Arabianranta - area construction project

The City of Helsinki owns 64 % of its municipal land area. The public sector gives municipal land for private developers as well as provides infrastructure and municipal services in the project area. In Arabianranta the City owns almost all of the land for new housing development. The Arabianranta Town Plan emphasises residential development. The waterfront development is being implemented as an area construction project belonging to the long-term housing and office development targets of the local authority.

As much as 40 % of the total 3400 planned housing units are rental housing, and all waterfront sites are reserved for other types of cost-quality controlled housing (Helsinki City Office, 1999). Helsinki has for several decades implemented a housing policy of mixing municipal housing and owner occupied units in the new housing development areas. The cost-quality control implies that the developer cannot, for instance, increase flat prices without increasing the quality of construction.

The Arabianranta district is one of the major new development sites in the City of Helsinki. Public sector, i.e. the City of Helsinki is the dominant partner of the Arabianranta development. Private sector involvement takes place through partnerships, such as the Art and Design City Helsinki Ltd. (ADC Ltd.) In 2006 the new housing development is half finished. By the year 2010 the area will host approximately 10 000 residents, 6000 students and 7000 work places.

Subprojects include:

• Art and Design City Helsinki in Arabianranta, which has been one of the key visions in the regeneration and development of the area from a brown field site since early 1990’s. The outcome so far is the creation of a major national campus for art, design and media schools and large number of small and medium size enterprises in these fields though incubation services and other business development facilities A company called Art and Design City Helsinki Ltd. was founded to promote the vision in 1995.
• Artistic collaboration in the area construction of the Arabianranta district; one of the special features of the new housing development: 1-2% of the acquisition cost of the plots has to be dedicated to art. A special artistic co-ordinator has been hired to co-ordinate between the contractors, architects and the artists (2000 – 2010).
• Local ICT infra and services development in Arabianranta; this is one of the special features of the area construction project: each new housing unit must be connected to a local area network. The backbone of the local ICT solution is a fiber optic cable, which was constructed by the Helsinki Energy company together with the Real Estate department of the City of Helsinki. The network is super-fast (1 Gbps).
• IntelCIties in Arabianranta EU project on e-participation in Arabianranta (2004 – 2005)
• Innovative Cities for the Next Generation (ICING); EU project on citizen use of position technologies in Arabianranta (2006 – 2008).

The City Real Estate Department has allocated all development sites in Arabianranta for private contractors through open ‘site competitions’. The developers have to accept the conditions that the city sets in the biddings. 

Arabianranta's first contractors founded together a local service company, Arabian Palvelu, (Arabian Service Ltd.), which takes care of parking space, public club premises, the common yards and the local ICT services. When the construction of the area is finished the ownership of the Arabian Service Ltd. will be transferred to the residents through the home owner associations and housing corporations.

In addition to the main housing policy instrument, i.e. the cost maximum for majority of the housing units, the city set two special conditions for development and construction of the Arabianranta residential area:

Firstly, The City of Helsinki will invest in art at Arabianranta and it has expanded its so-called one-percent policy to concern the whole residential area. This means that on the plots that the city has provided for development, it will require the contractors to invest 1-2% of the acquisition costs of the each site into artworks (e.g. artworks located in the common yards and doorways, using special artistic building materials, environmental art). This principle will also concern street works and the development of green zones (see Isohanni 2006 and 2002).

The second special condition for constructing was that all of the new houses must be connected to a unified local broadband (MAN) network. The solution involves Arabian Service Ltd. representing all of the residents and therefore being able to bargain good deal with the teleoperator.  The campus operating services are currently provided by Saunalahti Corporation.

The Arabianranta district is well known for the high quality housing, with the special feature of unique artworks in public and semi public spaces such as hall and doorways and common yards. All of the new apartments are automatically provided with a 10 Mbps Ethernet connection which is free of extra charge. The services include standard data services, voice over IP phone services, real estate automation and public WLAN hot spots, and a local portal called Helsinki Virtual Village  with extranets for each of the home owner associations. The ICT project stared in 1997, and the first part of the fiber optic network was launched in 1998. The local portal Helsinki Virtual Village was launched in 2001. The local area network started to operate in 2002. The 10 megabyte connection has been offered free of extra charge to the residents since February 2006.

In addition to the major new housing development project, Arabianranta hosts also a major campus for art, design, and media education:

• University of Art and Design Helsinki was created to contribute to the economic, cultural and social vitality of Finland through innovation and excellence in art, media, design and technology. UIAH moved to Arabianranta in the end of the 1980’s. The education is divided into a higher and lower basic degree: a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree and furthermore, a Doctor of Arts degree.
• The Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory is the only music institution in Finland that specializes in pop, rock, and jazz music.
• Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, Culture and Services departments
• Arcada Polytechnic, the only Swedish speaking polytechnic in Finland
• Prakticum, a Swedish speaking vocational school
• Helsinki City College of Technology, the audiovisual department
• The Arabia Primary school, designed for 18 basic education groups and 3 special education groups, altogether for about 560 students. The curriculum has special emphasis on arts and crafts, as well as environment and natural sciences.

The clustering of art, design and media schools in the area is accompanied with support to starup companies and entrepreneurs by a local business incubator called Arabus. There are currently approximately 300 small and medium size enterprises, several of which are in the fields of art&design, new media and services.

Other institutions located in the area are: Aralis Library and Information Centre, Hackman Group, Arabiakeskus shopping center and Portaali Business Park.

By 2006 the Art and Design City vision set forth in 1995 has become a reality. Arabianranta is being developed into a ‘Living Lab’, which means combing the everyday needs and experiences of the people who live, work and study in Arabianranta with research and product and service innovation and development taking place in the educational institutions and companies located in the area.

The long term development plans and policies of the City of Helsinki combined with effective means for implementation have been the key to make Arabianranta a success story. Partnerships and collaboration accross sectors have also been vital.

Area construction project: co-ordination responsibility is at the Development Unit of the Economic and Planning Centre of the City of Helsinki.

Place marketing and business development: Art & Design City Helsinki Ltd.

Artistic co-ordination: City of Helsinki, City Planning Department.

Research: City of Helsinki Urban Facts.

City of Helsinki: Development Unit of the Economic and Planning Centre, Development Division
Finland
Mr. Heikki Somervuo (Project leader)

Art and Design City Helsinki Ltd.
Finland
Mr. Kari Raina (Managing director)

City of Helsinki Urban Facts, Urban Research Center
Finland
Mrs. Jonna Kangasoja (Researcher)