The Entangled City / Elonkirjon kaupunki

The Entangled City (Elonkirjon kaupunki) began in 2023 initiated by Cecilia Aintila, Heljä Nieminen, Seela Pentikäinen, and Siiri Hänninen who are working in the fields of architecture, urban planning, cultural production, art and activism.

Urban forests are home to a wide variety of life. As urbanization progresses, urban forests are becoming increasingly crucial in adapting to the climate and environmental crisis and also for maintaining a connection with nature. In the current urban planning debate, housing production targets often overshadow these values.

Entangled City develops alternative plans through participatory planning in close collaboration with residents in forest dispute areas. They strive to highlight the perspectives of more-than-human residents in decision-making regarding urban forests; emphasize the importance of residents’ local knowledge in planning; apply innovative and life-centered planning approaches; and expand the architect’s role —the client of the activist architect is the entire spectrum of life.

Besides the planning work, they meet local planners and policy makers to discuss the alternatives, share knowledge and try to make the complex planning processes more accessible to citizens whose life they directly affect. They have also helped the locals to share their thoughts in the official participatory processes.

The impact of the alternative plans can already be seen. The Entangled City project has been able to participate in crucial stages of planning processes and as a result of collective effort, official plans have been changed and many of the forests have been saved. When presenting concrete visual alternatives, people from very different political backgrounds are often willing to support climate- and environmentally-smart urban development.