Millennium City Planning, Finland Style

Jätkäsaari is the target of a new planned district of Helsinki. Originally several islands, it was reshaped and reattached to the headland by way of land reclamation. They are in the process of relocating the current harbor industry to the eastern side of the city to make room for the construction.

Jätkäsaari is not a suburb, but occupies 100 hectares (about .4 square miles) along the southwestern coast. The plan calls for a dense urban neighborhood with housing for 15,000 that combines “top technology, ecological considerations and the centuries-old traditions of city life”.

Let’s hear it for the pedestrians:

Jätkäsaari will run counter to today’s constant growth in the number of cars; this will be a district designed primarily for pedestrians, with excellent public transport. It will have up to three tram lines, and the Helsinki Metro already runs close to the northern edge of the area. Cycle paths are being planned with great care to serve those living and working in every part of the district. The area will have very few streets allowing vehicular access, and every residential street will be a cul-de-sac. Through traffic will thus be minimal.

All that is old is new again:

The principle of minimizing motorized traffic will also apply to waste management. A process has been designed in which sorted household waste will go straight into a pneumatic conveyance system leading to a central underground collection point. This means that residents will not need to avoid garbage collection trucks navigating the narrow streets.

Read more here.