Finnish Architectural Review 5/2015: Urban infill and Ring Rail Line

The latest issue of the Finnish Architectural Review discusses the topical phenomena of urban planning: infill development and the growing importance of rail traffic.Last summer a new railway connection was inaugurated in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The Ring Rail Line connects the city centre with the Helsinki-Vantaa airport and opened new possibilities in the urban development of the area. The issue presents two new local centres in Vantaa Kivistö currently under construction and Aviapolis still developing on drawing boards, and Tikkurila being densified into an increasingly urban centre. Two of the new railway stations are featured as well.The centre of the world-renowned Tapiola garden city in Espoo is rapidly densifying due to the new metro line to be opened in 2017. The issue also presents a large urban renewal project in the Tampere railway station area, as well as two smaller scale urban projects in Helsinki, the Pohjola Building block and an individual architect's self-initiated project in the city district of Kallio. The selection of projects demonstrates a variety of methods and different orders of magnitude of urban infill development.