In a popular 1950s song Sörnäinen is described as the shabby but romantic area of street urchins. Today the entire east coast of downtown Helsinki is in a state of change: industrial and harbour activities are giving way to new functions. New maritime residential areas are being developed in Arabianranta, Hermanni, and Sörnäinen. The position of Sörnäisten rantatie road by the waterfront will change accordingly: the side road will become an eastern incoming boulevard.
Since the mid-19th century, Sörnäinen has had an industrial cityscape. Industry has gradually withdrawn from cities since the 1960s, and Sörnäinen too changed its character with the development of Merihaka and Näkki housing blocks. Private and public administration has replaced industry, and central firms and construction companies finished the new appearance of Sörnäinen. Regression slowed down the construction business in the early 1990s, but today there are several projects under way. Hämeentie road is the traditional main route of the area; it still follows the winding alignment that characterised the ancient road to Hämeenlinna and later when it became a suburban street. Compared to Hämeentie road, Sörnäisten rantatie road is a latecomer. It is made on landfill and partially follows the former railway, which used to lead to Hakaniemi Market Square. Sörnäisten rantatie road has, as it were, replaced the shore area that used to be important for industrial transportation. In the 1960s, the new bridge to Kulosaari and the Hakaniemi bridge enabled large-scale development of the eastern suburbs: Sörnäisten rantatie road connected these two, and traffic gradually increased. The line-up of the old, traditional industrial buildings largely follows the old meandering shoreline and forms one of the liveliest waterfront facades of Helsinki. However, due to the uncontrollable growth of Sörnäisten rantatie road, the current cityscape is somewhat incoherent.
We were assigned to define the functional structure and cityscape of Sörnäisten rantatie road and related areas in order to provide a base for town plan amendments to individual plots and blocks, and for the planning of urban space and traffic. The principal planning area is situated between Hakaniemenranta street and the old gasworks area. The assignment emphasised the reformation of Sörnäisten rantatie road into a street, instead of its current rather highway-like character, and its main function in the cityscape as the eastern incoming road.

Brave New Sörnäistenranta
It was clear from the very start that the measures should be tangible enough to integrate the area into the southern downtown area, which is becoming denser. It was difficult to even physically approach and interpret the area. Mere decoration and plantings seemed insufficient to solve the dire contrasts in the cityscape. Moreover, the organisers of the DTM Rally had ideas of their own about the future measures. After the creative analysis stage, our planning area finally extended to cover the entire sector south of Hämeentie road. We could not help peeking into future and visualising the growing city from Hakaniemi Market Square to Hermanni fish harbour.
With the encouragement of the client, the assignment was constantly modified and extended, and consequently became more and more interesting all the time. With regard to urban space, our aim was to create a clear, coherent basic structure: against the background of the dense urban structure of adjacent Kallio, the areas in a more open structure form islands and capes of their own, interconnected by water and green areas. The waterfront location is the primary source of identity. Special emphasis was given to the preservation of long views. At the Lintulahti field, the curve of Sörnäisten rantatie road follows the building front, which allows for the formation of a park facing Kruunuvuorenselkä bay. The former gasworks area has potential for recreational and cultural functions.

Hakaniemi Strand Promenade
Our plan treats Siltavuorensalmi strait as a clear-featured landscape space, bordered on the Hakaniemi side by the new development zone and on the Kruununhaka side by the building front a little farther on and the dense trees by the shore. The new Hakaniemenranta development zone provides the northern downtown areas with a new façade, which has an urban appearance and improved coherence. The waterfront zone is turned into a lively, active public space connected to the Hakaniementori Market Square. The development of the waterfront does not require the strait to be narrowed. The zone is deliberately narrow in order to create an intimate ambience. The strand promenade and the new development zone extend through under Hakaniemi bridge as far as Merihaka, thus improving the links to Hakaniemenranta. The new waterfront buildings are seven-storey residential buildings, placed transversally to the shoreline in order to preserve views towards the strait. A pedestal separates the semi-public courtyards from the more public zone by the shore. The shape of the Board of Education plot is reformed with the new alignments of traffic routes. New infills provide the urban space with density and clearer configuration. In addition, a new building mass marks the crossing of Sörnäisten rantatie road and the park axis from Eläintarhanlahti bay to Merihaka. The plan takes into account a possible lower bridge replacing the existing high Hakaniemi bridge; this would improve the pedestrian links to Kruununhaka.

Merihaka Refined
The edge of the Merihaka deck is given a new, definite shape. By the foot of the curving stone basket pedestal there is a new light traffic connection from Hakaniemi bridge to the north. The heavy wall encloses new commercial and other spaces, which enliven the ground level and link Merihaka functionally to the surrounding urban texture. The views and connections from the deck will improve with the demolition of the upper parking decks. The new surface area is allocated for recreational uses. New parking space could instead be provided in a new intermediate storey beneath the existing deck.

Waterfront Park in Lintulahti
In Lintulahti Sörnäisten rantatie road curves to meet the building front, which creates a large, coherent area: an urban park supporting the new residential identity. The road is taken closer to the building front in order to create a street-like spatial impression. The new appearance of the waterfront is urban and refined, making it a significant part of the downtown pedestrian network. In Lintulahti, many old industrial buildings are giving way to new buildings. The lower floors are commercial spaces, while the upper ones are either in office or residential use.
The shape of the shoreline is clarified by making it longer and narrower. The new park is urban in nature and treated as part of an open landscape, thus preserving long views to Katajanokka and Kruunuvuorenselkä. By the sea there is a strand promenade, articulated by various activities such as a marina, a square, and cube-shaped sauna pavilions piled in the water. At the bottom of Lintulahti bay there is a restaurant. The new services on the opposite shore and the peaceful park at the top of Hanasaari complement the whole and make the area an important recreational area with easy access for the residents of Kallio and Sörnäinen.
An important view from Lintulahti to Suvilahti power plant and gas containers is preserved. The old buildings and the new Hanasaari C power plant rise as independent volumes from a new, finished base level. The new underground station will contribute to the significance of the area, which makes it important to open the existing warehouse and maintenance area and develop more public activities in the area. Through the study of new uses and with careful infilling, the area has great potential as a distinctive centre of cultural and leisure activities.

Postscript
When our plan was presented in the newspapers, we found out we had caused a small storm on the Merihaka shores. We found the residents’ reactions particularly surprising: they were opposed to the new park, fearing new homeless drunks appearing in the area. Political suspicions also emerged: it was feared that the bourgeois southern Helsinki was trying to invade the traditional working-class identity area north of Pitkäsilta bridge. These reactions are highly understandable and are a part of social transition in the post-industrial era. The mental borders separating the traditional areas are gradually dissolving. Time will decide when our common city is able to rise in full bloom in Sörnäinen as well. Then we’ll all have a jolly whistle like the street urchins in the song...

Daniel Bruun, Jussi Murole