now
Koskiaho envisions a situation where citizens and companies get together to decide what kind of community they want to raise: what is it exactly that modern residential solutions should entail?
“ Having everybody on the same side of the table, so to speak, means that it’ s a win-win for all,” she believes.
In addition to the residents, Hämeenlinna wants to serve also the interests of companies. The waterfront development could conceivably be a home for various business ventures that can, in turn, take the community to the next level:
“ Energising the local business climate is obviously one goal.” l
Photo: Lentokuva Vallas Oy.
Nordicum 43