The inevitable has happened: as we face massive change brought by the challenges and possibilities of tomorrow, we need a new way of thinking and doing to develop the Helsinki Metropolitan Region into all that a City can be. The right mix of innovative incrementalism and strategic leadership can answer the most pressing issues we need to deal with.
In 2007 Demos Helsinki joined an architectural practice NOW Architects to create a vision for the Metropolitan Helsinki area. The vision won the second prize in the international ideas competition. Towards City 2.0 was a forerunner of user-led city development, visioning a city that is totally user driven. In other words a new model of metropolitan democracy, based on local participative governance, foresight and social venture capital.
The members of the entry’s creative team were architects Hans Park and Tuomas Toivonen and thinkers Roope Mokka and Aleksi Neuvonen.