Campus development
A vibrant university campus is important to a city’s attractiveness.
SYK is a major regional player in all university cities outside the Greater Helsinki region. The starting point of our campus development is tto ensure that campuses are closely integrated into the surrounding urban structure.
Campuses can be made vibrant by bringing in the business sector, services and housing and by ensuring that they are easily accessible by public transport and bicycles.
We support the operations of higher education institutes by developing campuses into attractive and sustainable learning and innovation environments that support our customers’ success in intensifying international competition and promote the vitality of the regions where they are located.
From campus strategies into the zoning stage
The campus strategies drafted for SYK’s campuses provide the foundation for the development of land use and activities on the campuses. These development efforts have produced positive results. The zoning of campuses has started well in almost every municipality.
Read more about the campus strategies
One of the highlights of 2017 was the Campuses of the Century seminar, which focused on vibrant campuses as part of the urban structure and the cultural and architectural heritage of campuses. Held in Jyväskylä, the seminar was attended by a well-informed audience of invited guests, including senior figures from the Finnish National Board of Antiquities as well as active players in university cities.
The seminar doubled as the Finland 100 celebration of the University of Jyväskylä, the Alvar Aalto Museum and SYK. Visitors also had the chance to participate in architectural tours of the newly opened main building of the University of Jyväskylä.
The Campuses of the Century seminar was one of the highlights of the year.
We overcome challenges with a resource-efficient approach
The challenge in campus development is identifying the right concepts for premises vacated by universities to ensure that they are occupied in sensible ways in the long term.
We aim to find resource-efficient solutions to this challenge. We do not build any unnecessary new space. Instead, we renovate existing premises whenever possible, which is also in line with our commitment to sustainable development.
In spite of the challenges, we see a positive future for campus development. Cooperation between the business sector and universities will increase as a growing number of businesses find their way to campuses.
Examples of businesses that moved to SYK’s campuses in 2017 include the Touhula chain of day-care centres, Ponsse and Epec. In Oulu, a lease was signed on the future relocation of the Oulu University of Applied Sciences to our campus, while in Lappeenranta, agreement was reached on a primary school moving to a campus. The Kajaani campus was sold after it became surplus to requirements for the University of Oulu. Going forward, the campus will be developed in response to local needs by our partner Rakennusteho Group Ltd.
Day-care centre on the Hervanta campus creates the spark for studying science.
Known for its day-care centres with an emphasis on physical activity, Touhula opened a new branch on the Tampere University of Technology campus at the start of the year. The daily life of children at the Touhula day-care centre on the Hervanta campus is characterised by not only physical activity, but also science education.
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