Read all about Viikki

This is Viikki

Viikki and Kivikko are cosy areas favoured also by families with children. New housing units and business premises will be built in both areas in the next few years.

The building of houses and business premises is a relatively recent phenomenon in Viikki, and work is still going on there at a lively pace. Viikki is also a centre of top-level research, education and entrepreneurship.

Viikki is known in Finland and elsewhere as a pioneer of ecological building. The area is home to one of Finland’s first wooden apartment building development projects. Built next to the University of Helsinki’s model farm, the 64-apartment condominium was given the national Wood Award in 1998.

Located In the southern part of Viikki, the 258-hectare Viikki-Vanhankaupunginlahti nature reserve with its bird wetlands is part of the Natura 2000 Networking Programme. It is also an important part of the City of Helsinki’s green zone, which extends as far as Vantaa and Sipoo via Viikki’s fields and the Kivikko recreational park.

The building of Kivikko’s residential area lasted from 1992 to 2006. More houses and new workplaces are going to be built in the southern part of the area and along the Lahdenväylä motorway respectively.
 

Picture: Pertti Nisonen

Construction

There are currently over 11,000 inhabitants of Viikki, and the figure will grow by several thousand once the new residential areas are completed in the middle of the 2010s. New homes will also be built in Kivikko. Business premises will be built in both areas.

Around 7,000 students are educated on the Viikki campus. Viikki is also a lively place of work; the building of new workplaces is focused in the science park and along main traffic routes. The building of business premises will continue until the end of the 2010s.

Several building projects focusing on the energy efficiency of the structures have been, and, in the next few years, will be, carried out in Viikki. Additionally, other kinds of construction-related development will be taking place: the building of wooden houses and issues associated with apartment building living will be solved in new ways.

An area of apartment buildings and terraced houses providing accommodation for 5,000 residents has already been built in Kivikko. New apartment buildings and smaller houses, enough for 700 new residents, will be added to these. Building work will commence throughout 2011 and 2012. A new area for workplaces is being built by the Lahdenväylä motorway.
 

Viikki in 2010. Picture Roy Koto

Transport

The main trunk roads to Viikki for private cars are Lahdentie road, the Kehä I ring road and Viikintie road. Public transport from Viikki to the city centre comes in the form of buses. Crosstown buses are also in service.

Buses to Viikki leave from the city centre and Malmi. Kivikko is served by metro and the metro’s connection buses.

The No. 550 bus cuts though Viikki as part of its crosstown route. This ‘Jokeri’ line runs from Westend station to Itäkeskus following a route that includes stopping at Leppävaara, Pitäjänmäki train station, Huopalahti train station and Oulunkylä train station.

Bus No. 506, the science-line, provides a connection between university campuses and other science and technology centres in the Capital Region. The route goes between Pohjois-Tapiola, Otaniemi, Meilahti, Pasila, Kumpula, Arabianranta and Viikki. The final stop on the science-line is in the university area of Viikki.

Traffic plans

A second crosstown bus, Jokeri II, is being planned. In the first phase, it would connect Myyrmäki and Vuosaari. A starting date of 2012 for the route has been suggested. In Viikki, the relevant bus stops will be located on the Kehä I ring road.

The Lahdenväylä motorway’s development project includes the building of bus stops near the western part of Viikinmäki. Plans for the science park have taken into account northern exit ramps to Pihlajanmäentie road.

Traffic connections to Viikki and Kivikko will improve once the Kivikko interchange is completed. The plan is to start the construction work in 2012. There are also plans to build a bridge over the Lahdenväylä motorway thereby improving the Kivikko workplace area’s connections in the direction of Malmi.

Light traffic will be served by the already existing Kaivantopuisto bridge over the Porvoonväylä motorway as well as by the overpass over the Kehä I ring road, which is to be made a wide wildlife crossing, built at the same time as the Kivikko interchange.
 

Timetable

2011

  • Building of housing units continues in Latokartano, Viikki Science Park, Viikinmäki and Viikinranta.
  • Building of the new neighbourhood in the southern part of Kivikko begins.
  • Construction of municipal engineering infrastructure, streets and parks continues.
  • The pre-construction stage of the Kivikko workplace area is completed, while the building of the business premise projects continues.
  • The Viikki environmental house in the science park is completed, and the city’s Environment Centre can relocate its operations there.
  • At the beginning of the year, “SnowPark”, meant specifically for snowboarders, is opened in the Kivikko recreational exercise park.

2012

  • Construction of the Kivikko interchange begins.
  • Building of homes and business premises continues.

 

Viikinranta