Helsinki: Mediating public participation with virtual reality
Near the growing urban hub of Pasila by the Western end of busy Teollisuuskatu street lies Bruno Granholm square. It is a central part of a brownfield area of ‘Pasilan konepaja’ (translated as Pasila machine shop), nestled between old red-brick railway warehouses and newly built apartment buildings and offices, many of which are still under construction.
Currently mainly occupied by parked cars and a few trees, the evolution of the square has awaited its surrounding urban development and the adjacent planning processes to be completed. Now, there is a new buzz surrounding this ever-transforming location in the heart of growing Helsinki. Fittingly, the future of the square will be brought to public discussion onsite by means of virtual reality (VR) in a three-day Teollisuuskatu pop-up during 25–27th of November.
Square with rich historical layers inspiring future visions
Pasilan konepaja has undergone many phases during its existence. Since the original industrial functions were discontinued in the 1990s, the area has hosted cultural uses, such as a popular flea market and an urban event space. Bit by bit, a new Konepaja residential neighbourhood has grown in the midst and around the old railway yard, but the area still largely lacks more permanent functions. Street plan approved in 2016 envisions Bruno Granholm square becoming a place for events, but has also been criticised in public debate for leaving the space too vacant and lacking of green elements. The approved plan has not been implemented, as technical solutions, such as drainage, could not be fully designed while the plans for the surrounding buildings were still pending.
A local urban activist group prepared their own vision for the square as an alternative to the official plan, which was later proposed as one development idea in City of Helsinki participatory budgeting process in the autumn 2019, only narrowly missing the votes needed to being funded by the city. Another significant recent development in Pasilan konepaja has been the acquisition of the historical buildings in 2018 to begin developing a new creative district in Helsinki, The Train Factory.
In addition to the alternative ideas for the square, the official plans by the city of Helsinki are now again under development. A new kindergarten is set to be located in one of the neighboring new buildings in 2020 and its playground will be included in the street plan. The play yard is among the first in Finland to be implemented in a location designated as a ‘street area’. While reiterating the street plan, the city of Helsinki is currently also investigating the possibility of preserving some of the trees in the square.
VR brings temporal and unseen layers of urban space to public debate
The public hearing required by law for the new street plan was initiated in mid-August. Continuing the process, Augmented Urbans offers an opportunity for more extensive participation with an additional three-day pop-up action where local stakeholders can experience the new street plan in virtual reality. Compared to traditional architectural visualisations, a VR experience immerses the viewer into the planned space, and thus aims to offer a broader and more realistic view on how the plan will look and feel when implemented.
In the pop-up, VR will serve both as a facilitator of discussions and a platform for collecting comments on the plan. In addition to the new proposed street plan, the viewer can examine the approved, but not implemented plan and compare both to the current situation. The viewer can move freely on the square and view plans from various angles in different seasons. By adjusting the time of day and weather conditions, the viewer will be able to inspect how the light and shadows affect the urban space during the day.
The VR experience also points out the unseen aspects of green infrastructure: trees of the square can be viewed in two stages of their growth. The model will present information about the urban trees and the amount of CO2 and runoff water they absorb based on an assessment conducted with i-Tree tool.
After experiencing the plan in virtual reality, the viewer will be able to point out their observations by taking snapshots in virtual space and complementing them with written comments. The pop-up will also provide an opportunity for face-to-face discussions between residents, other local stakeholders and urban planners. Comments collected from the pop-up will be analysed by the City of Helsinki later this year as input for the new street plan. The street plan itself is expected to be finalised by May 2020, and implemented in two stages by the year 2022.
Next steps for Teollisuuskatu outline plan
The pop-up will not only facilitate the participation for the integrated planning of Bruno Granholm square, but also presents a wider scope of development in Teollisuuskatu area and the outline plan currently under preparation. The analysis of previously gathered public insights — including experiences of pleasant and unpleasant places, and missing connections and pathways in the area — will be displayed as a background for further discussion.
To support the integrated planning of the area, three thematic round table discussions will also be organised. First of them explores the potential of utilising novel technologies in urban planning, focusing especially on green infrastructure, the second presents and discusses various alternative perspectives to the urban development of the Teollisuuskatu area, and the third facilitates exchange of experiences between Helsinki and Riga regions. Furthermore, the 360 videos filmed on selected hot spots along Teollisuuskatu in July and October are used to facilitate the pop-up interactions.
During the pop-up, the Augmented Urbans Helsinki team will observe and study the usefulness of the utilised XR tools in supporting the public participation. The findings and insights will be shared in this blog later on. The inputs collected from pop-up participants will, in turn, serve the further preparation of the outline plan for Teollisuuskatu, which, as a whole, is to be brought to public participation in the spring of 2020.
We warmly welcome everyone to the Teollisuuskatu pop-up 2.0 on Nov 25–27!
The pop-up event is organised by Augmented Urbans as a cooperation between the Helsinki partners: the City of Helsinki and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.
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text: Päivi Keränen and Jalmari Sarla, Metropolia UAS
