Re-imagining Lahti: How UrbanistAI is Shaping the Future of City Center Planning
The city of Lahti is committed to transforming its city center into a vibrant, attractive, and cozy destination for residents, business owners, and visitors alike. To achieve this vision, the city has launched the “City Center Vision 2040” project, aimed at developing a comprehensive and bold plan for the city center’s future. UrbanistAI, the innovative technology that transforms urban planning ideas directly into visual representations, also had a role to play in the process.
Lahti’s strategy involves engaging the community in a participatory manner to gather ideas and feedback for the vision. This inclusive approach has utilized various methods, including resident workshops, meetings with city center business and property owners, online surveys, youth center interactions, school engagements, and the advanced capabilities of UrbanistAI.
A highlight of the vision’s ideation phase was the “Future Festival” (Tulevaisuusfestarit) event, held in November 2023 at Lahti City Hall. Co-organized by the city of Lahti and Nordic Works, this event served as a platform to showcase and refine the ideas gathered, with UrbanistAI playing a crucial role in bringing the residents’ ideas to life. Participants were invited to help crystallize these ideas into actionable goals for the city center vision plan.
Designed as an open house, the Future Festival allowed citizens to freely explore various stations, each dedicated to a different aspect of the city center’s development. The UrbanistAI station stood out for its unique interactive experience.
At the station, participants first engaged with key themes, such as creating a new city center landmark and developing green and blue spaces. Next, they told their ideas to an expert, who then used the UrbanistAI tool to transform images of chosen sites according to these ideas. This process resulted in multiple visualizations of how their ideas might look, sparking discussion and allowing participants to choose their favorite concepts.
UrbanistAI’s ability to directly convert urban planning ideas into photos provided a tangible and engaging way for participants to see the potential transformation of their city.
Through UrbanistAI, the Future Festival successfully generated a diverse array of visual concepts, re-imagining the city center in various ways. These images not only added depth and nuance to the citizens’ aspirations but also introduced innovative ideas into the planning discussion.
The ideas and feedback collected during this phase will be instrumental in finalizing the City Center Vision 2040 in the coming spring.
