Article Highlights:

• Enlivening District Streets
  Adding greenery and colour to signal a new direction and more balanced use of neighbourhood streets.
  
• Impact on Urban Life
  Greenery enhances aesthetics, softens the environment, provides cooling effects, supports pollinators, and the furniture creates inviting stopovers where people can enjoy nature up close.
  
• Flexible and Multifunctional
  Modular seating offers adaptable spaces for relaxation, social interaction, and community life.

Helsinki city has initiated a 2-year street transformation project in the Kallio district. Its dense urban structure and lively social life, it calls for more attention to the public spaces – especially streets to be more green, social and inviting. The active plinth, shops, services, cafes and restaurants are well connected to the street scape – now even more. 

The streets of Kallio are dominated by hard surfaces with little to no greenery. Yet, the district’s urban spaces hold great potential: young adults, children, and people of all ages live there and actively use the city. Many apartments are small and lack balconies, so accessible, inviting urban spaces right at residents’ doorsteps can greatly enhance everyday life in the district. There is a clear need for more vibrant, welcoming public spaces for both residents, enhancing the urban life and streetscape.

The Summer Streets project was built on local initiatives, a participatory planning process, and continuous evaluation of its impact and results.

Four Summer Streets, designed by Ramboll, introduce colour, greenery, and spaces for rest, play, and gathering. Parkly was selected as one of the key urban furniture solutions, providing custom-designed coloured modules that enliven the streets with different themes and planting concepts.

“Planting design for the streets of Kallio has been a rewarding task. The aim was to bring lush, sprawling, and diverse greenery to the canyon-like streets – greenery that invites people to get close to the plants. It’s a joy to see people sitting on Parkly’s furniture right among the vegetation – touching the leaves, exploring textures, and smelling the scents. The plant species were chosen to be soft, engaging, and inviting both to look at and to touch.

Each of the four streets has its own concept: on some, the colours of the plants harmonize with the colours of the furniture, while on Vaasankatu, for example, the theme is food, with edible plants such as beetroot and pumpkin. My hope is to see a ripe pumpkin still this summer – though some of the plants have already found their way into eager hands. There are dozens of different species, and almost all have been grown at the City of Helsinki’s nursery — it’s wonderful that the plants originate so close by.”

Inka Andelin, Landscape architect, Ramboll

The Impact
The Summer Streets have quickly become vibrant hubs of urban life in many forms. Observations and collected data show that all four streets are actively used, and citizens strongly support continuing the project for a second year.

“The Kallio Summer Streets has succeeded in bringing more public life to the area by making the streets more inviting and enjoyable. The project has added greenery, improved safety, and created space for people to meet and spend time together. At the same time, it has provided a platform for boosting local businesses and cultural life. The experiment aligns with Helsinki’s strategic goals, which emphasize piloting new ideas and investing in the appeal of urban spaces across the city. It also demonstrates that investing in a pleasant and sustainable city environment pays back many times over. With the Summer Streets, you could say that Karhupuisto has become the district center Kallio never really had.”
Timo Hämäläinen, Senior Advisor, Helsinki City Executive Office

Read more about the Kallion kesäkadut / Kallio Summer Streets project

Interested in seeing similar transformations in your area or collaborating with Parkly on a project? Explore other successful case studies, such as how we transformed a parking space in Lucerne into a vibrant public place. Get in touch for more information or collaboration ideas!