User-oriented, experimental design creates spaces and services that inspire residents in Helsinki. The new computer-themed playground is a great example of this according to design experts Hanna Harris and Piritta Hannonen.
Playground Ruoholahti has gone through a nearly complete transformation. Children do not only play there; they can also learn about how computers work in the first themed playground in Helsinki.
The main attraction of the playground is the two-part tower representing a processor. Children can climb, crawl and slide inside it.
“I have seen children and families playing in the park every time I have walked by,“ says City of Helsinki Chief Design Officer Hanna Harris.
The themed playground is an excellent example of the City of Helsinki’s design and architecture objectives; to design public spaces and services that create positive experiences for the residents. Meaningful and functional environments attract people and help them come together, which fosters the communal spirit.
To find out how it all started for Playground Ruoholahti, we need to revisit the year 2021.
“Children’s author and illustrator Linda Liukas thought of a way to teach children about computers in a playground setting without using any screens. We brainstormed and exchanged ideas about the proposal with different City operators and started to make some headway,” Harris remembers. She is involved in plenty of similar bridge-building work and acts as the public face of the City of Helsinki as a design city.
Ruoholahti was chosen as the location for the playground because of its excellent connections and close proximity to the city centre, allowing tourists to also visit the playground effortlessly. Playground Ruoholahti was also in need of renovation, and the computer theme was a good match for the area's IT and gaming companies.
The City involved the staff of the playground and the adjoining daycare centre, local children and users in the planning, which is typical of design processes. The discussion generated ideas alongside the residents’ hope that the hill in the park, serving as the ‘local ski resort,’ and the vast grassy area be preserved. And they were.
I have seen children and families playing in the park every time I have walked by
The project aiming to enliven the Ylä-Malmin tori square, in turn, experimented with things designed for the area together with residents.
“Design brings people together starting from the planning phase in order to highlight their needs and wishes. Working together also makes people invested in the future,” City Design Manager Piritta Hannonen stresses.
She works closely with Harris and drafts long-term strategic planning: she combines the future service needs of the residents of Helsinki and the dynamic nature of the City with global changes, brings operators together and discusses what should be done and when.
The examples illustrate how the capital known as ‘design Helsinki’
has become an increasingly diverse design city. The City has invested in design competence heavily: for ten years now, it has had its own design team working with the City’s network of divisions of city developers and design offices. City employees, residents, companies and communities also participate in designing services and sites.
Design promotion is also conducted in City schools, including Arabia Comprehensive School, which received the Helsinki Design Award last year.
“Seventh-graders told us that they had learned more about working together, making mistakes and remaking things as part of architecture and design education. This kind of respectful and creative problem solving is a crucial future skill,” Harris says.
Helsinki’s reputation as a design and architecture city is promoted abroad by e.g. our Central Library Oodi and the largest design festival in the Nordics, Helsinki Design Week. Oodi has helped the entire library network to transform into a more versatile entity of places to create, developed constantly by active staff, or the ‘library tribe.’
“A Norwegian visitor was positively flabbergasted when they saw what was going on in the library. Young people had gathered in the library to do homework, seniors were visiting the digital clinic and a German neurosurgeon was printing a brain using the 3D printer – all at the same time,” Harris says.
In the summer, both residents and tourists flocked to Töölönlahti Summer Park. The park, designed in collaboration with residents and local operators, provided opportunities to lounge on deckchairs and play ping-pong surrounded by flowers, to name a few.
Future in focus abroad The upcoming architecture and design museum has garnered international interest. It has globally unique collections that will be featured more prominently in the future. It is estimated that construction of the museum will start towards the end of 2027.
“We can be proud of the 623 proposals we received in the first phase of the international design competition for the museum. More than 500 proposals were submitted for Oodi at the time,” Harris says.
