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Tampere University Urban Lab

Towards sustainability in Viinikanlahti

Viinikanlahti

Every spring semester, the students of Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) at Tampere University have an opportunity to bring theory into practice in two phenomenon-based courses: Urban Lab 1: Living in the city and Urban Lab 2: Planning policy and Infrastructure. In spring 2025, the focus area of the Urban Labs was Viinikanlahti – a highly central area that will be transformed in the coming years into a new lakeside district as the wastewater treatment plant relocates to Sulkavuori. The SUD students thoroughly explored the area and developed new solutions to address sustainability challenges and societal issues in the development of Viinikanlahti.

The Urban Lab courses follow the three phases of Challenge based learning: Engage, Investigate, and Act. First, the students were given an opportunity to engage with the area by listening to expert talks and interacting with the stakeholders.  Then, the students worked in multidisciplinary groups to solve a challenge by investigating the area. The challenges dealt with topics such as accessible mobility, multimodal and blended transportation, lack of local identity, residential segregation, and complexity of managing mix-used courtyards as well as issues of livability and communality of public space. The results were presented as posters (Urban Lab 1) and policy briefs (Urban Lab 2).

Throughout the course, the students cooperated with the stakeholders of the area: City of Tampere and the Viinikanlahti project, Tako rowers, Tampere Artists’ Association, Tampere Tram, Tampere Tunnetuksi ry (The Promoting Tampere Association), and Hakametsä Sport Campus.

As part of the final phase of the of challenge based learning, act, the students presented their work in May at Siluetti, the City of Tampere’s exhibition space for urban development and planning.

A selection of the posters are presented below (click a poster to increase the size) and a few policy briefs are available by clinking the following links of Blended Transportation System in Viinikanlahti and Socio Economic Segregation in Housing Policy

The text was written by Mikko Kyrönviita who is one of the lecturers of the Urban Labs.

 

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