Winter in Tampere: A Finnish mindset for urban planning
In January, we had a week-long field trip in Ylöjärvi and Tampere with our Irish and Dutch peers. During that week, we started to realize how different winter is for us compared to them, also from an urban planning perspective. Urban planning for winter on these latitudes needs more than just throwing gravel on the sidewalks. During the field trip, us students were assigned to identify challenges in Tampere area and propose solutions to them. The week finalized in a hackathon, an intensive event of collaborative problem-solving, which resulted in every group presenting their challenges and solutions in a pitch. The pitches truly inspired us to think about the unique challenges the Finnish winter presents to the field of urban planning.