Article Highlights
The benefits of the forest: From its diverse plant life to its calming effect, the forest’s many advantages are brought into the urban environment, raising awareness of the importance of forests and promoting the City of Lahti’s Health Forest initiative.
Green pocket park: The integration of a variety of forest plants and vertical greenery significantly amplifies the installation’s green density, creating an immersive experience.
Enhanced wellbeing: Greenery provides a sanctuary of coolness, tranquillity and shade and elevates comfort of seating areas.
Introduction: The mini health forest connects to the health forest near the central hospital and raises awareness of nature’s benefits for the well-being of the city’s residents. This collaboration between Innogreen and Parkly brings a modular forest pocket into the heart of the city, featuring seating, vertical greenery, and planters—creating a small forest oasis for everyone to enjoy while enhancing the city scape.
The challenge:
To connect places and raise awareness about nearby nature services, the city of Lahti has commissioned InnoGreen & Parkly to create a space that brings forest nature into the urban environment. Funded by the GoGreenRoutes project and Horizon 2020 through EU funding, the initiative explores the intersection of nature, technology, and society, implementing nature-based solutions that improve physical and mental health in six “Cultivating Cities,” including Lahti. Parkly’s solution aligns with the project’s goals: a temporary installation with flexible, reusable modules, while InnoGreen’s expertise in urban greening ensures the ideal selection of forest plants for an urban setting.
The solution:
The modular mini health forest offers a space where the benefits of forests can be experienced on a small scale: refreshment, cooling, soundscapes, and scents—inviting citizens to explore the Health Forest by the City of Lahti. The plants include pines, spruces, birches, and lingonberries, all typical Finnish forest species. While these plants are familiar to locals, they are rarely seen in urban settings. The modular green wall, a collaboration between Parkly and InnoGreen, enhances the soundscape. In a pilot with the City of Helsinki, it was shown to reduce traffic noise by up to 7 dB, while the plants themselves create a soothing soundscape with the movement of the wind.
Urban Revival:
- Enhancing attractiveness: The green pocket park offers an inviting space to sit, meet others, relax, and unwind—bringing some of the general benefits of forests into the urban environment. The lush greenery contrasts with the hard urban surfaces, emphasizing the increasing need for more green spaces in cities.
- Project flexibility: The modular urban furniture fits temporary projects and installations – through our partner InnoGreen a rental model is available in Finland.
- Environmental and aesthetic contributions: The introduction of a lush green wall of plants transforms the urban square into a vibrant focal point, showcasing a tangible ecological commitment while enhancing the visual appeal.
For each Parkly module produced, we donate to protect 20 sqm of old-growth forests in Finland — 420 sqm in total for this location.
Get involved: Interested in collaborating with Parkly to incorporate more seating and greenery in your area? Get in touch with us!
Parkly is dedicated to making urban spaces greener, more functional, and vibrant for everyone to enjoy.
