UrbanistAI in Action: Participatory Workshops to Design Helsinki’s Summer Streets

In the summer of 2023, the City of Helsinki is taking a decisive step to transform three of its central streets. The aim is to reduce car traffic and reimagine these areas with the introduction of street furniture and plantings. This initiative, known as the Summer Streets project, is intended to improve the ambiance of the urban environment.

The Citizen Committee envisioning how the Summer Streets could be like.

In order to ensure the successful redesign of these streets, the city understood the importance of incorporating the insights of those who would be most affected: its citizens and local business owners. They were keen to understand what kind of elements and functionality these stakeholders wanted to see integrated into the Summer Streets project. To facilitate this, Helsinki’s city planners leveraged UrbanistAI’s capabilities to guide the design process during two community engagement events held in January 2023. The events were specifically targeted at two key groups: one consisted of a diverse Citizen Committee of 15 members, while the other comprised a collection of business owners from the affected areas.

One group came up with a design that promotes outdoor dining.

During these two-hour interactive workshops, attendees were split into small, moderator-led groups of 4–5 people. Their task was to generate a variety of alternative visions for a number of predefined sections of the Summer Streets.

One of the groups wanted to expand the sidewalks and narrow down the space for cars — still emphasizing that the street is open to all modes of transportation.

After this co-creation stage, the participants voted on the proposed visions, culminating in a shortlist of the most favored future scenarios. The workshops wrapped up with a collaborative dialogue between the city planners and the participants. They jointly explored the potential and practicality of these visualized scenarios, and this shared understanding was invaluable for shaping the eventual design of the Summer Streets project.

This group envisioned that the core of the Summer Streets should be to replace the space for cars with beautiful flowers.

The Summer Streets opened in June and their character has been inspired by the outputs of the collective brainstorming by the Citizen Committee and business owners.

A glimpse of the Summer Streets, opened in June 2023. Photos: Damiano Cerrone

Photos: Damiano Cerrone

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