Browsing by Subject "urban aesthetics"
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(2021)This research studies the environmental aesthetics of boredom in the light of post-soviet neighborhoods. While belonging to the grey zone in aesthetics, boredom is an integral part of mundane life that challenges us to notice the uniqueness of our everydayness. Even though mass housing provided an economically feasible solution for sheltering millions of people, it lacks the qualities that meet contemporary living and energy standards. Soviet mass housing architecture and microdistrict designs were led by the economic conditions in the first place. Mass housing was not meant to speak, whereas the residents should not be silenced because of it. We tend to preserve what we find aesthetically pleasing (Nassauer, 1997), yet, what is aesthetically pleasing and what about other values? In this project, preservation is essential for building a contemporary-oriented mindset that could lead to more sustainable and inclusive neighborhoods. The project aims to tackle the issue of Soviet districts through the eyes of its residents, contrasting the more often used top-down approach. Here I challenge the residents' perception of their neighborhood and create a moment for reflection. By offering this space, I amplify the voices of the real experts, the ones knowing their microdistrict inside out. Environmental aesthetics is a relatively new concept within the contemporary urban planning scholarship, giving a fresh take on subjective experiences of urban settings that unveil profoundly rooted and often disguised problems. The interdisciplinarity in the research is met by merging disciplines such as sociology, urban aesthetics, urban history, and philosophy. The term boredom belonging to positive or negative aesthetic values is questioned the same as the legacy of Soviet mass housing later in the research. The ideology behind Soviet blocks is discussed, creating a common ground for diverse readers. Inclusivity is brought with resident participation through the visual research method - photovoice. To avoid biased data, the resident experiences are supported with the city planner's point of view and secondary quantitative data. The findings include Laumas microdistrict resident photovoice analysis, putting the Laumas microdistrict residents as the primary information providers. Taking pictures of their everyday surroundings, residents are given space to show how they see their microdistrict, outlining the values they are proud of or giving perspective of what needs to be changed. Instead of one-sided creation, the curation is inclusive and more reflective of the urban environment's already existing residents' values of their neighborhood. Resident aesthetic preferences open broader discussion on the maintenance issues of microdistricts facing nowadays. Topics are various, but the primary outcomes discussed built environment aesthetics, renovation, communication, identity, resident initiative, automobile domination, and natural environment aesthetics. In the final part of the study, some possible directions for changing microdistrict are pointed out, and further research questions are presented. The project is incomplete until it reaches a broader audience and provides knowledge to politicians, city planners, and other residents.
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(2021)This master’s thesis explores spatial and aesthetic experiences and placemaking in two public spaces in Malmi and Malminkartano in Helsinki. It focuses on two case studies through ethnographic fieldwork in order to evaluate the added value of placemaking in the urban planning practices of the City of Helsinki from the citizens’ perspective. The case studies shed light on the possibilities and risks of placemaking, especially in the context of Helsinki neighbourhoods that are subject to densification and suburban regeneration projects. This research was commissioned by the Strategic Urban Planning Department of the Urban Environment Division of the City of Helsinki. This thesis explores three research questions. It aims to understand how the observed placemaking projects affected the spatial and aesthetic experiences in the public spaces in question. It also examines what kind of attitudes arose among informants regarding public space, placemaking, densification and urban planning in the context of the studied neighbourhoods. Lastly, it assesses the potential of placemaking to improve the spatial and aesthetic experience of public spaces in neighbourhoods undergoing suburban regeneration projects. The theoretical framework of this research utilises theories and viewpoints of human geography and philosophy of urban aesthetics. Building on the study of place and space, it employs the concepts of spatial and aesthetic experience to examine sensory perceptions in public spaces. Additionally, it continues the culture and tradition of qualitative urban planning research. The data was gathered through ethnographic fieldwork during the span of the studied placemaking projects between July and October 2021. The fieldwork entailed participant observation, informal interviews and conversations with informants and autoethnographic observations of sensory, spatial and aesthetic experiences in public space. In addition to the ethnographic data, placemaking theory was utilised to formulate the analyses and results. Based on the data, the observed placemaking case studies had a moderate effect on the spatial and aesthetic experiences in the public spaces in question. However, they raised valuable discussions about local viewpoints and provided important place-based knowledge for urban planners. The ethnographic process revealed both accepting and antagonistic narratives within the local communities regarding densification and the urban planning practices of the City of Helsinki. The latter attitudes did not, however, seem to negatively affect the informants’ conceptions of the studied projects or placemaking generally. Instead, place-driven attempts at making public spaces greener, livelier and more engaging were almost unanimously accepted and welcomed. Consequently, placemaking is proposed here as a viable method to develop and improve the experience of public spaces among citizens in neighbourhoods undergoing suburban regeneration projects. Based on the gathered data and theoretical reasoning, this thesis argues that placemaking is an urban development approach, method and philosophy that can create added value to conventional urban planning practices in Helsinki. Placemaking can improve the experience of public space by vitalising its experiential and sensory qualities, and thus complement technocratic urban planning and construction processes. Placemaking can provide planners with place-based knowledge about local conditions and aspirations that is useful for long-term planning goals. Placemaking can be utilised as a participation method that gives citizens more agency and shows faster impact than other means of participation, further empowering them to reclaim public spaces for communal uses. Placemaking can make public spaces safer and more pluralistic by broadening their usership and increasing vulnerable groups’ presence. By engaging in community-driven placemaking, the City of Helsinki can improve its public spaces in multiple ways and develop its current participatory and urban design practices in alignment with its strategic goals of enhancing the quality of life for its citizens.
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