The Future Concepts of Urban Housing - URBA

A three-year international research project of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Helsinki University of Technology.

- How can urban living be made more attractive in a way that does not lead to excessive urban sprawl?

- Which resident groups are important for the urbanisation and development of the Helsinki metropolitan area?

- What kind of new urban housing concepts can be developed on the basis of international examples and applied to new construction?

- How are new housing concepts received in the key resident groups of the Helsinki metropolitan area and how do they relate to Finnish urbanisation?

- How can the new concepts be utilised in diversifying housing and promoting sustainable development?

These are the questions looked into during the three-year research project of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies YTK from 2007 to 2010, which is also part of the living -related Centre of Expertise programme and well as of the ‘Innovative City’ development programme. The project involves diverse international cooperation both with American and European universities, and its interdisciplinary group of researchers includes researchers from YTK, the National Consumer Research Centre and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The project is mainly sponsored by TEKES, (the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation), but also by the cities of the Helsinki metropolitan area, the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council YTV and several companies. The project is directed by professor Hilkka Lehtonen, the Head of YTK Panu Lehtovuori, and Research Manager Päivi Timonen from the National Consumer Research Centre.

A big challenge facing the Helsinki metropolitan area today is making the housing supply and demand meet while ensuring that housing maintains its competitiveness as the city structure urbanises at an increasing rate and housing needs become more diversified. At the same time, there is also a need for renewing the housing stock. The research project Future Concepts of Urban Housing; the Diversification and Attractiveness of the Housing Stock in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (Finnish title: Urbaanin asumisen tulevaisuuden konseptit: Asumistarjonnan erilaistaminen ja attraktiivisuus pääkaupunkiseudulla) is the first project that aims to look into the future urban housing concepts in the light of international examples with emphasis on the attractiveness of cities and on the key resident groups.
The main goals of the URBA research project are to recognise and evaluate interesting international concepts of urban housing and develop applications of them for use in the Helsinki metropolitan area. In addition, the project aims to disseminate information about user experiences of the development of international housing concepts, of their developers and of the role of consumers in the process. What is more, the project aims to establish a set of criteria for evaluating the attractiveness of a given living environment and create a tool for analysing it. The tool will be tested in the Helsinki region, but the ultimate goal is to implement the new concepts in cooperation with the research partners.

The most important goal of the research project is to introduce the new and evaluated urban concepts to municipal authorities and companies and inform them of the related experiences. The project adds to and intensifies connections between the Finnish and international research in the field of housing and thus furthers future cooperation. Its results will be presented in the form of a concise publication and as an illustrated concept database with web-based maps.

Contact information:
Leading research scientist, professor Hilkka Lehtonen, mobile +358 40 756 1299, email: hhlehtonen@kolumus.fi
Director Raine Mäntysalo, tel. +358 9 451 4089, email: raine.mantysalo@tkk.fi
Dr. Sari Puustinen, mobile +358 50 522 4182, email: sari.puustinen@dnainternet.net
Research staff:
D.Soc.Sc. Pasi Mäenpää; D.Soc.Sc. Terttu Nupponen; D.Sc.Tech. Sari Puustinen; Lic.Soc.Sc. Mervi Ilmonen; M.Sc.Arch. Karin Krokfors, M.Soc.Sc. Inari Aaltojärvi, M.Soc.Sc. Tuomas Ilmavirta, M.Arch M.Sc.Tech Markku Norvasuo, M.A. Mikko Rask, M.A. Jenni Väliniemi, M.Arch Mikko Mälkki, M.A.,PhD Candidate Jonna Kangasoja.
The duration of the project: 2007–2010.
Financial sponsorship: Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation), domestic partners.

Finnish Partners:
Asuntosäätiö, The City of Espoo; The City of Helsinki; The City of Vantaa; Kone Corporation; NCC; The Building Information Foundation RTS; The Ministry of the Environment.

International partners:
OTB, Technische Universiteit Delft; ETH Zürich, Departement Architektur; UCL Barlett School of Planning; The State University of New York, Dept. School of Architecture and Planning, Department for Sociology; Lancaster University; SBi, Aalborg Universitet; Center for Strategisk Byforskning.

Links:
Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (YTK)
Helsinki University of Technology
National Consumer Research Centre
Technical Research Centre of Finland
Centre of Expertise Programme
City of Espoo
City of Helsinki
Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation
Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council
Innovative City Program
Kone Corporation
Ministry of the Environment
NCC
The Building Information Foundation RTS
Asuntosäätiö (in Finnish only)
VVO (in Finnish only)
ETH Zürich, Departement Architektur
Lancaster University
OTB, TU Delft
SBi, Aalborg Universitet
UCL Barlett School of Planning
University at Buffalo, the State University of New York
Center for Strategisk Byforskning

in Finnish