30.8.2012

The Best Thing since the Great Fire of Turku?

Rails, cycle paths, culture and new business opportunities. A radiant life for Old Turku – that’s how the future centre of Turku looks in the Master Planning Office’s master plan "The Best Thing since the Great Fire". At the heart of the work is the overall impact of the effects created by the envisaged Travel Centre.

The results of the work will be used in autumn 2012 to determine the ongoing issue of the light rail network master plan, as well as the part of the master plan that deals with Turku centre. Since the beginning of the Millennium, Turku has planned a Travel Centre similar to Helsinki’s Kamppi, where private and public passenger services connect to all modes of transport.

The plans for the centre have not yet been integrated. A main objective of the study was to analyse the compatibility of different plans and designs. The study makes explicit those effects which are likely to change in the different plans when they become reality. The work has thus highlighted various conflicts and friction between the plans and the aspirations for them, enabling solutions to be proposed that reconcile those conflicts.

When the light rail network, Travel Centre, cycle paths and downtown commercial structure are made the central focus of the plan, they emphasise the city centre in a previously unseen way, making our image of its future much more tangible.

The plan also contains a review of the old city of Turku and its concept and development possibilities.

Shorter commutes, co-ordinated and easy-to-use public transport, the opportunity to move intuitively on cycles, the release of street space for people, urban networking, as well as numerous business opportunities – all of this can be realised with determined and long-term decision-making.

Alex Oljemark

Master Planning Office

Turku, August 2012

Download Parasta sitten palon(pdf 30 mt) (Finnish and Swedish)