Laituri: improving the lives of city residents

Laituri is the meeting place and exhibition space for Helsinki’s City Planning Department. Located in the heart of the Finnish capital right by the Lasipalatsi, Laituri gives Helsinki residents and tourists alike the opportunity to find out about future urban developments – because never before has the cityscape undergone such rapid change. Social and ecological aspects that aim to make city life more liveable for everyone are especially important in urban design. Laituri’s theme for the World Design Capital 2012 is therefore ‘The open city – opportunities for improving the lives of city residents’. The venue plays host to various exhibitions throughout the year, each of which is dedicated to a different facet of innovation in urban design. All of these exhibitions will be free of charge and are thus open to all of Helsinki’s residents. Visitors to Laituri can also get involved at computer stations, providing feedback and rating the city’s construction plans, for example. The idea behind Laituri is to get the city’s residents involved in urban planning. The current exhibitions, ‘Malmi Bullhorn’ and ‘Exhibition with a cycling theme’, are both scheduled to run until 4 August and respectively take a look at how to improve access to Malmi’s railway station and make it more pleasant and how cycling might be better integrated into city life. A lot of the Textklinik staff travel to work on public transport or by bike, and we think Helsinki has made the right move in adopting ‘design for social innovation’ in order to improve life in the WDC 2012.