Kangasoja Schulman 2007

Arabia

area naturalistica

brave storia del progetto, tipologie abitative,

arte e cablaggio

HITAS?!!?

cablaggio pari ad ogni altra infrastruttura

recuperare costi di un KM di fogna, elettrico, idrico, fibra e wifi

Helsinki was founded at the mouth of the River Tantaanjoki in 1550. Today, over 450 years later, the city district of Arabianranta, one of Helsinki's major area development projects alongside Herttoniemenranta, Vuosaari, Viikki, Lansisatama and Sornainen-Hermanninranta, is taking shape at almost the very same spot. The point of departure for the new development is respect for the history of the city and the culture that has evolved in the locality. Planning of Arabianranta started in the early 1990s; construction commenced in 1996 and is expected to be completed by the year 2012. The completion of the whole project is thus in sight. The detailed town plans are complete, the plans for the necessary infrastructure and soil cleaning measures have been drawn up and their costs are known. The area facility service company is already operating efficiently. The planning and construction of Arabianranta will take a total of twenty years, about the same amount of time as earlier area development projects of similar magnitude executed in Helsinki.

The City Board's planning committee decided on 12 December 1988 to establish the Hermanni-Toukoia Area Development Project, later renamed the Arabia-Hermanni Area Development Project. It was allocated the task of housing production; building a waterfront park and creating a new, attractive front for East Helsinki as a whole.

The town planning of Arabianranta started early in the 1990s; the preparatory work for construction was also started at that time with the planning of the public service infrastructure and earthworks.

At the City Planning Office, the project town planners have from the beginning been architects Mikael Sundman and Pekka Pakkala, and the planning of technical services has been managed: by Eija Kivilaakso and her office. At the City Real Estate Department issues relating to planning and plot allocation have been handled by [...].

In the mid-1990s, ambitious goals were set for Arabianranta. The press also contributed to the discussion, introducing the concept of Arabianranta as a wonderland. Undoubtedly this was connected with the statement of intent on the establishment of a centre for art and design. The article in question commended the ambitious goals and argued that. without them. there would be no possibility of even approaching the desired result.

Helsinki è stata fondata alla foce del fiume Tantaanjoki nel 1550. Oggi, oltre 450 anni più tardi, il distretto urbano di Arabianranta, a Helsinki, è uno dei principali settori di progetti di sviluppo a fianco Herttoniemenranta, Vuosaari, Viikki, Lansisatama e Sornainen-Hermanninranta, sta prendendo forma a quasi lo stesso luogo. Il punto di partenza per un nuovo sviluppo è il rispetto per la storia della città e della cultura che si è evoluta nella località. La pianificazione di Arabianranta è iniziata nei primi anni '90; la costruzione è iniziata nel 1996 e dovrebbe essere completata entro l'anno 2012. Il completamento del progetto nel suo insieme è così in vista. Le modalità di città piani sono completi, i piani per le infrastrutture necessarie e misure di bonifica del suolo sono stati elaborati e dei loro costi sono noti. La zona degli impianti di servizio è già operativo in modo efficiente. La pianificazione e la costruzione di Arabianranta avrà un totale di venti anni, circa la stessa quantità di tempo in precedenza come zona di sviluppo di progetti di grandezza simile eseguito a Helsinki.

La commissione di pianificazione del consiglio comunale ha deciso il 12 dicembre 1988 per fondare il Hermanni-Toukoia Area per lo sviluppo del progetto, successivamente ribattezzato Arabia-Hermanni Area progetto di sviluppo. È stato assegnato il compito di costruire alloggi; un parco lungomare e la creazione di una nuova, attraente fronte per l'area est di Helsinki nel suo complesso.

La pianificazione urbana di Arabianranta è iniziata presto, negli anni '90, i lavori preparatori per la costruzione sono stati avviati nello stesso periodo con la pianificazione delle infrastrutture di servizio pubblico e le opere di scavo.

All'Ufficio Urbanistica, il progetto urbanistico sin dall'inizio è stato delineato dagli architetti Mikael Sundman e Pekka Pakkala, e la pianificazione dei servizi tecnici è stata gestita: da Eija Kivilaakso e il suo ufficio. Al Dipartimento City Real Estate questioni relative alla pianificazione e assegnazione dei lotti siano state gestite da [...].

A metà degli anni 1990, ambiziosi obiettivi sono stati fissati per Arabianranta. La stampa ha inoltre contribuito alla discussione, che introduce il concetto di Arabianranta come un paese delle meraviglie. Senza dubbio questo è stato collegato con la dichiarazione di intenti riguardante l'istituzione di un centro per l'arte e il design. L'articolo in questione elogiato gli obiettivi ambiziosi e ha affermato che, senza di loro, non vi sarebbe alcuna possibilità di avvicinarsi anche il risultato desiderato.

storia e stato di avanzamento dei lavori

idea ed obiettivi del progetto

la stampa

storia del progetto

attori coinvolti

ADC

The project is centrally coordinated by the Development Unit of the City of Helsinki Economic and Planning Centre. This task involves communication and joint negotiation, with all the players participating in the project. The project manager and project engineer manage these liaisons primarily with the city's own administrative units.

The central city organisations participating in the planning and implementation of Arabianranta comprise a project whose primary stakeholders include the present and future residents of the area. Other important stakeholder groups include the property developers, designers and contractors of the area, Arabian Palvelu Oy, ADC, state organisations, private enterprises and the media in all its forms.

In addition, a management group in the city organisation acts as an important player in the project. The group is chaired by Pekka Korpinen, Mayor for Real Estate [...]

A decisive factor has also been the effective involvement of the entire city organisation and administration in the project activities, especially in critical situations.

ulteriori attori e stakeholders

cittadini stakeholders

sterro e gestione del suolo

bonifica

Already at the planning stage the area development project provided information on additional studies regarding the cleaning of contaminated soil in the context of residents' events, which were held regularly before final ratification of the plan. The residents were told how the cleaning operation supervised by the responsible authorities would be implemented. The project also participated in informative events organised by the building owners for the new residents.
The first residents moved to Arabianranta in summer 2001. Up to 2006 an integrating factor has been the Toukola-Vanhakaupunki residents association, which already existed in the area. The significance of the Arabianranta service company in resident cooperation has increased over time, as the issues that come up often relate to car parking, communal yards and the use of the data network. In this respect, it is excellent that the service company has resolved residents' problems in a spirit of amicable cooperation. The role of the data network operator should not be underestimated either.
The local area network and moderators appointed for each housing company have enabled, a fast and completely new type of information distribution. A good example of the speed of communication is the day-care issue that arose early in the year 2006 and to which the mothers of day-care age children quickly responded. They initiated meetings where the stakeholders and representatives of the city together decided on a way to provide Arabianranta with its day-care centre without delay.

How do you get a project with dozens of participants to work? At the heart of the question lies communication. One well-tested solution is an efficient practice of joint meetings between various administrative departments, with personal interaction and connectivity. The basic principle is to hold foundation meetings in the City Planning and Public Works Departments and the Development Division, with the aim of controlling the enormous flood of information connected with the planning outlining and implementation of building. The task is demanding and continuous streamlining is needed. The stakeholder groups must also be informed as they have their own substakeholder groups. It is essential to comprehend the nature of the network created by all these aspects.
In addition to the foundation meetings mentioned above, participants also convene to resolve specific issues. When the duration ofthe project spans twenty years, there are bound to be changes in circumstances; there will be economic up-swings and down-swings, financial problems, demands to cut spending, etc. Thus the nature of the project is never static or smootly flowing. It was after all established for large area entities in terms of area, since the construction period is long and one of the project's major functions is to resolve any problems encountered. Changes and new challenges are thus a normal part of the project. All in all, a smoothly functioning joint meeting practice, networking, rapid access to specialised information and good interpersonal relations are the crucial factors for efficient project implementation.

i primi meeting

amichevole cooperazione

day-care

Arabianranta is the product of a refining process combining a long-standing planning ideology, implementation methods and architectonic goals. A certain type of analysis of urban structure, landscape, history and a striving for social cohesion comprise the "genes" of Arabianranta.

The city had decided to build a centralised sewage treatment plant at Viikki. Somewhere around 1988, the Master Planning Division made initial calculations of how much new floor area could be fitted into the plot of the Kyliisaari treatment plant, soon to be vacated. The idea was to compensate for the cost of the new treatment plant by providing new building rights and this has since happened with almost all the vacated sites.
In our opinion, the developing of the Kylasaari area would have been a poor solution from the perspective of urban structure. The Kumpula valley was an important green link and we thought that it should not be congested by overdevelopment. It also forms a transition zone between the inner city and the suburban-type areas.
We began to study the possibility of a new development about a kilometre further north, and gradually the idea of Arabianranta took shape. However, building would have contravened a recent plan for recreational areas.
At that time, there were conflicting views on the handling of the area and especially the waterfront. Some wanted a waterside boulevard, a Nice of sorts in Arabianranta. We had a different view. [...] The area is a lush and sheltered inner coastal zone. The water is shallow and waves do not swell even in strong winds; it is a quiet and peaceful bay. [...] We wanted to offer this scenic picture to as many inhabitants of Helsinki as possible.
Because of the picturesque landscape we opted for a semi-open urban structure. Our goal was that I the area should be a high-density built up area while retaining its perceptible link with the I landscape. The Baroque architect Francesco Borromini is an excellent tutor. His church facades embody the principle of "three and one common feature", In the same way at Arabianranta, the landscape, the park and the city blocks form the three elements of the composition. The other two have the park in common; it is part of the landscape yet also integrally linked with the blocks.

inizi della pianifcazione

idee progettuali

la scelta del sito

dibattito pianificatorio e progettuale

Our intent was to make it visible all the way from Hameentie that the streets terminate in an open parkland space and a sea view. On another note, there was also to be something exciting about this urban space. The streets are not only linear, ending with a particular theme, but they have been made to curve, giving a promise of continuation. Our aim was to have the streets as narrow as possible and the courtyards spacious, both arms embracing the landscape. At a very early stage we made the decision to raise the yards by the height of one storey. This was paradoxical, as in those days, accessibility was the buzzword in community planning. We aimed instead at a maximum level difference in order to give some character to the area which was basically flat. We thought of the people on the sunny courtyard side. They are six-to-seven metres above the water level and the waterfront park. The slope is perceptible and the yards have views onto the landscape. The third way to use the unique landscape space was the provision of roof-level saunas and hobby rooms on every plot. This we have adhered to, even though the building contractees strongly criticised it from the very beginning.

We have been interested in Jugendstil, mostly the 1910s in the Nordic Countries, the idea of a garden city and representative examples in Stockholm, Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg and Amsterdam, all the way to Functionalism.

il progetto urbano

ispirazioni stilistiche

The width of the yard is a formula determined by the buildings that surround it.

The toughest experience in the planning of Arabianranta has been the activism of residents. As I have been at the other side of the table, too decided to take the issue up right away. We had 1:1 models made of the scheme. We built mock-up building corners on the site in 1993 in order to give an idea of how the buildings would relate to the landscape. We then walked through the site with the residents, but to no avail. Their attitudes were set. For us planners this process was useful, though.

Brickwork was inspired by the experiences of Katajanokka and Lansi-Pasila.

Brick used as a material also has associations with the areas industrial history.

partecipazione durante il progetto da parte degli abianti

materiali costruttivi

il silenzio finnico

il traffico veicolare

In our opinion the Arabia area had such a strong imprint of an industrial community that hard work was required in order to make it an attractive new housing area along Helsinki's science-art axis.

In order to carry on the Helsinki tradition of socially mixed areas, the task was now to control the overt rise in status. The shores of Helsinki are not private property but part of the city that belongs to everyone.

It became even more important to mix the social structure of the residents, and the fledgling idea of common yards was reinforced.

Our intent was to avoid the risk that housing companies would try to privatise the common courtyard space, from which opens up a connection to the landscape, which is so important to all. This affected the plan so that the courtyards became, for the first time, independent plots. These plots are not transferred to the housing companies but remain the property of the local real estate service company.

The decisive point here is that the city owns the land. The designer and the building owner/developer have to cooperate in order to acquire a plot. An essential factor is that with the exception of one, all the plots have been developed through a competitive process. Competitive bidding for plot assignments has formed the backbone of all the building development, and the development of every block has been implemented as a result of a plan amendment.

cancellare l'idea di area industriale

le corti come spazio pubblico non cedibile

social mix

aumento di status

sistema di assegnazione dei lotti

la città ha regolato la gara e i requisiti

The competition institution has been developed in a positive manner in the Arabianranta project. When the owner/developer is a non-profit organisation it can reserve a plot, organise a design competition and choose the contractor by competitive bidding. For the urban villas, competitions were organised for plot assignment by a process where the city sets the average selling , price of the flats, for example, applying the Hitas system, used locally to control housing prices. Everyone is on the same starting line as to price, and quality is the only deciding factor in choosing the winner.

For reasons unconnected with the City Planning Office, Arabianranta was marketed as an IT area. A wireless connection to every home, an interactive area, a Virtual Village; the intent was to create an image of a technologically extremely advanced city district. However, we were not too keen on that. We thought that Arabianranta's position in the urban structure referred more to art, science and industrial design. The IT profile was more suited to Ruoholahti, Tapiola and Otaniemi.
By pure chance the art project became an integral part of the construction work. One to two per cent of building costs are to be reserved for artistic cooperation. This has impacted on the areas image much more than was originally imagined. In the mind of the general public, the Arabia district is certainly much more of an art suburb than an IT suburb.
An artistic coordinator who has the city's consultative mandate can influence every detail of the building and create the conditions for ensuring that the role of the artist is emphasised early on in the design process. Arabianranta is the scene of experiments in everyday, extrinsic art as well as in in-depth structural integration of art into the areas fabric. In one way or another, art is always present.
Art as part of building also creates problems. New and unconventional art is interesting, but I am not at all sure - unless it is of exceptionally high quality - that it will remain the kind of positive phenomenon that it was at the time when it was conceived. However, at best, art generates city living in a way that differs from the rest of the built environment. A house is a house, my home, what is so special about it? A work of art has a different character; and it may manifest itself in a new form and appeal in a different way, depending on the state of mind of the person experiencing it. The goal of the artist is to arouse feelings in people architect wants to create an environment not generate feelings.

gara d'appalto

sistema del controllo dei prezzi

ITC story

arte

opinione di Sundman su arte e ITC

A socially varied environment has been accepted as a primary condition. Perhaps the art project has played a part, so that people pay more attention to the art aspect and less to the status perspective. As if the status would somehow be inferior if ordinary Helsinki people could live there in rented flats!
The wide social mix of Arabianranta has been a surprise. Here we have senior citizen housing, the Finnish MS Society, student housing in two locations and two more units still to come. The Swedish language aspect, the promising loft project , and attracting the seriously rich to the houses designed by Gerd Wingardh...

When the Arabianranta solution has been discussed with foreigners many have been surprised.

social mix

In form, Arabianranta is not part of the highdensity inner city, but there are small signs of new suburban urbanity. Once the repair yard of the Public Works Department is relocated sometime in the future, the whole of Hameentie will be revitalised. Hameentie is a main street and will remain as such. The northwestern side of the street, will retain its suburban character, but at one point, by Arabia Square, there is a place for a civic or commercial building. In addition, ground-floor premises will become more open. The question of services and the role of the ground floor has been a tough nut to crack in Arabianranta. We know that a traditional, vibrant streetscape cannot be born without the varied use of ground-level spaces, shops and cafes. We also know from experience that there is a conflict between dwelling and restaurants, cafes or grocery stores.

It still continues. In my opinion differences are the lifeblood of a city. Without individual differences there is no genuine city. A city is the driving force of progress and in a very significant way progress is generated by difference. This applies to the university, street life and housing areas. If Helsinki loses the chance that difference offers for something totally new, then it will lose its competitive edge. Encounters and small conflicts are the building blocks of life, not concensus and homogeneity.

le differenze generano città

il conflitto è linfa vitale

At the Arabiavillat site, there has been a community art project in progress throughout the construction of the site; the project is run by artist Tiina Kuhanen and architect-artist Johanna Hyrkas and the residents have been able to participate in creating the art works from scratch. As construction began, the artists set up an art room in a building-site barracks, arranging discussions and other events for the residents, planners and builders. The residents have taken part in a variety of activities, including making ceramic dishes for their front doors, designing "art walls" by the entrances and being interviewed for a soundscape in the building's lifts. The varied suggestions of the artists really reached out to the residents and maintained so much interest in the project that the residents became acquainted with each other at a stage when their new homes were just being built, creating an active residential community before anyone had even moved in.

Several works of art tell about the work done at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. They convey a youthful exuberance and, in their own way, they open a perspective on the future. The rhythm and events of the school generate important contacts for the art projects. New and alternative ideas can turn into reality through the art projects in the area.

la partecipazione dei cittadini nella costruzione artistica e del proprio ambiente abitativo

l'università, istituzione presente sul territorio ha contribuito ai progetti artistici

date dell'approvazione del progetto

descrizione dell'impianto urbanistico

tipi di appartamento

In Arabianranta, housing ownership systems include social housing, rented housing, right of occupancy housing, privately owned housing controlled by the HITAS system, and market-driven production of rental or private ownership housing.
The plots to be sold are always assigned by competitive bidding, but otherwise the conditions of assignment differ. In most cases of competitive bidding for sale, a procedure has been applied whereby the sale price and conditions for the plot are predetermined, the deciding factor being the quality of the design. The buyer of the plot ultimately decides the selling price of the apartments.
In HITAS production, the most common method of competition is one where the best HITAS price-controlled design wins. The privately owned plots in the area sub-entities can also be sold or let without a competitive process. In addition, plots have been assigned for rental housing development carried out by non-profit organisations. The City Council of Helsinki decides on the assignment of plots.

Specific assignment conditions apply in Arabianranta among other things the assignee is obliged to become a shareholder in the local property service company and the local IT network, to participate in the design and construction of communal club facilities and joint courtyard areas of individual city blocks and to ensure that 1-2% of the procurement value of the property development project in question is spent on artistic cooperation. In addition the assignment conditions include a clause that obliges the assignee to study the projects of the Future Home consortium and to learn how the assignee could make use of the consortiums development and research work.
Plot assignment often includes project specific development targets, which in Arabianranta are mostly related to technical, constructional and architectural solutions aimed at improving the quality of living and at developing open and resident-driven housing construction models. Below are brief descriptions of some development projects already implemented, which have emerged mostly as a result of plot hand overs granted in 2000-2006.

tipologie di proprietà

condizioni per l'assegnazioni dei lotti

richiesta di servizi agli impresari

One of Arabianrantas special features is that broadband connections come ready-installed in the apartments. All apartments have a 10/10 Mbps data connection without having to subscribe to it separately or pay a monthly charge, as this is included in the maintenance fees or rents. At Arabianranta data communications have become a part of the basic housing infrastructure along with water, electricity and waste management services.
The Arabianranta ICT model is based on a comprehensive joint organisation covering the entire residential area: the local service company Arabian Palvelu Oy buys the data transfer services from a telecommunications operator at a bulk rate: for the entire housing area. Arabianranta is the first : housing area in Finland where the local service company centrally also manages the ICT services in addition to other, more customary maintenance, which in Arabianranta includes the management of communal yards, the organisation of parking and communal clubrooms. The local service company organises a round of competitive bidding for operators every three years. At present we are in the second three-year period. which began in February 2006 with the current operator, Saunalahti.
The current ICT services model in Arabianranta was not a ready-made concept, but it emerged over a period of ten years. The biggest challenges have not been technology-related but rather have had to do with defining the tasks and roles of the different players. Initially, in the mid-1990s, a super-fast communications infrastructure was seen as a means to make Arabianranta a more attractive location for companies and to improve the competitiveness of businesses, but over the years the focus of the network has shifted to serving the local residents.

The global economic recession and the very difficult unemployment situation of the early 1990s Finland created the context for the re-development of the Arabianranta area. A delegation from the City of Helsinki visited European cities to study their cures, e.g. information network experiments. A visit was made to Stockholm, which had established a municipal company to wire the entire city in 1994. Another visit was also made to Sofia Antipolis, a business district between Nice and Cannes hosting hundreds of information and communications technology companies. A similar "recipe" for generating jobs with an information network attracting SMEs was to be tried out at Arabianranta, too.

connessione internet a banda larga compresa nel costi d'affitto o nelle spese di manutenzione comunale

la fornutura comunale di ICT

crisi economica, modello di sviluppo economico e urbano

For a long time the building of the communications network was ADC's primary project. Paavo Kykkanen, the first: managing director of ADC, considered the communications network to be of prime importance for ensuring the attractiveness of Arabianranta.

The Media Lab, established in 1993 in the University of Art and Design, kept the theme of digital media constantly in the foreground sketching images of what the digital future might look like. In 1994 the Media Lab hosted the International Symposia on Electronic Art (ISEA) where the significance of electronic art and: information technology was debated and demonstrated by 600 media artists.

Around the same time the business incubator Arabus was founded at Arabianranta for fledgling entrepreneurs in the fields of the design. media. culture and content production. In the late 1990s several successful new media companies, such as Cube and Decode, were born at Arabianranta.

From the point of view of the City of Helsinki, the Arabianranta communications network has been associated with multiple meanings and greeted with mixed feelings. While in the public eye it was strongly linked with the goals of generating small businesses and jobs in the area, there was a concern in the City Planning Department that the communications network project, or rather the marketing and promotion associated with it, contradicted the goals that had guided the planning of the area, especially social equality, in that the network would exacerbate the 'overstatus' of the area, a trend that the planners wanted to counter.
The planners of the area wanted to make sure that the network would benefit not only the targeted enterprises, but also the future residents.

il ruolo di ADC

Media Lab

Arabus

generare un distretto d'eccellenza

ICT elemento di marketing

non solo per le aziende ma anche per i residenti

Digital Community of Arabianranta

The Helsinki Virtual Village project later continued on a conventional business basis and the areas digital local portal http://www.helsinkivirtualvillage.fi was launched in 2002. In addition to pages open to all, it contains the intranets of the individual housing companies, which are web pages requiring the residents to log in with a username and password.

The current platform (Teamware) has been in use since 2002. The general structure and appearance of the portal was last updated in 2004. The platform is currently being changed to a new one that better meets the need of the area.

In March 2001, Wired magazine published a multi-page article on the "Arabianranta Wireless Wonderland" although in actual fact at the time there were no new residential buildings residents or digital services offered via the fibre optic network. When the IT bubble burst in 2002 the atmosphere calmed down, and the development of Arabianranta's services was continued with a more down-to-earth attitude.

Helsinki Wirtual Village

portali

Wired

It's superb! Makes working at home possible too. (Dad 1)

I used to use the net a lot, especially when I was on parent's leave. That was a period when the net was important to me. Nowadays after work I'm not so keen to sit at the computer any more. (Mum 1)

What I do with the network daily is mostly email and searching information on the net, because I work at home. It's a cheap, fast, no-worries broadband connection. Once in a while the email gets stuck, but otherwise I've been really happy with it. (Mum 2)

Satisfaction with the prices and quality of the data connections is unanimous. When asked about the local portal, the Helsinki Virtual Village website, the residents offer also some criticism:

I mostly read the news about local events from the Helsinki Virtual Village portal what's coming up at the Pop & Jazz Conservatory and so on. From time to time I also take an update on how the construction of the area is getting along. (Mum1)

To me, the significance of the Helsinki Virtual Village portal is not so great. Sometimes I go there to find out about local events, or take a look to see if there's some discussion going on on the housing company's intranet. The forum hasn't really taken off I guess, the content and the use are pretty minor for the time being. (Mum 2)

Before people move in, a voluntary "moderator" is appointed for each housing company, i.e. housing unit, whose job will be to maintain the web pages of the housing entity. These pages are private intranets in the Helsinki Virtual Village portal, intended for residents only and protected by passwords. The moderators also have an important communicatory role: they form a centralised information path to the residents and from them, for example, towards ADC, Arabian Palvelu Oy and the city officials.
There are significant differences in how active the discussions are in the internal chat pages of each housing unit. The monthly numbers of visits to the chat site vary from around a thousand visits to about two hundred visits. The level of activity of the housing unit has no direct correlation with the housing type (owner occupancy, rental etc.) instead it reflects the culture that has evolved within the particular unit. The level of activity of the net discussions also depends to great extent on how active the voluntary moderator is.

soddisfacente utilizzo di internet

critiche al portale

e-moderator

tipo di comunicazione, tipologia in relazione ai gruppi

Observed on the level of discussion headings, the subject matters and intensity of discussion ranged from individual buy/sell/donate ads to lively lebate. During the surveyed period 5.10.2005 - 5.10.2006, the most discussed subject matters where those relating to the everyday life of families with small children and communications relating to joint events. The liveliest individual discussions in one housing unit related to apartment temperatures, mobile phone network coverage and the schedules of the common sauna facility. One resident who was interviewed said that the web chat already begun before moving in and that joint purchases organised via the web have been significant, also financially:

I was excited to sign in and I really enjoyed it a lot from the very beginning. For nine months before moving in we had I already had a lot of discussion on the web chat pages. I thought it was an especially brilliant deal when the moderator came up with the idea of getting a bargain and buying Venetian blinds together. And then came the security locks, peepholes for the doors and the like. It actually paid off: we saved money by getting a joint deal on the blinds. This was honest, practical gain and I was happy about it.

The web chat played a special role in preparing the residents for the new living environment and I moving in:

Another significant thing I recall was the fact that as soon as the discussions started in the net I started to identify with the new place. It was while chatting on the net with people who were to be neighbours of mine, whom I really didn't know at all at the time, and still don't to a great extent, that I started , to feel that I belong, to the house, and also to the place as a, whole. I thought this was really positive. It made the process of moving there kind of smoother - made it into a more gradual process in a good way.

According to the resident interviewed, sharing the everyday worries that emerged after the move was usa made easier by the net:

Then the next good thing was that after we had moved in and found out that there were a number of things wrong with the building, the discussion was pretty lively on the net. It's hard to imagine how else people could have let it all out. I doubt that they would have gone to ring the doorbells of their neighbours and share the load on their minds. I also suspect that without the net discussions, there wouldn't have been so much contact with the constructor either. So this is another clear benefit that I can see.

argomenti discussi

3 testimonianze positive

The resident felt that expectations relating to information society skills were imposed from outside. The technological possibilities also have the potential to cause a feeling of inadequacy and anxiety if there is too wide a gap between the images created and one's own experience, skills or the devices at home.
During the first couple of years, there were clear differences between residents as regards the use of digital services. The differences were most likely related to the residents' IT skills, and hence most I likely correlated with age, but also with socioeconomic status - in a somewhat surprising manner. According to Kari Raina, in the beginning people in both ends of the socioecomic scale used the net much less than the great homogeneous majority in the middle. The differences have since diminished. The use of data communications has increased significantly in all housing units. Use is measured by data transfer volume which means the amount of data sent and received.
The change of local operator in February 2006 meant lower prices and better services for the residents. In one housing company the change of operators brought about an unfortunately long interruption in data transfer connections. The usage habits have become more varied along with data transfer volumes and also with new devices.

The estimate of the present campus operator Saunalahti on net activity of the Arabianranta residents is worth noting: the use of data transfer services is threefold compared to other housing areas in Finland with as many residents.

To my mind the digital network does help to build up a local spirit, even though it may not happen quite the way had imagined it would. I had somehow imagined that the network would be used for local democracy, for influencing local issues. For now, besides offering data-services, the network really is used for informing people.
We do chat with other residents, but the decision making on local planning, for instance, on yards, garden furniture and the like happens in a traditional top down fashion. And then we are all upset and go on about things like 'why the hell did they put those ugly benches in the yard' or 'why did they plant that tree with poisonous berries in my flower bed'. This type of development takes more than the digital network, and I don't know if the city administration is interested, and even if it was, would it have the resources to communicate on that level with residents in a single city district? But all in all, it's good to have the local network which seems to be developing all the time. (Mum I)

tecnologia imposta dall'alto

stato di ansietà

digital divided

incremento dell'utilizzo della rete

alcune critiche a un processo ancora top down

How do we interpret some residents' vague feeling that the communications network has not lived up to the promises, even though at the same time user statistics show that the residents of Arabianranta are the most active users of data communications services in Finland? Residents' disappointment and criticism seems to be targeted at an empty and alien image, a virtual vision, whereas they are very satisfied with the data connections and everyday services made possible by the local area network. The more familiar the possibilities and advantages of the communications network become, the less need there is to focus on the technology itself.

ADC has been the key player in the creation of the Arabianranta communications network. Without its input neither the local area network nor the local portal with its individual housing unit chat sites and moderators, would have come into being at the right time, i.e. when residents started to move into the area. Now that the basic data transfer infrastructure and services exist, they are taken for granted.

informationa and internet usage vs communication and paticipation

il ruolo di ADC

Helsinki Media Lab

il caso dell'asilo

Genera speaking, the local services in a were considered good, but the issue Df children's day-care centres, which has occasioned considerable debate both locally and in the press, was a glaring exception.

People were satisfied with the public transport. By this, they generally referred to the public transport connections to the city centre.

People felt that the area was peaceful, too quiet even.

Some people particularly noted the red brick facades prevalent in the area, saying that the area was similar to Katajanokka or that it integrated with the much older industrial milieu of the Arabia factories.

The population was felt to consist predominantly of families with children, generally affluent people and on the whole it was felt to be fairly homogeneous rather than representing an urban, diversity.

Only three per cent of the residents of Arabianranta are unemployed, which is a very low figure compared with the overall average for Helsinki, which is 10 per cent.

The only exception is the conflict surrounding the right of way through the common yards.

One of the interviewees said that the local people are "uniformly nice", even if the social differences are evident in the physical landscape specifically in the form of the separate apartment I blocks by the shore.

According to another interviewee, the advantages of a social mix are evident in that. thanks to the expensive apartments, investments are made in the area, but the rented housing ensures that the area does not become a closed neighbourhood.

youthful, middle-aged, relatively highly educated middle class that appreciates living in an environment that combines peacefulness and natural values with close proximity to the city centre and a certain urban energy.

One interviewee liked the definition "an extension of the city centre"

For another interviewee, the area was a "strange intermediate space"

A third interviewee suggested "outskirts ofthe city"

The problem of definition is made slightly easier by the fact that the name of the area, Arabianranta, is felt to carry the strong connotations and recognition factor of a brand, while also containing historical connotations despite the fact that is a new place name.

Rather than a closer community, the interviewees wanted more urban interaction, public places to spend time in and meet people. I have referred to this kind of urban social interaction based on people watching and passing the time as "street sociability". The suburban shortage of street life is linked with the fact that people felt that the area lacks a centre.

giudizio dei residenti riguardo servizi, trasporto pubblico, spazio pubblico, gli abitanti

toponomastica

The virtual village concept of Arabianranta was generally considered to have little significance. It is  considered to suffer from a lack of substantial content and potential usefulness, and the exaggerated "hype" that surrounds it is felt to highlight the shortcomings and may even have: created a "weird image of the area in the media" compared with the reality. To put it bluntly: "Sad to say, but it is totally worthless" Another complaint was that the discussion groups of the individual housing companies had generally petered out after the initial discussion on actual problems. On the other hand, people felt that information from the housing company managers was conveyed smoothly and people considered the websites for individual residential blocks to be a "good thing in principle".
Some felt that the portal for the areas websites  was difficult to use and people wanted journalistic material and more up-to-date information in the place of content created by the residents themselves. "Looks like a very poorly edited local paper", was one comment, when the preference would have been "it should be a source for everything you need to know about the area". In the interviewees opinion development of the online content should be the responsibility of Art and Design City Helsinki Oy, not of the residents themselves, and the information provision should maintain a more professional standard. On the other hand, the existence of the area network and the fast Internet connection was  considered to be a good thing. It saves money and  it is a kind of resource, even if most people do not necessarily expect any particular development potential or improvements in everyday life from it. Only one interviewee mentioned the possibility of subscription television, in other words saw the technological potential of the network. while the others pondered the development of content and interaction. Somebody else felt that the "flea market" section of small ads was useful. A third person said the opportunity for telework was important.
In terms of community spirit and interaction the area network seems to function poorly. One person felt that online discussion groups had helped in getting to know other people, while another said that they did not know their virtual contacts in real life. According to a third person, the discussion within individual housing companies is on the level of "who was that, banging the heating pipes last night?" The e-mail address arabianranta.com is mentioned as a source of pride, but that is probably more in the sense of the name of the area and the maritime and park-like image it conveys rather than the area network as a specific service.
There is great individual variation in the ways that the network is used and how useful it is felt to be. The network may also be important in ways that the residents take for granted and therefore fail to notice specifically, since the Internet has become part of everyday life. Residents were mobilised to back the day-care issue specifically on the net, after one mother brought it up there. In that context, it became clear that a service for online petitions could be a potential development measure for the area network. Another idea is a mailing list for families with children and a third idea is a citizen service point with services provided by the local authorities. The residents of Arabianranta do seem to find the area network useful and, in practice, there are more development ideas than one would assume given the general disappointment with the service that many residents project. Perhaps the residents themselves place such high expectations on their virtual village that they are hard to fulfil. The criticism may also be a sign of the interviewees' experience and insight as Internet users.

People viewed the presence of art & design activity favourably but found it difficult to articulate its significance for the area and particularly for themselves. It was known that students frequented the area during the day but few people had met them. The environs of the University of Art and Design and the residential neighbourhood were "two different worlds that will never meet".
However, people did feel that the University of Art and Design and related activities held some importance for the area as a whole. In some people's opinion it was similar to the virtual village hype in the sense that it helped create an image of the area through the eyes of outsiders, but had no real importance for the residents.

People also wished that there were more students and other people out and about in the public spaces to bring some urban street life to the area.

By art in public spaces, refer to works that are in public spaces where everyone can see them. Admittedly some of the works are in the common yards, which strictly speaking makes them semi-public, and some are in the stairwells, which would strictly speaking make them semi-private. The works of art are owned by the housing companies.

The natural environment and the local recreation areas were important to all interviewees, though in way they also took them for granted.

People particularly liked the shoreline park.

People described the image of Arabianranta as positive, largely as a result of the media attention. To live in the area was considered something of a source of pride and a showcase for people's lives. On the other hand, looking from the inside living there was no different from living anywhere else.

The Arabianranta virtual village is troubled by a problem that is very typical of information society projects: the expectations focusing on a revolutionising new form of community life and web content production by the residents themselves tended to overshadow a reality consisting oflow-intensity, everyday individual use, media consumerism and chance meetings.

giudizio dei residenti riguardo arte pubblica l'ambiente naturale

giudizio negativo sull'arte

living there was no different from living anywhere else

The greatest number of items about Arabianranta , in Helsingin Sanomat were published in the 'City' urban news section (386 items), the next largest group of articles was published in the Culture section (86 items). The paper had published a total of 31 letters to the editor concerning Arabianranta.

(17 February 1994) The chairperson of the residents' association in the Toukola-Vanhakaupunki district wrote in the letters section that local residents had not been heard in the matter, and that construction would reduce the waterfront area into a "narrow strip". Active members of the Eastern Shore Movement [Itärantaliike] and the Toukola-Vanhakaupunki residents' association who worked to change the city's plans were interviewed under the headline

Universities have traditionally been located in city centres. The University of Helsinki is still an important element in the surroundings of Senate Square in central Helsinki. Even in the early 1980s, the University of Art and Design Helsinki was located in the Ateneum art museum building near the Helsinki Railway Station.
The Arabianranta Campus began to evolve in 1987, when the University of Art and Design moved into the old production buildings of the Arabia factory. The next arrivals were the Pop & Jazz Conservatory in 1995, Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia in 1996, Helsingin AV-oppilaitos in 2003 and two Swedish-language educational institutions, Arcada Polytechnic and the Prakticum vocational institute, aIl of which settled in the southern part of Arabianranta in 2004-2005.

The city is a dynamic and changing environment. A city campus is a living organism with human experience at its core. A city campus whose motto is "Work, live and play" comprises work and study, housing and families and leisure time. City campuses are also open to all, and the knowledge and expertise that are concentrated there attract a diverse variety of people.

Companies have started to seek locations near university research laboratories, attracted by the expertise and experts. In Finland, the construction of science parks began in the 1990s in the biggest university towns; science parks built at this time include Innopoli (Otaniemi), Technopolis (Qulu) and Hermia (Tampere). These technology centres, as well as the research resources of the universities and the national input into research and development (particularly through TEKES), made real estate investors build premises near university campuses, where they succeeded in attracting not just major finnish companies but also international companies.

He was also the first to propose the idea . for the Tiedelinja ('Science line') bus line between: campuses that started in 2006.

localizzazione delle università

la formazione del campus

city campus whose motto is "Work, live and play"

Science line bus

By the beginning of the 21st century, culture and creativity have become key concepts of urban regeneration in post-industrial Europe. Ambitious mayors, urbanists and internationally minded urban marketing agencies have realised that landmark museums, art exhibitions and cultural events have become attractive features, when profiling their city and attracting tourists as well as the attention of the international media.

Creativity has become the new magic formula for the successful and competitive city. "Culture is now seen as the magic substitute for all lost factories and warehouses, and as a device that will create a new urban image, making the city more attractive to mobile capital and mobile professional workers".

The most valuable asset that European cities possess in post-industrial times is probably the cultural dimension of cities in all its manifold facets, when large manufacturing corporations have moved their operations to Asia. However, there is the danger that this mainstream interest in culture and creativity across Europe and beyond becomes a mere political rhetoric that legitimises investment in architectural city dreams, an excuse to deviate from emerging social problems in cities in times of globalisation, or to justify the promotion of all kinds of creative and not-so-creative industries.

Traditional top-down urban development does not work, nor does routine property development. Only with much institutional and individual creativity can such processes be managed. As a rule, the actors in the public and private sectors involved in such projects are confronted with a complex bundle of conflicting and contradicting interests, which require much communication and timeconsuming moderation.

cultural city

creativ city