More and more districts in Helsinki are serving as testbeds for pilots that make everyday life easier for residents, provide new opportunities for companies and contribute to Helsinki’s goal of becoming carbon neutral.
Helsinki Innovation Districts
The Helsinki Innovation Districts project continues from where the Smart Kalasatama project left off. In 2013–2021, Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari, two new districts of Helsinki, served as platforms for developing new services and technologies. Smart Kalasatama taught a great deal to its participants, and now the lessons learned are being applied to Helsinki’s redeveloping districts.
The Helsinki Innovation Districts project creates solutions and services that save residents’ time and effort and contribute to a carbon neutral city and lifestyle. At the same time, the pilots provide companies with opportunities to test new services and technologies in a real urban environment.
We promote a collaborative and co-creative approach to the development of services and solutions that involves residents, companies, the City and research institutions. Our goal is to gain insight into new technologies and how the latest technological advancements can be used to make the city a better place to live and work in.
We keep a close eye on the latest trends in city planning and anticipate the future needs of districts. We carry out agile pilots in the participating districts, test new solutions and find new operating methods for developing cities and innovative services.
Whether you are a resident, a company, an expert or a researcher, we invite you to join us in building a better, carbon neutral Helsinki that provides an easier and more pleasant everyday life for its residents!
Discover the districts
The districts participating in the Helsinki Innovation Districts project serve as urban living labs for testing new solutions. Whereas previously agile pilots were conducted in Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari, former brownfield areas of Helsinki still under construction, now there are also old districts involved in the project.
Three of the new areas, Malminkartano-Kannelmäki, Malmi and Mellunkylä, are so-called urban regeneration areas, located in suburban areas of Helsinki, which have good transportation connections by train or subway, but their infrastructure needs renewal.
Fourth area, Pasila, is a densifying area that includes one of the busiest train stations in Finland. Eastern and western Pasila are connected with high density building in central Pasila. Each area has its own special characteristics that affect the pilots to be selected. The focus is on introducing new solutions to existing structures in the participating districts for the purpose of testing how old structures can be developed and retrofitted with new solutions.
Read more about the Smart Innovation Districts here.
Photo credit: Lauri Rotko
