Browsing by Author "Tammilehto, Stefan"

Port cities have through times been in the forefront of cultural, social and technological changes. The cityspace of Helsinki is in this sense also a target of consistant change. One of the biggest challenges has been the relocation of the harbour to Vuosaari, which has opened the Western Harbour for redevelopment. Western Harbour and particularly Jätkäsaari, which is now under redevelopment, is in the focus of this thesis. Especially the development and evolution from a harbour area to an urban part of inner-city is being investigated. How does the general historical development of harbours appear like? Harbours have elsewhere in the world became underused areas in central city locations, since they were for a long time physically, socially and economically isolated from the rest of the city structure. What is the restructuring of Western Harbour like - the phases of the process and the reasons for the change of use? The redevelopment of central harbour areas and industrial waterfronts forms a unique opportunity, but their legacy often consists of a polluted environment that is in a comprehensive need of renovation. This port-city interface is a zone of contested and overlapping challenges, where modern city planning meets the area of port operations. What are the prerequisites of good urban fabric and design in the redevelopment of an old harbour area? This thesis forms a qualitative and comparative case study. Brian Hoyle's Port-city evolution and interface theories are used to illustrate the temporal developments and changes in port cities. Yehuda Hayuth's model about Trends and developments on the port-city interface complements Hoyles model. The redevelopment of Western Harbour and Jätkäsaari is also compared to HafenCity Hamburg. With the help of Rinio Bruttomesso and Michael Clark we form an image about the conditions of good urban fabric in the former harbour areas and of what that is required from them to ensure a more effective and successful entity. The global and historical development of port cities complies well with Hoyles Port-city theory. Port cities were a single unit at the beginning of the evolution, but became separated over the years, as ports moved to more suitable locations (due to increasing vessel sizes, need of space). Hence, the regeneration and reintegration (besides physically, also culturally and spiritually) of former harbour areas has becomed the challenge. The developments that are demonstrated through Hoyles theory are caused by technological, social and economic changes. The introduction of steamships and containers form the two most important singular contributing causes, that have controlled the development of harbours. The Port-city theory describes well the development of Western Harbour, the final stages take place here relatively late, but in a faster pace than elsewhere. The RAMA-survey, the citys growth and development needs, as well as the location of the port constituted problems that worked as an initiation for the transformation process of Western Harbour. The redevelopment constitutes a challenge, where the ability to solve intersecting goals and purposes, environmental problems and the aim of creating a good city structure is at the core. Good urban design in the former port areas is based on determining the nature, range of functions and features as well as their diversity and the blending of them in the area. Also the utilization of old port structures - houses and elements together with the purity of the surrounding waters constitute contributing themes. A number of solutions related to the organizing of the cityspace, like opening up the waterfront and the ritualization of it, along with the chance to create a pedestrian- and public transit-city and build innovative and bold architecture are all central themes that have a chance of being realized on the waterfront. The construction of Western Harbour gives Helsinki a new maritime image and renews the city in its original core. It is an inner-city expansion, which has a large impact on the image of southern Helsinki - its city structure and city life. The objective is to build a city for the unknown future, which is both a challenge and an opportunity.