Car still needed in Viikki green suburb

Shortage of local services and poor bus connections erode credibility

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By Sami Soininen
     
      Residents dig in their gardens next to their houses, and solar panels shine in the sunlight in Viikki, a residential neighbourhood in the northeast of Helsinki designed to be as environmentally sustainable as possible. Meanwhile, to the north, near the Lahti motorway, rock is being dynamited and forest is being felled to make way for more housing.
      Viikki is growing fast, but many are wondering exactly how environmentally friendly the area really is. Is it all just a pretence, with which it was possible to push through a construction project near a bird sanctuary in the Viikki-Vanhankaupunginlahti area?
      "I have never nurtured the illusion that the neighbourhood as a whole would be any more ecological than any other. But there is a rural-type environment nearby", says Heikki Poroila, chairman of the local neighbourhood association, who has lived in the area for seven years.
     
Poroila feels that Viikki has been erroneously marketed with images in which a modern university campus combines with an ecological model urban area.
      According to Poroila, the proximity of the Faculty of Biosciences of the University of Helsinki is not reflected much in the everyday lives of residents. "We have the Christmas trees sold each year by the students of forest science, and the magnificent cows of the experimental farm, but that is about it."
      Much remains to be desired in services, and only one slow bus goes directly into the centre of the city. Many travel by bus first to the Siilitie Metro station, and take the Metro from there. A faster rush-hour bus line has been promised for the autumn, but questions have been raised about its planned routing.
     
A satisfaction survey conducted in the area a few years ago showed that Viikki residents are mainly pleased with their neighbourhood. However, more than 70 per cent were dissatisfied with both public and private services.
      While the survey was being taken, there was just one shop in the area. Since then, another shop and a church have opened there, but this district of 6,000 residents still lacks a health clinic.
      The temporary clinic was merged with one in nearby Pihlajanmäki; a separate service point, which had initially been promised, is apparently not coming, even though the number of residents is expected to grow to nearly ten thousand by 2010.
      For pedestrians and for those pushing prams, the clinic in the neighbouring district is located inconveniently on the other side of the Lahti motorway.
     
In a neighbourhood founded on the idea of sustainable development, local services and public transport should be in better shape.
      "There are people in our area who have not acquired a car even though they would need it. Most Viikki residents ignore ecological principles and get a car for the sake of convenience", Poroila says.
      At the Helsinki City Planning Department, Markku Siiskonen, who is responsible for the Viikki project, insists that the green aspects of Viikki are more than mere window-dressing.
      When houses were designed for the Viikki neighbourhood, certain minimum requirements were set for the consumption of heating energy, electricity, and water consumption.
      The goals were met with varying degrees of success. The differences between buildings in the area are great. Heating energy consumption was an average 15 per cent above the minimum level, but 25 per cent less than in standard buildings of the same period.
     
Average electricity consumption met the minimum requirements, as did water consumption. Still, in more than half of the buildings, the consumption of both exceeded the most optimistic goals set by the builders.
      Even those buildings in the Viikki area that are not part of the experimental ecological area were designed with environmental criteria in mind - even though there are no solar panels, and there is less gardening space.
      "People living in Viikki do not have to be especially knowledgeable in ecological matters. We have looked for models that can be implemented in all types of construction. I feel that we have succeeded quite well in Viikki", Siiskonen says.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 27.4.2007


Links:
  Viikki (Wikipedia)

SAMI SOININEN / Helsingin Sanomat
sami.soininen@hs.fi