Background

The Future City Game in Vantaa, which is the fourth most populous city in Finland, focused on the Tikkurila Centre, the administrative and commercial hub of Vantaa. The participants were challenged to come up with ideas that would unify the offer of the Tikkurila Centre and make Tikkurila easily accessible to the disabled. To involve disabled people in the city planning activity and give them the opportunity to create ideas that take their needs into consideration, all the teams included volunteer members from Seitti, a hub of youth activities for several organisations representing disabled and/or kinetically challenged people.
 

Objectives

According to Ms Tyystjärvi, a city councillor and Left Party group leader in Vantaa, every plan put forward during the game had commendable features. Thus some ideas could be realized, perhaps even in the not-too-distant future. The idea of the Educational Theme Days will even be presented to parent groups and then, possibly, as a formal motion, put to a vote at the City Council, which is soon due to revise its educational policy. The game was co-organised by the Heureka Science Centre, the city of Vantaa, and the Association for Young Disabled People.

Winning idea

Eko-Tiksi

In the future, the Tikkurila Centre of Vantaa – part of the Greater Helsinki region – boasts obstacle-free movement for the old and the disabled; the residents’ ecological footprint is greatly reduced; and they are advised on waste disposal by “Garbage George”, an environmentally enlightened communal mascot. These are just some ideas from a plan called “Eko-Tiksi” - after the nickname for Tikkurila - that collected the first prize in the Vantaa Future City Game.

Winning ideas from the other teams

Educational Theme Days in Schools

This idea promotes mutual understanding and empathy by making native Finns live as immigrants, or able-bodied children manoeuvre a wheelchair, for one day. The idea of the theme days in schools will be presented to parent groups and then, possibly, put to a vote at the City Council.

TEE-Keskus

This team came up with the idea of a multifunctional centre that offers a number of services and attracts people of all ages and nationalities. TEE-Keskus would become a new meeting-point.

A New Underground Line

Tikkurila Station is considered Vantaa’s main railway station, and there are frequent bus connections from the station to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, located 5km to the west. However, there is no rail connection to the airport. This team suggested extending the environmentally friendly underground system by connecting Tikkurila Centre to the airport.