Althought I truly support dense neighbourhoods, I have had some worries about Jätkäsaari in Helsinki, a new neighbourhood in the edge of the western side of the inner city. Former harbour area. A walk with a camera on a sunny day proved my worries mainly needless anyways. Here are two pictures of sunny facades in of one of the most densest parts of the residential area. But these are bit too dense alleys in my opinion :( Apartments in lower floors don't get light, one of the key doctrines of functionalism. Even I am not the greatest supporter of functionalism, I try to find some positive from every school. These are on the waterfront so they should get access to light when shining from the right direction. But what it is with the facade on the first building? Those are not windows, I guess. Where there would be sea views. Strange :o
Comments
In recent study published soon, we tested whether clusters of innovation locate in proximity of human capital, i.e. skilled, educated and tolerant workforce. We found out that this holds true in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. However, as a grace note we were able to show evidence of agglomeration externalities in the HMA.
We concluded that "urban density is an essential, and often underrated, circumstance for innovative growth. Considering planning and the mixed land use paradigm, the results show evidently that innovations emerge the best in dense and mixed urban structure." "The geographical characteristics are that clusters of innovation and human capital as well as clusters with potential growth form a larger spatial entity (an innovation “horseshoe”). Finding is in line with “Smart Café City” concept (Fu 2007), where human capital externalities are highly localized in the most central areas of the metropolitan areas." |
Photo by Rob Hurson
Categories
All
Archives
July 2018
AuthorJuho Kiuru, geographer living in Helsinki, Finland. |