"Urban regeneration can create possibilities for new homes, workplaces and freetime amenities in city centre while its historic and cultural identity can be kept ".
– Professor Antti Ahlava


A lively and attractive center is very important for the city of Helsinki. In Helsinki's new city strategy, there are several recorded goals that concern the development of the city core. In addition, the importance of art and culture in creating the experience of the city is emphasised especially in the center, where many events are organised. The City of Helsinki's goal is to improve the attractiveness of the city center, increase the number of inhabitants in the centre and the number of visitors and the enthusiasm in the center of Helsinki in cooperation with other city center operators. Restoring the vitality of Helsinki's core center requires quick and forward-looking actions that can prevent the city center from becoming stale and ensure the creation of new homes and jobs. It is very positive that the city of Helsinki is developing the attractiveness of the core center in close cooperation with us.

Several cities around the world have implemented successful projects to enliven their centres through new residential construction and workplaces. We will start by analysing these reference projects as well as the sites.


It would be good if the students approached the task in a multidisciplinary way, so that they would try to understand the factors of the attraction of inner cities in a comprehensive and versatile manner. The result of the course would be to generate ideas and theses that could be used in several different places. Densification projects and the promotion of residential construction can create new opportunities for living, working and leisure in the city center while its historical and cultural identity can still be preserved.


Sub-themes of Vitalisation:

- sustainable residential construction

- all possible forms of housing, incl. sos. housing production, rental and ownership housing, hotels, etc.

- new forms of housing (community, cluster apartments, partially shared living spaces)

- housing services

- expansion of buildings (adaptive reuse - raising, lengthening and thickening)

- processes based on cooperation to create additional apartments and workplaces

- incorrectly or underused parking areas - parking spaces off the ground

- the effects of lowering speed limits on development and create more space this way

- changes in uses, e.g. conversion of office and commercial buildings into apartments

- modern residential buildings inside old blocks

- development of public transport hubs and stops

- increasing nature and its diversity by increasing residential construction

- giving birth to new green loupes at the same time

- maritime nature as part of local recreation and nature areas

- increasing community squares and local services with new residential construction

- sense of community and comfort in the city

- improving the level of the surrounding environment (public space) at the same time

- construction now for the water area (filling, floating and establishing on the seabed)

- residential concentrations of people from creative and knowledge-intensive fields

- supporting the local art and cultural life at the same time

- the city's possible incentives for the development of the urban environment and residential construction


CAD files

Tytti Wiinikka’s presentation

Antti Ahlava's introductory lecture to the course

Antti Ahlava's lecture on Urban Regeneration

Antti Ahlava's lecture on Adaptive Reuse


Last modified: Tuesday, 24 September 2024, 2:59 PM