Case group work – daily recording Case number: 4

Date: 280610

Case group work program of the day:

- Tove Hagman – BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO KOTKA CASE (after recent visit).
- Vellamo as a great landmark, reflects the site and context, well connected and located in
relation to the city
- Problem: young families moving outside the city centre, how to do so that the young
families would PREFER living in the centre, what processes can we create to support that?
how to connect the city centre and areas outside, now mainly business people and workers
are living in the centre.
- BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF EACH GROUP MEMBER

Description of the group working element:

- 1st task: GO CRAZY! Empty your mind. Note anything you can think of to be implemented in
the Kotka case. Post-its to be stuck on a notice board – then group in “families” (leisure,
references, community, ecological climate change, community development, transportation,
boundary+border, leisure / tourist attraction, branding)
- grouping CRAZY ideas. Many ideas go hand in hand.

Outcomes of the working element:

- Ideas from post-its: think about who lives there first, then design. Shape follows function, is
this the correct way?
- BRANDING. What does word Kotka bring, harbour of ideas? Harbour not just for keeping
things but to share.
- Start from CHILDREN. How to attract children? What can we give to them? Ideas outside the
normal infrastucture. Does NOT mean expensive, just a GREAT IDEA!, eg. Give children
instruments – provide a music school… Consider language opportunities eg. Russian
kindergarden. START WITH CHILDREN.
- Which way do we want to take: 1) CREATE SOMETHING COMPLETELY NEW or 2) IMPROVE
WHAT IS ALREADY THERE. Which approach?
- Try not to loose the crazy ideas, try to see with different lenses.
- What is the SCALE of the ideas, do we grow the city? Consider both.
- Create something that people can be PART OF and PROUD OF at the same time.
- Challenge people to live there.
- Consider Russia : money, companies, trucks, St Petersburg, sailing boats…
- Consider and think of a CONCEPT between Kotka, Hamina, Hanko, Porvoo etc. How could
these COLLABORATE?
- Consider service providers (eg chefs etc) to be trained differently, ”KOTKA WAY”
- See Liverpool as an example
- What STORY does Kotka WANT TO TELL? Should be something strong enough to evolve and
develop in the future.
 - How could we show handicrafts, culture, making by hands (people like that)? Icebreaker as a
static example, could do something around that.
- CONSIDER PEOPLE WHO COME THERE BUT ALSO PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE!
- One raised idea: living on water, working on land.
- Where do the people of Kotka go in shore, other than to work? Museums, park, where else?

Description of the group working element:

- 2nd exercise: ”BRAINCALMING”

Outcomes of the working element:

- Observer’s thoughts: after a little confused start, great energy and the case group gatheres
lots of ideas.
- Some feelings of what has been good / inspiring during the workshop: positive group energy,
TRUST upon the members, nice speed-dating, how to grasp direction, sharing, initial feeling
that things were set up too much, morning frustration, curiosity, comfortable, involvement,
what happens when people fall out – people will at some point during the week
- Discussion of different roles within the case group, seeing if any problems.
- More ideas on Kotka: we design for them , so we should TEST OPTIONS. Present discussions
not answers. INNOVATION IS OUR SAFE WORD. Offer ideas that can be developed further.
Highlight TRUST.

REFERENCES:

MOVIES: Keisarikunta (Finland, 2004)

WRITINGS: Quant, Richard Sennett (2008)

CITIES: Liverpool

Three most important issues or ideas from the day as agreed by group
members at the end of the day:

1. COLLABORATION WITH PEOPLE OF KOTKA IS IMPORTANT

2. TRUST IN GROUP IS VALUABLE

3. WE FIND THIS ACSILERATING