Topic
Cities
Commentary
Finland aims to reduce traffic emissions by 50% by 2030. To meet this goal, Demos Helsinki and partners held discussions to explore sustainable urban mobility. Key findings include the benefits of car-free living, the economic advantages of sustainable mobility, the role of compact urban design, the importance of data sharing, and the need for regulatory changes to promote low-carbon transportation options. Collaboration between cities, businesses, and mobility sectors is essential to creating accessible, sustainable transport systems that improve the wellbeing of citizens and the economy.
Since October 2020 Demos Helsinki and RAKLI have been imagining the future of carbon neutral infrastructure in cooperation with 12 key actors in the field. Participating stakeholders include cities, energy companies, infrastructure developers, contractors, manufacturers, a construction company and a financial institution. The aim of the multistakeholder project is to…
It’s 2021. The transportation sector needs to pay attention to one of the elephants in the room of our times: equality and how power imbalances became embedded in cities and regions’ transit services. One of the tangible consequences of the status quo is the upholding of invisible barriers that hold…
Design and Architecture Norway and Nordic collaboration partners are inviting you to the second digital workshop, open for everyone who wants to contribute to the development of a joint Nordic smart city model, as a human-centered alternative to the American and Chinese models. Demos Helsinki is one of the organizations…
Over the last decade, people have become fascinated by smart cities and how technology can help make cities better places to live. The world’s leading smart city models, the so-called Chinese and Silicon Valley models, have been criticised for increasing public surveillance and the power of global tech companies. In…
Publications
Drawing on almost five years of Cities Mission implementation, Demos Helsinki and its partners from Dark Matter Labs and the Mission Board argue that mission governance has reached policy readiness. Its mechanisms have been tested, its governance infrastructure is in place, and it offers a transferable model for delivering on EU strategic priorities at scale.
A group of motivated cities and municipalities in Finland joined a one-year problem-solving journey to address the numerous interrelated challenges that slow down sustainable city transition. Demos Helsinki coordinated the subgroup, which focused on the “challenge bundle” of urban planning.
Achieving an impactful decrease in homelessness — and preventing it from happening in the first place — requires significant structural and operational changes. While Housing First holds great potential to enable systemic change in homelessness, it also risks being interpreted and deployed as a mere housing management tool — a misunderstanding of tragic consequences.
Projects
Material democracy develops ways to improve participation in the formulation and implementation of Finland’s environmental and energy policies, aiming to widen and open participation in a manner that also benefits policymaking and democracy. It equally studies citizen-led action and its relationship to public initiatives.
ESPON TERRBOUND partners with sub-national authorities to co-create approaches that bring planetary boundaries into the practice of territorial governance.
The project supports Ukrainian municipalities in their pursuit of climate neutrality amidst rebuilding efforts. Together with leading EU and Ukrainian partners, including city networks, research organisations and urban stakeholders, Demos Helsinki supports this project by providing arenas for sharing knowledge and testing new methods for engaging citizens and other stakeholders in these processes.
People
Alice Chakrapeesirisuk
Alice is interested in the space between thinking and doing: how design, research, and speculative imagination can help us build different ways of addressing global challenges. Sitting at the intersection of design, ecology, and political theory, she is drawn to questions that span scales and disciplines, from designing for multispecies…
Toban Shadlyn
Toban is drawn to the spaces between things. Between different fields and sectors, between theory and practice, between how things are and how they could be. With a background in human ecology and architecture, her practice has expanded from designing physical spaces to designing the learning and collaborative environments that…
Max Stearns
Max thrives in the messy moments, when there’s no tried-and-true path for where to go next. Drawing on a background that merges design research and strategy with community organizing, Max applies a patient attentiveness and knack for connecting dots to turn sprawling, cross-disciplinary problems into carefully-honed questions and actionable next…
Ira Nääppä
Ira works at the heart of city innovation, bringing design thinking into the complex, collaborative work of shaping future cities. As a designer, she believes design isn’t just about how things look – it’s a strategic tool for creating systematic and meaningful societal change. At Demos Helsinki, her work centres…
Angela Galeano
Angela’s work sits at the intersection of innovation, learning, and public transformation. Driven by a systemic approach, a culture of experimentation, and a deep sense of humanity, she helps governments become more imaginative, inclusive, and equipped to navigate uncertainty with creativity and care. Before joining Demos Helsinki, Angela managed public…
Veronika Bylicki
Veronika is a strategic leader passionate about the intersection of governance, cities, climate, and democracy. She is particularly interested in the ‘how’: from ensuring that governance structures and decision-making processes enable transformative change rather than reinforce the status quo, to fostering collaboration in teams, organizations, and broader systems. She is…
Johannes Jauhiainen
At Demos Helsinki, Johannes Jauhiainen focuses on participation, interaction, impact, and science-society relations within the CoWup and CO3 research projects. He is passionate about public innovation, new forms of decision-making, democratic development, geopolitics, and the role of cities as pioneers of societal transformation. Before joining Demos Helsinki, Johannes worked on…
Tanya Sahdev
Tanya is driven by a simple but powerful idea: design can shape more just, inclusive, and imaginative systems. At Demos Helsinki, she puts this belief into practice – working at the intersection of cities, governance, and sustainability to support transformative change. Tanya brings a design-led perspective to complex societal challenges,…
Lina Forsman
De Bruxelles à Helsinki! Lina is our go-to expert on how multilevel governance works in practice. Before joining Demos, she helped put cities at the centre of EU policymaking, shaping advocacy strategies on everything from urban air and water quality to nature restoration. Her work focused on the climate transition…
Janne Rinne
Janne is a sustainability enthusiast with extensive experience in environmental policy, sustainability transformation, and project management. Janne’s background is a mix of research and hands-on innovation projects. Working as a researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute, he acquired a broad perspective on environmental policy and governance. At the innovation company…
Mariela Urra Schiaffino
Design isn’t just about building objects, it’s also about building a future, and, for Mariela, it’s all about a sustainable one. Through utilising tools of design, imagination, and creativity, she reimagines societal relations to nature. These new perspectives are vital to building a sustainable future for all. Design is an…
Yu-Yi Huynh
How can citizen engagement transform cities? If you’re searching for the answer, no need to look further: Yu-Yi is here to help! Her knowledge of citizen engagement processes and participation is sought after. Justice in climate action is something we value deeply and Yu-Yi is an expert in its implementation…
Johannes Klein
Johannes is our experienced climate change adaptation researcher. With a special focus on the governance of adaptation in an urban and regional context, he knows how to find pathways to sustainable and resilient communities through academic research. He is inspired to contribute in just, transformative, and inclusive adaptation action. Being…
Oya Duman
Do you ever find yourself thinking about how to mobilise various stakeholders to achieve fair, sustainable, and joyful cities of the future? Oya sure does! She seamlessly integrates her professional background in architecture with a keen research focus on collaborative urban planning processes. Thanks to this, she really knows her…
Seona Candy
Seona is leading the cross-cutting theme of socio-ecological justice and just transitions at Demos Helsinki. This involves not only how to collaboratively imagine sustainable and equitable futures, but also how to design, implement and monitor transitions to ensure the way to get there is fair, legitimate and socially just. Seona…
Lilybell Evergreen
Lilybell is our go-to climate governance expert. We all know the need for a sustainable future but there are not many pathways to reach it. Governance, however, offers one and Lilybell knows how to utilise this. A key focus is know-how for tackling multi-level problems through means of better coordination…
Erkki Perälä
Did you know that cities account for over 70% of global emissions? Erkki sure does, which is why he works on supporting the decarbonisation of several European cities. He is especially intrigued by connecting the narratives of climate change and the built environment, and finds cities a practically-sized unit to…
Kari Jalonen
Kari Jalonen is an organisational researcher whose work at Demos Helsinki focuses on planning, performing and developing the research operations at Demos Helsinki. Kari defended his Ph.D.(Econ.) on city strategy at the Hanken School of Economics in 2017, and has since worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and…
Kaisa Schmidt-Thomé
Kaisa works with one foot in the practical, one in research. She is our in-house Docent, i.e, Adjunct Professor in Strategic Planning for Urban Sustainability at Tampere University. She is happy to be on-call on this topic and on anything related to regenerative, joyful cities. Kaisa is not a fan…
Otto-Wille Koste
Otto-Wille is a senior expert in the Regenerative Infrastructure Team. He focuses on cities’ sustainability transformations. Cities are under constant change opposed by various phenomena, and Otto-Wille develops processes and solutions with which cities and other actors in the urban sphere can foster required transformations. Otto-Wille holds a master’s degree…
Aleksi Neuvonen
Aleksi Neuvonen is a recognised expert and thinker on understanding the change (and unchange) of societies and organisations. Aleksi holds PhD honors from Tampere University and Radboud University Nijmegen. During his career, Aleksi has published over 30 reports, books or academic articles, focusing primarily on methods and tools for transformative…
Leena Alanko
Leena is our go-to person for developing Demos Helsinki’s sales processes, ensuring that new opportunities both align with our societal impact goals and meet the needs of our partners and clients. She is passionate about reducing health inequalities, promoting the wellbeing of people and the planet, and clarifying the role…
Roope Mokka
Roope is all about the future. For many the future seems scary, but where some see problems Roope sees solutions. He has an exceptional mindset to see the pathway for societal transformation. He gathers impactful alliances through various fields to work together with a shared goal. Whether it is learning…
Juha Leppänen
Juha Leppänen serves as Chair of the Board at Demos Helsinki. With a mission to build a fair, sustainable and joyful next era, Juha helps national and local governments, businesses and NGOs to anticipate and lead key transformations of our century. Advising actors from private corporations like Nokia to NGOs…
Olli Bremer
Olli has worked with us since early 2016, working across all sorts of projects and in a variety of capacities — for example, serving as Managing Director. Thus, he is a go-to person whenever we need to be able to connect different aspects of our work and sew together a…
Themes
Cities can lead collective action. We help city leaders and administrations transform their governance, equipping them with the mindset, tools, and knowledge to address societal challenges.
Humble Timber: Building towards a carbon-neutral future
March 9, 2022
Timber buildings offer a sustainable solution to decarbonizing construction. The Humble Timber alliance, led by Demos Helsinki, brings together key stakeholders in Finland’s building industry to address challenges in transitioning to carbon-neutral construction. By fostering collaboration and identifying shared goals, the alliance aims to overcome barriers like the supply-demand dilemma and promote timber as a competitive and sustainable building material for the future.