The Area Programme of Ala-Malmi

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Name	The area programme of Ala-Malmi
Place	Ala-Malmi, Helsinki
Country	Finland
Author(s)	Virpi Vertainen
Completion	3/2009
Client	The City of Helsinki, The Public Works Department, The Street and Park Division

Rationale: Why is this case interesting?

The Street and Park Division of The Public Works Department is responsible for the planning, construction and maintenance of public space in Helsinki. The Street and Park Division is also responsible for designing and constructing new streets and green areas to newly built areas. The Street and Park Unit of the Public Works Department is constantly developing and maintaining the network of streets and green areas to meet the needs of the Helsinki residents. The current state of structures, equipment and services is evaluated in the area programmes.

Concern is given also to the equal development of the city. Public participation is an important part of the planning process on strategic level, but also when planning renovation of an existing park or building a new one. Giving everyone an opportunity to participate ensures that the opinions of the authorities, residents and other stakeholders can all be considered when plans and programmes are drawn up.

Author's personal background

Title: Public space designer

Education: Bachelor of Horticulture, Study Program of Landscape Design

Student of the International Master of Landscape Architecture (IMLA) Program

Years of Professional Experience: 5-10

Current Employment: City of Helsinki, Public Works Department http://www.hkr.hel.fi

Process Biography Scheme

When preparing an area programme, the process starts with the inquiry for the residents of the planning area to find out their opinion of the public space. The process continues with the possibilities to participate to the local meetings, where the material and the draft of the area programme are presented to the audience and there is also time for discussion. The material is on website during the whole planning process and it is also possible to leave comments in there. The press is informed about the planning process and some announcements are published in local newspapers to ensure that the inhabitants and assosiations are able to get information about the planning process.

The Public Works Committee directs and supervises the activities of the Public Works Department. All the area programs are submitted for approval to the Committee.

Who initiated the project and why?

The project was initiated by The Planning Office of The Street and Park Division (The Public Works Department, The City of Helsinki).

The main aim of the area programme is to develop and maintain the network of the green areas and the streets to meet the needs of the Helsinki residents by being functional, complex and comfortable. There are around 9 500 inhabitants living on the planning area. The size of the whole planning area was around 4 square kilometers.

When was public participation most intensive?

The inquiry was send to a thousand household of the planning area on autumn 2007 and it was also possible to answer to the inquiry in Internet. Totally 171 answers were got to the inquiry. The answering percent was not very high, but the project group got a good knowledge about the opinions and the ideas of the inhabitantas.

Tens of inhabitants took part to the exhibitions and the public meetings of the project. When the draft of the area programme was ready and was presented to the audience, the participation was probably most intensive: the people were very interested in the conclusions and the proposals of the programme and they were very active to tell their opinion about the matters.

There also were hundreds of people visiting the website of the project. But the people were not that eager to leave comments on the web.

Which participation tools have been applied?

On which level of participation?

Co–knowing tools: newspaper announcements, notifications to the stakeholders, website, exhibitions.

Co–operating tools: inquiry, public meetings with planners, the presentation of the programme for the politics, interactive website (possibility to leave comments).

Which stakeholders have been involved?

The inhabitants of the area

Different kinds of organisations and assosiation (residents' association, parental associations, assosiations of nature conservation, birds, sports, eldery etc.)

The administrations of the Helsinki City (city planning, sports, social, environment, youth, traffic etc.)

Have there been any festivities in order to involve the public?

There were no special festivities organised, but the public meetings were planned to be nice with serving of coffee and such.

Who made the major decisions and when?

The decisions concerning the outcome of the area programme were based on the analysis of the site, the result of the inquiry, the report of the present condition of the public space and the comments of the stakeholders. The final decisions of the proposals were made in the meetings of the project group.

The area programme was approved in the Public Works Committee meeting in 2009.

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Image Gallery

Exhibition in Malmitalo
Exhibition in Malmitalo
Public meeting in Malmitalo
The project group
A comment from the web-page
The synthesis of the inquiry: Which green area is the best place for inhabitants to meet