13 August 2024
NSDC Newsletter 2
For a printable pdf version click here: NSDC newsletter 2
Benchmarking fore-runners in communal living
A recent blog post presented three approaches to collaboration we have identified through our work in NSDC: city-led, company-led, and citizen-led. This newsletter will discuss the city-led approach in light of our experiences during a study tour to Jyväskylä.
City-led development of Jyväskylä’s Kangas district
The development of Kangas was led by the city which acquired a former paper factory and issued an open tender to select three companies for the development of the area (Skanska, YIT, and Jyväs-Park), through the joint development enterprise Kankaan Palvelu. While strongly guided by the city, open communication within and through Kankaan Palvelu has proven crucial to driving the construction of the area and ensuring the set aims are being reached.
The city-led model allows Jyväskylä to guide the development of the area with a strong vision for its result. However, guaranteeing this vision is seen through once completed is another matter. Funded by the contract parties, services like parking, maintenance of common areas, and waste disposal are handled centrally to foster a sense of communality and increase efficiency. During our discussion on the future of the area, Kaisa Hirvasokski-Leinonen, Jyväskylä’s project manager for Kangas, reflected on the challenges in identifying funding mechanisms to carry out larger repairs—noting that the challenge is not merely monetary but social as it requires finding consensus among the various housing companies. While the established service model ensures maintenance is covered by annual fees from each housing and property company, once construction is completed, these housing and property companies will take full control of the area. This transition of responsibility will be a delicate moment, thus NSDC will pay special attention to developing collaboration models that reach over such possible gaps in the superblock life cycle.
Image: Kaisa Hirvaskoski-Leinonen with NSDC partners in Kangas, Jyväskylä
Another challenge lies in fostering the sense of communal engagement necessary to realize the vision set out by the city. The yards and paths in Kangas are carefully designed to offer common activities for residents all year round. Providing spaces for communal activity is a good start, yet fostering communality has proven more challenging in Kangas. Developing social routines and reliable information platforms that future residents can maintain and that become collective knowledge of the area is a significant challenge. Kaisa Hirvaskoski-Leinonen noted the importance of co-learning for collaboration from the beginning of the area’s development and anticipated joint learning to continue through to the completion of construction.
Balancing quality of life with affordability with the added element of sustainability makes for a very challenging balancing act in city development. Cities are now collaborating ever more closely with developers and residents to achieve the delicate balance sought after. However, there are no established guidelines for who should initiate and lead the dialogue throughout the long-term phases of urban development projects. NSDC works to provide solutions to this challenge and will discuss its progress at the World Alliance for Low Carbon Cities’ Forum in Porvoo September 17th – 18th. Join consortium partners in Porvoo by registering today!
latest NSDC blog
Fostering dialogue and shaping thought leadership in the public-private development of cities
Collaborative city planning must be adaptive, with participants working together to define future challenges, coordinate present actions, and interpret past lessons. The NSDC initiative highlights new capabilities needed for effective collaborative urban planning, ensuring better integration across the construction, operation, and renewal phases of the building lifecycle. To read more about this and our collaboration models check out our latest NSDC blog post
NSDC Partner News
Enabling Tiger Leaps – the WALCC Forum in Porvoo September 18th
This year’s Forum of the World Alliance for Low Carbon Cities will be held in Porvoo on the 17.-18.9.2024. Among the topics discussed at the Forum will be urban planning and green building, addressed through two sessions led by partners of the Nordic Superblocks as Decarbonization Catalysts initiative (NSDC). A session titled Shaping Cities for Sustainability and Livability and a session called, Citizen Engagement through Digitalization. You can register and find more information on the Forum here.
NSDC Partner News
Skanska Press release
“Caring about people and the environment is what drives our work. The Super Quarter meets both of our objectives: a well-designed living environment improves the quality of life, and environmentally responsible solutions reduce climate emissions from materials and energy,” says Toni Tuomola, Regional Director at Skanska Kodit. Read more about our NSDC partners’ commitment in a new press release published by Skanska (in Finnish).