Designing for wellbeing

Mellunkylä was established 11 .
The city of Helsinki also welcomed our approach. Typically, regulations
and norms tend to restrict urban planning and suburban development.
The city takes responsibility for the democratic, sustainable, long-term and
cost-effective development of urban neighbourhoods. As such, the development
system does not allow much freedom for wild ideas. Our project’s
use of, for example, long-term trend forecasting, introduced ideas that
combined the experiences and wishes of residents, workers and activists,
it tried to revitalise local activities and places as resources, and it built on
the excellence of east-Helsinki suburbia. Our message was about valuing
the people and locality and applying design methods in a friendly and
natural manner. For example, we examined the suburban seasons. The
students showed that taking advantage of the changing Nordic weather
and lighting conditions could recreate suburbs that would respond to
people’s changing needs and overall wellbeing.
Discussion
The design studio in the field was an exercise in collective imagination.
Moving to the temporary studio gave us an understanding of the suburb
and people’s systems of meanings, and it made us rethink its future. Our
conceptions as well as our designer and academic realities also became
a bit more familiar to the Mellunkylä and Kontula residents. Everybody
11 Partnership actualises in the collaborative project of Aalto University and 7 organisations
(in Finnish: Lähiö 2072 – Matka kaupunginosan radikaaliin kehittämiseen). The core
idea is to rethink the building renovation service and build an areal development model
around it. The initial focus of the project is to create an alliance of locals, the public sector
and housing and construction businesses that can debate and affect the perceived problems
in the suburbs. The idea of a suburban neighbourhood should once more be seen in
a positive light. The areas could become seen as city districts with unique identities, and
the ensuing renovations are seen as a major opportunity to discuss and work toward these
goals. See Heikkinen, T, Soini, K., Dhima, S. (2012). Outlining a participatory approach for
using building renovation momentum for wider effects. Proc. PDC ’12, Vol. 2, 113–116. New
York: ACM.
96 · Design studio in the field