ABSTRACT
Unlike the other European cities studied in this volume, Helsinki was built as a brand new capital city; it became the capital in 1812 three years after Finland became a grand-duchy of the Russian empire. Helsinki was also a relatively small metropolis throughout our period, endowed with a large area of natural open space, particularly after the extension of the city boundaries in 1946 and 1966.1 At the same time, green space issues have been an important factor in the construction of the city’s political and environmental history since the late nineteenth century, as areas of natural open space have diminished and designed green space expanded. Three distinct phases of development can be discerned: the Russian period up to 1917; the post-independence era from 1917 to the 1950s, a time of national and metropolitan consolidation, and the decades from the 1960s, a period of large-scale urbanisation and economic growth. In the first two periods, international influences on green space development in Helsinki appear strong and direct, particularly explicit in the planning area; in the final phase they seem more diffuse, embracing environmental and ecological ideas and notions of urban sustainability, as well as planning and other concepts.
