The city as a living room

Riihimäki has great opportunities to develop into a city where everything important to people is close by. The 15-minute city concept is implemented in both Paris and New York - and its basic idea can also be seen in the master plan architect of the city of Riihimäki Niina Matkalan in speech. He talks about an experiential urban environment, where the city dwellers want to create places to meet and hang out.

A 15-minute city means a city where everything important to a person's everyday life can be reached either on foot or by bike in 15 minutes. The concept became public in 2019, and was crystallized by a French professor Carlos Monero, who researches complex systems for his work.

With the concept, we want to create cities whose residents spend less time moving from one place to another and have more time for things important to themselves and their families. Moreno's idea also takes cars out of the city center and replaces them with pedestrians and cyclists.

A thought for a quarter of a city

The idea of ​​the city of Varti lives on in the plans of the Jokikylä residential area under construction in Riihimäki, which is part of the general plan of the station area.

- From Jokikylä, you can cycle to both the Finnish Museum of Glass and the Käräjäkoski nature trail in about a quarter of an hour. Riihimäki as a whole is a 15-minute city, says Matkala.

In the architecture of Jokikylä, attention is paid not only to the houses themselves, but also to what comes between the houses: space for people to be together.

The Vantaan River will flow through the area and a public park area will be built around the river bed.

- The idea is to build a park that is intended for all city residents. We want to create living opportunities in such a way that a unique life can be realized both at home and outside, says Matkala.

- Park areas can be common living rooms for city dwellers. The challenge in Riihimäki is of course the same as in all Finnish cities; how to make parks comfortable even in winter?

It will be a short walk from the Jokikylä residential area to the train station. Many people commute from Riihimäki to work in other towns, so in that respect the 15-minute concept cannot be realized here.

- On the other hand, the increase in remote work has an effect here and gives people more free time, Matkala says.

Recreation areas to the fore

Urban planning is connected under the Rakas Riksu and Uusi Riksu flagship projects, which are intended to increase the vitality of Riihimäki and the well-being of the townspeople, among other things. The goal is also to highlight Riihimäki's recreation areas.

- For example, we are considering how to make outdoor recreation areas, such as Hatlamminsuo and Vahteristo, easier to reach on foot or by bike from all over the city, Matkala says.

The third important outdoor area in Riihimäki is Riutta. Older people from Riihimäki remember Riutta as a skiing center, but today there are skiing and nature trails, orienteering and an 18-hole freebee golf course. Riutta also has an eight-tick nature trail for the whole family, which is about a kilometer long video adventure trail. Along the route, Iita Ilves and Dr. Riutta Tomera adventure in the videos behind the QR codes and talk about the wonders of nature.

Riihimäki is a good place for outdoor activities. Hatlamminsuo has recently renewed pine trees, along which you can get to know the diversity of the marsh area in the summer. Both cranberries and lacquer trees grow there, which last summer's outdoor recreation area has good trails in winter, and if you do the whole run, the terrain changes are wild and will certainly make skiing difficult, says the nature and wilderness guide from Riihimäkä Pekka Poutiainen.

A person has to get out. The fact is that when you listen and watch in the heart of nature, marveling at the greenery in the summer, the brown in the fall and the whiteness in the winter, it really calms the nerves, says Poutiainen.

The health-promoting effects of nature are undeniable, and therefore nature should be accessible to everyone.

- The bus line could, for example, pass through all outdoor recreation areas on weekends - Hatlamminsu, Vahteristo, Riutta and Käräjäkoski, Poutiainen suggests.

Accessibility has also been taken into account in Riihimäki's new detached house areas. The Metsäkorvi area is located near the border of Hausjärvi and it is about three kilometers from the city center. The area is easily accessible by car, bus, and light traffic. In the area, there are still about 30 detached house plots for sale and rent, as well as mini-plots of about 600m in size.

- We get a lot of inquiries from bigger cities. For their residents, the three-kilometer distance between the city center and the detached house area seems really short, says the land use planner of the city of Riihimäki Ulla Peppanen.

Quarter. That's roughly the time it takes to cycle from the center to Metsäkorpe.

Kati Ala-Ilomäki

Sustainable development is present in Riihimäki

From January 2020 to August of the same year, the Sustainable Life for the people of Riihimäki, or KERI project, ran in Riihimäki. The goal of the project was to create a sense of community and to bring together services in accordance with sustainable development, so that it would be easier for city dwellers to make sustainable choices. The KERI network operates in the city as the successor of the KERI project. The network continues the project's work with clubs, associations and townspeople.

Due to the restrictions on gatherings in the spring, we have not been able to plan activities, but hopefully this will be easier in the fall and there will be a chance for meetings, says Jenni Takala, environmental expert of the city of Riihimäki.

More information about KERI activities can be obtained by subscribing to the newsletter from the e-mail address jenni.takala@riihimaki.fi or from the Riihimäki city's resource-wise website