Lahti is now looking to Tampere for a model for city centre development - City Development Director: ‘We too want a WAU experience’

Daytime view from Lahti market in winter time, photographed from a bird's eye view. In the middle is a Christmas tree and children playing in the snow, surrounded by a few market stalls and permanent buildings. — The use of Lahti Market Square will be redesigned next year.

The vision for the city centre sets out guidelines for urban planning and decision-making. Among other things, the market square and traffic arrangements in the city centre will again be examined in Lahti.

The aim now is to make the centre of Lahti more welcoming.

– It has been seen that city centres are becoming less important as shopping centres, and more and more people are coming to spend time and experience things.

Dressed in a black jacket and hat and wearing glasses, Lahti's development director Olli Alho is walking down the street in a winter landscape. In the background, the intersection of Aleksanterinkatu and Vesijärvenkatu, bicycles and nearby buildings. — Olli Alho, Director of Urban Development. The intersection of Aleksanterinkatu and Vesijärvenkatu in the background is the busiest in the city.

Transport solutions will be assessed next year in the Lahti city centre development plan.

– Not having a car has been a trend that, due to the corona virus, has become even more prominent in city centers. This will certainly be discussed, whatever the outcome. Olli Alho tells.

The council seminar held in Tampere gave a new impetus to the thoughts of Lahti decision-makers.

– We, too, would like the kind of WAU experience that Tampere’s big projects have brought.

Alho sees that although the scale of Tampere is different, it is good to think about one’s own vital factors in Lahti as well.

– The sports center area is certainly one of them. It is a very integral part of the center of Lahti and its development when aiming for the 2030s.

Weekday evenings slow down, busy weekends

The entire retail playing field has been changing with the growth of digitalization and online shopping.

On weekday evenings, however, the city center has quieted down so much that, according to Wirtanen, it has had an effect on the opening hours of specialty stores. Small boutiques may open later and close earlier.

The executive director of Lahti City, Pipsa Virtanen, with dark hair and glasses, dressed in a brown winter coat, smiles at the camera and lifts a brown beanie with tassels from the stand of the market stall. — Pipsa Wirtanen is active in Lahti City ry. As chair of the association, her job is to think about the attractiveness of the city centre.

– But weekends are busy. Then the customers leave and the bars are so full that you can’t fit inside.

According to Wirtanen, the need and demand for pop-up sales has grown in recent years. In addition to product presenters and sellers, temporary premises are also needed by entities producing art and cultural services.

“You have to offer something you can’t get anywhere else”

– I live in Orimattila and I go to work in Lahti in Launee. If I come downtown, I’ll make precision strikes. Then there must be something available that you can’t get anywhere else.

Susanna Tinnilä in a violet jacket, with blond hair, at a potato stall under the shelter of a yellow canopy, a white plastic bag on a wooden level in front. In the background, inside the stall, potato seller Arto Kantola, with a motley beret, in a dark coat, in front of which are potatoes in boxes and a wooden hood on top of them. — Susanna Tinnilä from Orimattila bought potatoes and root vegetables for the Christmas table from market trader Arto Kantola.

Mothers with small children are also not attracted to the city center by the events and night life of the city.

– If the life situation were different, then maybe. I might still come to the restaurant to eat sometime, he reflects.