Urban Alternatives: A Blueprint for Successful Resistance

Discussion with the editors and contributors of The Helsinki Effect: Public Alternatives to the Guggenheim Model of Culture-Driven Development

Terike Haapoja / Finnish visual artist based in New York City

Andrew Ross / Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University

Michael Sorkin / Distinguished Professor of Architecture in The City College of New York

Miguel Robles-Durán / Associate Professor of Urbanism at The New School

Sharon Zukin /Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and at the CUNY Graduate Center

Helsinki was the chosen site for the Guggenheim Museum’s latest effort to replicate the much-contested “Bilbao Effect.” But in 2015, advocates of better methods for fusing the arts and urbanism had a different idea. They launched an alternative design competition, The Next Helsinki, which amplified a public debate about the role of culture in economic development that has consequences far beyond the Finnish case-study. The Helsinki Effect archives the hundreds of entries submitted to the competition and includes essays by leading urbanists, artists, and architects about its significance. It is a blueprint for successful resistance: in 2016, the Guggenheim lost its bid to build the museum.

UR (Urban Research)

RSVP Institute for Public Knowledge