Kokkola Pedestrian Area

The City of Kokkola wanted their car-inhabited city center area to become obviously pedestrian, but with as small contributions as possible. ALA’s solution was to start by placing a tree in the middle of the street. With time, and with more trees planted, the street (sufficient width dimension courtesy of the Finnish traffic engineering standard) will then become more park or square like.

The second main gesture proposed was a whole new set of street furnishings designed to completely change the way the citizens behave in the area. Various elements follow the same formal logic where the shape of things is defined by pedestrian flows. Most of these furniture-like elements were designed to be installed one by one,  while the upgrades to surface materials were to happen piece by piece, with time.

Finessed lighting design and soundscape were designed for the area as part of the project. The combination of these new additions is unique to Kokkola, strongly adding to the sense of place (which often lacks from smaller Finnish towns with their sometimes ruthless post-war rebuilding).