Category Archives: Unfinished City

A TROPICAL NIGHT RIDE

By Hella Hernberg | Published: 29/07/2011

Photography: Johannes Romppanen

Bicycle brunches, free concerts, independent art exhibitions, hammocks, swimming and night movies. This summer Kalasatama has proved to be the perfect location to spend warm days and nights in the city.

Last wednesday, the We Love Helsinki community celebrated a Bicycle Day in Kalasatama in an almost tropical summer night. The event, created together with a number of voluntary urban activists, started at Bermuda Helsinki’s container with live music, bicycle repair and brunch for a voluntary fee, freshly roasted coffee by Kaffa, drinks from the bicycle bar, and radler (traditional cyclists’ drink) from a bicycle tank by Pelago. At 10pm, over 300 cyclists started a night ride around the centre of Helsinki. The almost endless line of riders ringing their bells and curving through the streets was a spectacular sight. (more…)

Also posted in Community, DIY, Events / Exhibitions, Helsinki Beyond Dreams, Kalasatama Temporary, Participation | Tagged | Leave a comment

A FANTASTIC CAFE

By Hella Hernberg | Published: 08/06/2011

Ihana Cafe is now open in the Kalasatama harbour in uptown Helsinki, and well worth a visit. The new container cafe celebrated its opening party last week, blessed with a warm evening sun, hot air balloons and crowds of relaxed people enjoying one of the first warm summer evenings this year in Helsinki. The place is a welcome, refreshing oasis in the middle of the harbour’s large asphalt planes, and like a small piece of Berlin in Helsinki. It is like its name promises: ‘Ihana’ meaning wonderful, lovely, or fantastic in Finnish. (more…)

Also posted in Community, Helsinki Beyond Dreams, Kalasatama Temporary, News | Tagged | Leave a comment

FOR THE LOVE OF FOOD

By Hella Hernberg | Published: 24/05/2011

Wild herb pizzas queuing for the oven in Kalasatama

Last Saturday 21 May was a historical day in Helsinki. For one day, anyone could start their own pop-up restaurant, anywhere, and regardless of what the rules say. The first ever Ravintolapäivä (Restaudant Day) was a carneval-like celebration in favour of richer food cultures and against rules that sometimes make food such a complicated question. Organised through a Facebook event, small and original restaurants popped up just for a few hours – on the streets, parks, clothing shops or homes, offering tapas, drinks, smoothies, popsicles and even fancy dinners served at home in the evening. (more…)

Also posted in Community, DIY, Events / Exhibitions, Helsinki Beyond Dreams, Participation | Tagged | 1 Comment

ARCHITECTURAL SURGERY

By Hella Hernberg | Published: 25/04/2011

Haus 6 in Leinefelde - after the transformation

Haus 6 - before the transformation

The latest issue of Mark magazine features a very interesting article about ingenious transformation of social housing blocks, many of them in the town of Leinefelde in former East Germany. Architect Stefan Forster has dedicated about ten years to developing creative ideas on how to totally rebuild the architecture of poorly performing pre-fab concrete housing blocks – which are an increasingly greater problem in many countries throughout Europe. Having just a week ago read in Helsingin Sanomat about the plans to demolish two housing blocks in the northern Helsinki suburb of Jakomäki, makes one curious about the other potential alternatives to demolition. (more…)

Also posted in Rethinking Design, Sustainability | Tagged | Leave a comment

WINTER AT THE HIGH LINE

By Hella Hernberg | Published: 05/03/2011

During the early 2011, Urban Dream Management has been busy exploring and writing less. In February, I had the chance to spend a month flâneuring the streets of New York, where spring was making its first attempts to beat the cold weather.

Among the first things on my list in New York, was a long-anticipated visit to the High Line, a public park built on an abandoned elevated railroad stretching from the Meatpacking District to the Hudson Rail Yards in Manhattan. I saw the park in its quiet, snow-covered winter mood and returned there on a sunny afternoon at the end of the month, when it was packed with people spending their weekend. The park design features an integrated landscape, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Field Operations. It combines meandering concrete pathways with naturalistic plantings that draws its inspiration from the beauty of the original biodiversity that took over after the railroad fell into a ruin. (more…)

Also posted in Brief Notes from New York, Community, Rethinking Design, Slow, Sustainability | Tagged , | Leave a comment

  • Urban Dream Management is an urban practice focusing on the creative use of space and new collective ways for creating more attractive and inspiring environments.

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