Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2019 | Page 44
Turku Science Park
From downtown to Science Park and beyond:
Turku Advances on All Fronts
Turku is big on future. Growing at the rate of 1,600 residents per year, the city is growing – proportionally speaking
– faster than any other city in Finland. To accommodate change, Turku announced a new ambitious vision, Turku
2050, with a key idea of expanding the city center and creating a user-oriented traffic system to support it.
A
ccording to the Vision, the com-
mercial center will expand, and the
Market Square will become a multi-
use meeting place and the center of various
events. The Old Town around the Old Great
Square will turn into a “European oasis of
encounters” and the eastern bank of the
River Aura – delightfully opening towards
the evening sun – will function as a vibrant
platform for a new kind of combination of
culture, restaurants and work.
Presently, competition between cit-
ies has shifted from national level to global
level, with cities fighting over inhabitants,
businesses and know-how. At the same
time, the emergence of the urban lifestyle
has raised the level of expectations in terms
of the quality of public spaces. Urban plan-
ning is now decidedly more human-scale,
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and this is also a key message of the Vision
2050.
Ride the Wave
Jouko Turto, Real Estate Development
Director for the City of Turku, says that
Turku is in a “unique position” to build
something truly remarkable here, since the
city presently enjoys powerful momentum:
“There is positive structural change as
old industries keep reinventing themselves,
finding new ways to innovate and collabo-
rate,” Turto says.
A great example of the local innova-
tive mindset is the Turku Rail Yard project
which aims to transform Turku’s rail yard
and train station area into the Finland’s larg-
est experience and event center.
The Turku Rail Yard project is an
ambitious urban development concept for
the 2020s, combining top-level technology
and service design to create world-class
experiences and events as well as boost the
wellbeing of the citizens. The total cost for
the project is estimated to be approximately
€530 million.
Let Me Entertain You
The project kicked off, as an invitation-
only architecture contest was held and Hel-
sinki/Shanghai-based architecture firm PES-
Architects come out on top with their entry
‘Luoto’ (Islet). According to plans, the con-
struction will start in autumn 2020 – and the
center could, conceivably, be up and run-
ning by 2022.