UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Representations of Nature – the Shift from Forest Town to Compact City in Finland

Identification

Public canonical key

openalex:w3187178137

Authors

Ranja Hautamäki · J. J. C. Donner

Reported year

2019

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:13:02.416119+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:13:02.416119+00:00

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Documentary abstract — original language

Nature in urban planning is a constantly fluctuating concept, which is manifested in attempts by designers to define a good living environment and its green spaces. The transition from the Finnish forest town to the compact city between the 1950s and 1970s represents a paradigm shift which epitomizes a change in the notion of nature. Although the concept of both the forest town and compact city pursued wellbeing and quality, the ideas about appropriate methods for urban planning varied substantially. The forest town of the 1950s fostered the idea of preserving the landscape in its natural state, and landscape design introduced the aesthetic and social values of nature to urban structures. In the compact city phase in the late 1960s, the constructed urban green and networks of social contacts in efficient grid plans replaced the natural environment. The site-sensitive approach of the forest town was replaced by quantitative instructions on green spaces and requirements for playgrounds.In Finland, post-war residential planning has been mainly studied from the perspective of urban planning and architecture. However, less attention has been paid to how forest towns and compact cities relate to nature and landscape design, or to the contributions of the landscape architects who worked alongside the architects. Nevertheless, nature and green spaces are an integral part of these urban ideals. Our article explores landscapes in forest towns and compact cities, and examines meanings and their societal contexts assigned to nature by urban planners and landscape architects. How was the welfare state and its urban planning ideals conceptualized and materialized in landscape design? Using two case studies in Helsinki – Keski-Vuosaari forest town and Itä-Pasila compact city – we examine these two urban ideals that appear contradictory in numerous ways. We aim to diversify the understanding of these concepts and elucidate the interpretations, in both eras, of nature as a source of wellbeing. We demonstrate that the representations of nature in sparse and dense cities are not contradictory and mutually exclusive, but complementary. We also discuss how the transition from forest town to compact city is reflected in today’s urban planning discourse and in the current struggle between sparsely and densely built urban structures.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W3187178137

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

FI

Natural entities mentioned

Forest · Landscape

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• Document · https://research.aalto.fi/en/publications/d6d2149e-18d8-46cd-9143-9cf560fac745
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W3187178137

Documentary status

Relevance pending

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