Shared stations — an example of communal planning and social sustainability project in Helsinki, Finland
By Pauli Vennervirta
“Hello! I came to see if my drawing is displayed.”
“Hello to you, it is there, why don’t you take a look.”
A young man came to see if his drawing had been put on display in December 2014 when a communal artwork was displayed at Malmi railway station in Helsinki. This artwork was born as one of the results of Shared Stations — project in collaboration with Metropolia polytechnic, Environmental School of Finland Sykli, local youth council and Finnish Railways. Metropolia was responsible for the main project, which had the goal of enhancing cycling and light traffic in Helsinki area.
Railway stations are an important hub in local communities. Thousands of people move through Malmi station daily. People cycle and walk to reach the station. Large shopping centers are placed in the vicinity. Shared stations is an example of new trend in city planning. Planners ask the opinions and wishes of residents, businesses and users of common facilities and take them as shareholders in planning projects. In this project the goal was to develop and experiment with communal planning in a railway station. The goal was a process that could be duplicated in any railway station on Helsinki area. Art project was just a small part of the whole process.
Sykli discussed with local people, businesses and officials about the goals for this project. Every one of these wanted a more enjoyable, safer station. The popular opinion of the station was that it is unsafe, ugly and discouraging. Also, environmental and social sustainability was a large part of the planning.
Examples of railway stations around the world
In planning this project we took a look at several examples around the world. An overview of relevant research started the process and was part of the final project report. Most notable examples are Uelzen bahnhof in Germany and Manhattan high line park in New York. These two are good examples of how to make the railway station more enjoyable or transform it to something beautiful.
Art in public places has been used before in Helsinki railway stations to make the area more enjoyable. One example was Pasila railway station, where a local artist had made a large mural painting. The artist, Viva Granlund, has also made murals in the Malmi area in an underpass with the help of local youths.
It is remarkable how these paintings have been on the spot for years without much soiling or “tags” to ruin the artwork. It has been seen that young people value beauty, if they have been part of the process they have an experience of being taken seriously as citizens and residents. This alone influences their behavior and diminishes the possibility of soiling and vandalism.
Early part of the project was assembling a project group of local activists, art experts, environmental experts and officials. Sykli provided the environmental knowledge and pupils and their teachers from Metropolia polytechnic the design skills. Project group arranged meeting to discuss the goals and made early plans what the station could look like. These plans were made into sketches by design pupils.
Aspects of sustainability on a railway station
In a publication by Institute of transport studies (Monas, 2010) and other research papers the aspects of sustainability on a railway station were as follows:
• Waste management
• Energy consumption
• Safety
• Accessibility
• Aesthetics
• Reducing vandalism
• Connecting walking and cycling to public transport
• Reuse of station facilities and buldings
The project made an evaluation of all these aspects and gave proposals. Sykli made a new waste management plan, also energy saving measures were proposed. Most exiting was evaluating accessibility on the station. Project group made a walk on the station with two people from Kynnys (Threshold) society with wheelchairs. Kynnys is an action group for people with disabilities. The walk gave valuable insights in to problems encountered by people with mobility problems on the station grounds.
(Designing a public train station shelter to minimize anti-social behaviour and crime in Melbourne’s metropolitan rail environment. Institute of Transport Studies 2010)
Safety could be enhanced on a station by making it more open, reducing places where someone could hide, by better lighting and controlling movement on the station. Better waste management reduces soiling and possibility of slipping.
Art as a communal project
The research and planning part of the project was successful, the group made a model of communal planning that could be used broadly. Still we missed something concrete, a small reminder what can be done.
Very early Malmi youth house informed of their enthusiasm wanted to be part of the project. They organized workshops where local youth could make drawings to be used as drafts for artwork that could be placed on the station. The workshops were organized as part of hip-hop — shows at the youth house. These workshops were very successful.
Design students from Metropolia used these sketches as a base for picture boards that were printed on a weatherproof base. These were then placed to Malmi railway station. These were then unveiled on the station with the youth house dance group performing. The whole show took the passers by with surprise like a flash mob. The hilarious reactions should have been filmed.
Problems and successes
Working with some the officials proved to be the most difficult part of the project. Also making major changes on the station was out of the question. Sometimes it proved to be very difficult to find out who was responsible of certain part of the station.
Still we made progress. Since the main goals were not on the physical changes but rather on the process the final goals were reached.
We found out how to engage people. We made plans how to make the stations enjoyable, safer and more accessible. What really made it worthwhile were the smiles of the young people seeing that their artwork was placed on the station.
