‘Creating futures that would otherwise not be’ – Reflections on the Greater Helsinki Vision process and the making of metropolitan regions

In 2007, the Greater Helsinki Vision 2050 ideas competition was held and attracted international interest, with more than one hundred submissions, out of which ultimately nine were chosen as winners. The ideas competition was a voluntary joint effort of the fourteen municipalities composing the Greater Helsinki Area. In principle, the competition can be understood as the shared effort to create ‘futures that would otherwise not be’ (Albrechts). One possible future is actually the formation of a metropolitan region in Finland, which does not yet exist, at least in any formal sense. Even though it does not yet exist, the making of a metropolis is high on the agenda of many actors in Finland. This article explores the how and why of this competition, the results, the implications and its complications. For that purpose, it will develop a framework to understand the situation, addressing the particularities of the Finnish territory and policy. It will present and comment on the Greater Helsinki Vision competition and also its follow-up process. After this, the article will also reflect on the current academic and planning debate regarding metropolitan regions, their existence and function, and their ambivalences for societal and territorial development. The final conclusions will look into theoretical aspects of ‘vision making’, post-modern planning, and how a territorial response capacity can be shaped to create different futures.

► In-depth reflection of a vision making process in metropolitan setting.
► Applied institutional analysis and development framework.
► Metropolitan area as a discursive construct and transitional space.
► Vision making as soft planning instrument.
► Proposed concept of a territorial response capacity.