Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2020 | Page 47

be used to boost diversity, with stores on the
street level, for instance.” A mixed block is
considered to be a robust, flexible frame-
work that can deliver also high density.
“It is a very effective solution which
is likely to enhance the appeal of the over-
all urban environment also here,” Virenius
believes.
Blueprint for Future Living
The Stormwater Park is supposed to
the “lungs of the neighborhood” and divided
into various sections with different types of
vegetation and activity. As the park is to be
built already in an early development phase,
it can become an anchoring landmark for the
district and a real asset for the first residents
of the neighborhood.
Design Excellence
Planning the district, there are two architect
agencies, Ajak Oy and Gehl Architects, with
Urbanity Oy serving as a zoning consult-
ant. The Danish Gehl Architects has a lot of
international experience in making top-notch
urban environments with human appeal, and
Virenius is delighted to have the company
onboard for this ambitious undertaking.
“With Pihlajaniemi, we want to create
a strong international benchmark and Gehl
has a wealth of expertise we can tap into.”
Gehl is assisting Senate and Turku
to create a new district which has pub-
lic spaces at its core, enables living with
green surroundings and ensures high qual-
ity urban living all around. But what does
all this mean in practice, then? – Otto Vire-
nius explains that one of the development
anchors in the area will be the utilization of
2–8 storey mixed perimeter blocks, or the
so-called closed blocks.
“Mixed blocks have a lot of benefits
from an urban quality perspective and can
David Sim – partner and creative director at
Gehl as well as the author of the recent book
Soft City – says that Pihlajaniemi offers
that rare opportunity to develop a neigh-
borhood that is centrally located in a city
which is undergoing an urban transforma-
tion, a ­ ttracting people searching for a softer
lifestyle.
“We acknowledge being close to
nature, living an urban lifestyle and hav-
ing the city easily accessed by bike or pub-
lic transport as important aspects for a high
quality life, and this we embrace in the pro-
ject,” says Sim. In fact, Sim believes that
with high ambition and vision – shared by
the city and the developers building it –
Pihlajaniemi has great potential to evolve
into something unique.
“Pihlajaniemi could become Finland’s,
and perhaps even the world’s, first ‘soft city’
neighborhood,” he says.
Built for Families
As an international benchmark, Pihlajaniemi
deploys Bo01, located in Malmö, Sweden.
“Similar to the situation that Turku is in now,
Malmö saw the need to attract more families
to live in the city,” explains Sim.
The same “soft touch” is now in the
cards for Turku, confirms Otto Virenius.
“We have the chance to achieve something
remarkable here and are determined to make
it work,” he sums up. l
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