Recreating Shopping Malls in Cities videos are now available

Urban Academy´s morning coffee event Recreating Shopping Malls in Cities 14 September 2020 was organized as pre-event for the Nordic CityMaking Week. You can watch the video recordings of the event here.

In the first video the speakers are, architect and university lecturer Hossam Hewidy from the Aalto University and researcher Juha Vuorinen from the Helsinki City Museum.

In his presentation, Hossam Hewidy highlighted the fact that currently malls are locations for ethnic retail in the Helsinki area and for that reason malls are very important for immigrant entrepreneurs.  He also pondered how to get retailers involved in the discussion about whether shopping malls should be demolished or renovated.

Juha Vuorinen talked about the history of the Helsinki shopping malls and the role they played in the development of the suburbs focusing especially on the Puhos area.

In the second video, you can watch the presentations of unit manager and architect Anri Linden from the City of Helsinki’s Urban Environment Department and chief design officer Hanna Harris from City of Helsinki.

Anri Lindens presentation focused on the future of Helsinki’s shopping malls. She presented two examples of shopping malls, Kulosaari and Puhos, where demolition is on the agenda. She reminded that the question of building preservation is always a political and economic issue.

The last presentation was by Hanna Harris. The topic of her presentation was how design thinking can be used to shape malls to stand the test of time and how to involve residents in planning future’s local landmarks, like shopping malls.

Many thanks to the speakers and the audience. Thanks for the cooperation to the City of Helsinki and Nordic CityMaking Week.

Text: Neetta Erikssson

Photo Pekka Vyyhtinen / Helsinki City Museum