Introduction - Ways of Doing Things - Part 1

“ The urban masterplan is a conceptual framework that offers a strategic diagnosis for cities and our environments. It attempts to encapsulate the multiplicity and interdisciplinary approaches required to develop and implement sustainable and innovative solutions to the programmatic, functional and cultural identity of cities”

Tamara Horbacka – Theme Park, Home Issue 2001

As an artist and educator, this quote resonated with me as it outlines the importance of the notion of ‘roots’ and ‘wings’ in relation to any kind of interdisciplinary activity/practice and in particular the working process and strategy of Team Helsinki.

The ‘roots’ of the city are its programmatic structures, functional necessities and existing and inherent cultural identities. People need to live, work, travel, eat, consume, respond, play, grow, create, rebel, disrupt, communicate, migrate, wander etc in the 21^st Century city.

For me, to give a vision of a city is to allow it to have ‘wings’, to think conceptually and laterally about what a city could be in 40 years time, an almost impossible conception in real terms but this is about ideas, about standing real objectives alongside expansive, playful and conceptual thought.