19 Feb 2015

The Next Helsinki - Call for ideas, submission deadline March 2

Helsinki is one of the world's great cities – a beautiful and cultivated place, dancing by the water. But it is a city – like all others – with real needs. For housing that is abundant and affordable. For an on-going retrofit for sustainability that is such an urgent part of the future of all the world's cities. For rational transportation. For inventive platforms for experiencing and producing art. And for public spaces and a public culture that can generate decent livelihoods and be accountable to communities.

The Next Helsinki is a call for innovative ideas about how to more fully meet the city's cultural, spatial, and sustainability needs. Deadline for submissions is on March 2, 2015.

Following the success of the Guggenheim Bilbao in transforming that region's tourist economy, many city managers have been seduced by the fantasy that a high-concept museum, designed by a starchitect, will turn around its urban fortunes in a similar way. Advocates of this branding formula see Helsinki as an ideal candidate for a new Guggenheim franchise. Yet the proposal has generated a surprisingly heated public debate among Finland's citizenry, with pro and anti Guggenheim sentiment running high.

The Next Helsinki competition aims to elevate the debate by giving voice to bold and thoughtful alternatives. It calls upon architects, urbanists, artists, environmentalists, students, activists, poets, politicians, and all others who love cities to imagine how Helsinki and the South Harbor site allotted to the proposed museum can be transformed for the maximum benefit of the city's residents and visitors.

The international jury members are:
Michael Sorkin (Chair), Ilona Anhava, Walter Hood, Juha Huuskonen, Heta Kuchka, Juhani Pallasmaa, Miguel Robles-Durán, Andrew Ross, Neil Spiller, Joanna Warsza, Mabel Wilson, Sharon Zukin.

The Next Helsinki is co-organized by Checkpoint Helsinki, Terreform, and Global Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.).