Helsinki/Tallinn bipolarcity
ALEKSI NEUVONEN
26.05.2004
our own city and culture. Now we are entering a stage of the development where people are no longer astonished at differences but similarities: where ever you go, you encounter same goods, brands, styles, idols, stories and words. On the surface level, European cities are becoming increasingly homogenous.
Of course that is only surface level. Fortunately, differences still exist. Life would much duller in a totally homogenous world. But that is not all: when loosing diversity, we are also in danger of loosing part of our imagination and the tools of searching for our identity.
A particular feature in cities is that most of the people are capable of forming some kind of perceptual evidence of their own: they can see what a city looks like and grasp most of the solutions and functions in the light of their earlier experiences. That is, however, just a space they perceive, without its broader social context etc. But when seeing the same scene several times between certain intervals, and experiencing its change, the city gains new qualities - cities are changing entities and the change has a certain direction in it.
This could be one possible outcome of the bipolarity: People understand that things are different on the other side and they could be different at home as well. They understand that the conditions they are living in are contingent. They are aware of opportunities and are able to define in what kind of city they desire to live in. At the same time, they understand what a great influence place one was born, grows and lives in, has on the contents and even on the quality of one’s life. Different places produce different ways of arranging life activities. So the quality of the habitat is understood to be an important question. Further on, people will better equipped (at least in theory) for facing the future and possible changes.
Hypothesis 2: Bipolarcities could be places where people are aware of alternative solutions and recognise them
In our concrete example of Helsinki and Tallinn there are some differences people tend to pick up over everything else. Of course the most visible thing is that Tallinn is significantly older city with its Old-town buildings meanwhile Helsinki is typically a modern era capital built in 19th and 20th centuries.
Another significant difference is of course the historical backround of the 20th century: the two cities were on the opposite sides of the iron
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