Photo courtesy of Hertta Kiiski.

The project started in May 2010 with a Saturday brunch discussion at Sitra. We invited around ten Helsinki-based people from different fields to imagine a more interesting and enjoyable city and ended up with a bunch of ideas.

Dreaming up life-improving initiatives for Helsinki. Photo courtesy of Kaarle Hurtig.

After the workshop, we started taking the ideas forward, consulting experts and compiling our strategic design proposals into a set of concrete examples; some easily applicable and some crazier Clues to Open Helsinki. The team was also joined by illustrator Nene Tsuboi and graphic designer Anna Mikkola. In the end, we presented the ideas in the form of 17 + 1 postcards from the future.

Photos courtesy of Hertta Kiiski.

Here’s a couple of examples picked up from the set of postcards from Helsinki 2012:

A City of All Shapes and Sizes

In 2012, the city is built from the bottom up. There is more variation in the urban pattern: townhouses, bigger complexes, new and old buildings next to each other. Communal housing is becoming popular and people combine living and working under the same roof. A lotting system is introduced to distribute the urban spaces for different organisations.

Katu Mayors

In 2012, Katu (‘street’ in Finnish) Mayors live in the neighbourhood and are elected by their peers. They participate in city-level planning relevant to the area and ensure that the residents and local businesses are heard, breathing diversity into the city. These local trustees are supported by grants and permits which allow them to manage the environment, services and facilities.

Winter Holidays

In 2012, the unique seasonal circumstances of Helsinki are cherished through moving part of the holiday from summer to winter. Today, people stay in the city for most of the summer, making it more active, enjoyable as well as attractive for tourists. The value in cold and short Helsinki days will be discovered through encouraging interaction between people in the winter, too.

Urbane Industry

Few places have a craft legacy as strong as Finland. In 2012 the local talents have been saved from the brink of extinction through programmes to encourage and foster small scale industry in the heart of the city. Multicultural skills merge in the new collaborations between designers and manufacturers working closely together.

Finally, we organised a party on the occasion of the postcards from the future. Held at the Palm House of Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden, referenced in the set of clues as a living room in the city that could be used more actively, the event also featured super raw chocolate smoothies and music by the Katu Mayor of our choice Timo Kaukolampi.

Photos courtesy of Hertta Kiiski.

Please find more information as well as the rest of the clues at www.cluestoopenhelsinki.fi.

Booming Internet, 2000. Philip Kwame Apagya. Courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

I first saw this photograph at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. It is taken by Philip Kwame Apagya, a Ghanaian artist whose work sets a contemporary twist on traditional West African portraiture through painted backdrops that reflect affluent international culture. Here, a man and a woman pose as boss and secretary right beside the Booming Internet (2000) – a reality beyond their means.

The photo evokes thoughts on access and context in the information age. It points out that not everyone has access to the internet, be it physical access or resources and skills for digital citizenship. And while it entails marginalization the ingenious tableau also hints at untrained, fresh approaches to the contemporary condition.

Drawing on shortcomings as well as low-cost modern technologies spreading in new areas around the globe, marginal media practices can generate potential ideas and initiatives. This happened in Kenya, where Morris Mbetsa, an 18-year-old self-taught inventor, came up with a mobile phone-based “anti-theft device and a vehicle tracking system” using the combination of voice, tone dialing and text messages over a mobile network to control some of the electrical systems in a vehicle. Read about the “Block & Track” system and other mundane inventions on AfriGadget, a booming blog dedicated to documenting Africans using creativity to overcome everyday challenges.