Description
The Itäharju-Kupittaa pilot site is located in the promixity of the city centre, next to the Kupittaa railway station, where all trains coming from Helsinki stop and next to the Helsinki highway. In the northern part of the “Itäharju brownfield triangle” there is an important transport node where different transport modes meet. However, the railway and the highway also function as physical barriers between Itäharju and other areas. There is a high development potential due to the central location and closeness to University campus, Turku university hospital and Turku Science park area.
Current use
Historically, when the nearby university campuses and hospitality were planned they were not connected well to the existing urban structure. Construction of highway improved the situation, but at the same time the accessibility of Itäharju triangle got worse and hindered the development.
There are no inhabitants at the moment on the actual pilot site and the area is in commercial and industrial use. There are a variety of businesses active in the area, such as small-scale industry companies, recycling (e.g. steel, paper), bakery, a few grocery stores, warehouses, office spaces, other stores such as hardware store, mat store and tire store, garages and depots for construction companies. There are also old empty buildings in the area. Part of the land is contaminated due to previous industrial use.
Development potential
Itäharju brownfield site is part of the Turku Science Park area. Developing the Science Park area is one of four spearhead projects chosen by the city council in spring 2016. The area has a high concentration of office buildings. There is high potential to develop the area into internationally high level competence centre and urban development area. The aim is high-quality land-use, housing, traffic and construction planning and implementation.
The Finnish Government decided in 2016 to grant 40 million euros of funding to planning a one hour train connection between Helsinki and Turku, which would significantly shorten the travel time between Turku and Helsinki, and provide also excellent potential for the development of the Itäharju area and the campus and science park.
Implemented activities & results
Turku Science Park Vision and "Masterplan"
The Itäharju-Kupittaa pilot site is part of a larger redevelopment project encompassing the university campus and science park area. During Baltic Urban Lab, the local project group has been a key actor in organising a series of meetings at which key stakeholders have discussed how to develop the Science Park area including the Itäharju browfield area. During this process, many different methods and activities have been tried out to cooperate actively with different stakeholder groups:
This process has fed in to vision and the unofficial "masterplan" for the area. These strategic planning documents outline Science Part area development up to 2050. The vision and “masterplan” in the planning was approved by the City council as a guideline for further development and preparing statutory land-use plans. The local project group has designed a continuous process in which a series of events feed in to the final version of the masterplan for the pilot site and surrounding area. It is more significant that continuous contact with key actors for the development has influenced various steps of the planning process and generated important input to the masterplan for the area. This was the first time that the City of Turku has worked with such a process, and the local project group gained a lot of experience.
The City of Turku’s Co-creation Model for Areas with Developing Land Use - Turku Science Park and its extension area as a pilot area
During Baltic Urban Lab Turku has created a co-creation model for areas with developing land-use - meaning old industrial or other underused areas located in the urban structure. The created operating model is generic and can be used also in other comprehensive urban development subjects. Based on the experiences in the project, Turku sees that today and in the future, it is essential that co-creation is and will be used for connecting all parties in a right way, at the correct moment, to be part of the envisioning and planning of the urban structure and related services. The developed and piloted co-creation model has served this purpose. The summary of the co-creation model for areas with developing land use is available below:
THE CITY OF TURKU’S CO-CREATION MODEL FOR AREAS WITH DEVELOPING LAND USE – TURKU SCIENCE PARK AND ITS EXTENSION AREA AS A PILOT AREA
Turun kaupungin muuntuvan maankäytön yhteiskehittämisen malli- Pilottialueena Turun tiedepuisto ja sen laajentumisalue.
Working with contaminated land areas
As part of the project activities, regarding the management of contaminated land areas, Turku first collected baseline data about the contamination of soil in the pilot area, made the first site-specific risk assessment based on the existing data, and also made a preliminary estimate for the remediation of the soil. At the second stage, an operating model for the processing and management of the contaminated land areas was created. Both stages were conducted in cooperation with the Ramboll consultancy. It is generic and can be implemented within any given development area of land use. Turku's Good Practice on working with contaminated land areas for further elaboration on the methods can be accessed here.
More information about the methods that Turku has used for cooperating with stakeholders can be found in Developing brownfields via public-private-people partnerships - Lessons learned from Baltic Urban Lab and Towards integrated and partnership-based planning of brownfield areas.
