Summer streets offer residents opportunities to spend time together or separately as well as participate in activities and lounge about and relax. The Kallio summer streets consist of areas with different themes and atmospheres, brought together by the communal, open and creative spirit of Kallio. The objective is to improve residents’ comfort in the area.
The construction of summer streets will begin towards late April. A total of one kilometre of summer streets will be created along Porthaninkatu, Fleminginkatu and Vaasankatu. The most significant summer squares will be located around Karhupuisto park and Franzéninaukio square. Four smaller summer squares will also be created in Kallio. In addition to this, renewed potted plant arrangements with even more plants will be brought to Hämeentie.
The summer streets will be primarily executed by replacing street parking spaces with plants and furniture. The summer streets will consist of light structures without major structural changes to existing street structures. This way, the summer streets will be easy to take apart for the winter in the autumn, when normal traffic arrangements are reinstated.
The width of lanes will remain the same on Porthaninkatu to allow for trams to also travel along the street in the summer. The narrowing of driving lanes in the temporary garden streets of Fleminginkatu and Vaasankatu will enable the improvement of the comfort of the streets in a way that does not require a narrowing of the walkways.
Brick-and-mortar shops and restaurants will be able to expand their operations in all summer streets. Many restaurants have already spread onto street parking spaces with their parklet terraces in previous summers. In the coming summer, around ten businesses will be taking advantage of the possibility to expand their premises in the street even further.
Space for maintenance and pick-up and drop-off traffic will remain in summer streets. There may be slight changes to driving routes within Kallio, but there will always be an available route to each property. The taxi station will continue to be located around Karhupuisto park and public transport routes will mainly remain the same.
Co-creation with local residents and operators
The plans for summer streets are based on thoughts and ideas by communities and other operators in Kallio. Residents had the opportunity to participate in the planning by attending resident events organised in Kallio in autumn 2024 and by completing an online survey. A group consisting of local business owners and operators also worked on the plan by employing co-creation methods.
The wishes of local operators and residents have been taken into account in the final plan. The Pride street on Fleminginkatu, swings on Vaasankatu, play and games areas in Karhupuisto park, ample plants and taking pollinators into account in planning greenery are ideas that have come from the residents. The solutions concerning traffic on summer streets have been adjusted to accommodate the details of traffic arrangements in worksites near the summer streets, to cause as little disruption to mobility as possible.
Circular economy reflected in design
Roughly half of the furniture used on the summer streets in Kallio are recycled pieces of furniture from previous summer street projects in Helsinki. The furniture used in Kallio have previously been used in the Esplanadi pilot and in the summer streets in the city centre. When furniture is reused, the carbon footprint and costs of the summer streets is reduced. In addition to reusable furniture, the entity is complemented by new benches and other furniture. The selected new furniture can be reused after the Kallio summer streets project is over. The design of the furniture follows clean lines and is coarse and minimalist as well as scaled to the street space and Kallio milieu.
A key ingredient of the summer street look and spirit is ample and verdant plant life, which surrounds all of the activities. Plants are used to create a soft contrast to the otherwise very urban street space. Similarly to the furniture, the plants will also be reused, as bay and olive trees used on Esplanadi will make an appearance in potted plants in Hämeentie.
Residents can book the Karhupuisto park stage free of charge
A temporary events stage and the adjoining Karhupuisto events area built between Karhupuisto park and Matti Helenius park can be booked by residents between 16 May and 30 September 2025. The events stage will feature programming by local operators, such as University of the Arts Helsinki, over the summer.
“It is great to see the City offer operators in the culture sector an opportunity to utilise the summer streets’ events stage. This supports the accessibility of art and brings life to urban spaces through diverse events,” says University of the Arts Student Union employee Karoliina Korvuo, who is involved in producing ‘Vapaan taiteen tila’ pop-up programming in late July and early August.
The stage and event area can be booked from Monday to Sunday from 9.00 to 21.00. The maximum booking time is six hours at a time and bookings are free of charge. The use of sound-reproducing equipment must stop by 21.00. You can book the stage on the Varaamo website at varaamo.hel.fi from the start of May. The users of the events stage must comply with the terms and conditions of the stage. The terms and conditions are put in place to ensure that the use of the stage does not cause any disruptions to local residents and operators.
Summer streets’ impact carefully assessed
Summer street projects are used to determine the suitability of permanent pedestrian area measures in each project area. Summer street projects will be evaluated and any lessons learned will be recorded to eventually identify the best measures and implement permanent improvements in urban spaces through political decision-making.
Helsinki will assess the impact of summer streets from a variety of angles. The impact assessment pays attention to the business activities of service companies and the volume and direction of traffic flows, among other things. In addition, the effects on the smooth flow of maintenance traffic, noise, air quality, biodiversity and people's comfort in the summer streets will be examined.
