The City of Helsinki’s innovation company Forum Virium Helsinki has been awarded EUR 1.3 million in funding for a project to expand the best practices from smart city pilots implemented in the new Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari areas to urban infill areas.
The experiments will be spread to urban renewal areas in Malmi, Mellunkylä and Malminkartano-Kannelmäki as well as Pasila. The project will be realised in 2020–2023.
During the project, new sustainable digital solutions will be tested and implemented to improve and streamline urban life, the service offering and service planning in Helsinki. The project is carried out in cooperation with companies, residents, various City units focusing on urban development, and research institutions.
“Being able to scale resident-oriented innovation activities to older districts makes our activities much more impactful effective. The new project offers an excellent opportunity to help the City of Helsinki to achieve its climate goals. It also supports the City in utilising digital solutions. We offer versatile experimentation and development platforms to businesses based in Helsinki, with strong participation from local residents,” says Kerkko Vanhanen, the Programme Director of Smart Kalasatama.
Smart lighting, sharing economy and green construction
The project aims to strengthen and implement four regional and thematic innovation projects. The projects will support the creation of solutions that meet the needs of residents and the City regarding smart lighting, street space analytics, utilisation of spaces, green infrastructure, city information models, and 5G technologies, for example.
In Malmi, the objective is to improve street space safety and street traffic analytics through smart lighting, whereas the project implemented in the Malminkartano and Kannelmäki areas focuses on under-used local spaces from the perspective of sharing economy and digital services.
In Mellunkylä, the focus is on finding green construction and energy saving solutions by employing smart technologies, green infrastructure technologies and wood construction. In Pasila, a detailed 3D city model, a digital twin, of the built environment will serve construction companies and projects.
Kuva: Helsingin kaupunki