Cosmopolitan localism

Oulu 2040 // Cosmopolitan Localism

Planning a contemporary productive city is on its self a very complicated and often insurmountable feat. In the case of the city of Oulu and its university, it becomes even more challenging considering the extreme climate of the location. These exact hardships where what drove us to create a proposal that not only deals with the very concept of the productivity notion in all scales, but simultaneously does so by addressing and even utilizing the local conditions efficiently and in a radical way.

The concept follows three distinct but integrally linked cores on which the foundations are laid in order to materialize a successful planning process.

Integrated Connectivity; the first core, is inspired by the values of developmental urban environments and sharing culture while offering a cosmopolitan new identity to the area by connecting to global networks of information, people and technology, but still maintaining it deeply rooted in the local climate, traditions, and lifestyle.

Regenerative Ecology; the second core, utilizes the local conditions and processes that have been in existence for millions of years and with the help of careful planning and technology manages to create an efficient network of systems that are able to bring sustainability and efficiency to the new urban environment in all major aspects of food, energy, stormwater and waste production.

Creative Community; the last core is also the one that acts as a key instigator to the overall procedure. Taking advantage of the student body characteristics of the University, the concept aims to energize and educate the local population in an effort not only to showcase the methods used but also to integrate them into it. No matter how innovative the perspective of the solution is, if it is not adopted by the affected residents it is doomed to fail. On the other hand, if the residents embrace the process by becoming a part in it, it will not only thrive but will also evolve in ways not fathomable today.

By following the above principles, the proposed methodology and its evolution, aim, through the multinational capacity of Oulu University’s students, to become a true citizen of the world, a real cosmopolitan who remains routed deep into local traditions and practices and through implementation, in different localities, can take different shapes and forms in a glocal scale.