HALİL YILDIRIM
12.01.2012
014001231

REPORT: HELSINKI RAILWAY STATION Before start to introduce my report, it’s useful to define some important terms like public and private space. Public spaces are defined generally common areas where everyone easily access without any restriction. In other words, public space can be defined (…)in the sense of non-claimable’7 In order to keep spaces safe or keeping authority on those spaces, accessibility to public spaces usually is liable to some restrictions and regulations. In that point, public spaces are more public for some people, while they are less public to others. That can lead to the emergence of ‘moral geographies’ or ‘the idea that certain people, things and practices belong in certain spaces, places and landscapes and not in others. 1 Private space can be basically defined opposite of public spaces. That is to say, those places are not welcomed for everyone and accessing those places requires some necessities. In that periphery, my report is aiming to introduce some facts and publicness of Helsinki Railway Station. I approach the case in terms of diversity, physical design and accessibility of station. In the end, I tried to put Helsinki Railway Station in a model of public space with the help of my research on Station. Addition to that, I discuss what can be done to provide more access and public station.
Firstly, we can start with history of Helsinki Railway Station. It’s in 1862 that we had a the first railway line Finland, while the first railway station was built a year earlier.2 The building inaugurated in 1919 just after the First World War, was actually a complex, main station with halls catering to the circulation of large number of people an office building and the accentuated monumental clock tower.3 In many European States the railways cut through pre-industrial often medieval city cores, while in Helsinki no such core existed. The station buildings- the old and the current- as well as the adjacent square were ‘(…) built close to the shallow, boggy bay, Kluuvinlahti, and piles were driven into bay itself so that this could be converted into an open square. (Klinge and Kolbe 1999 p 63) 3 The buildings that framed the Railway Square ( Rautatientori) were built purposefully grand and more important –looking, suitable to an environment that oozed power, national identity and pride. The station, austere and monumental, was the quintessence of Helsinki, capital of the sovereign Finnish state. 4 That’s to say, Helsinki Railway Station is a symbol of Finland and its history starts at the same era of Finland sovereignty. For years, Station serves Finnish citizens.
To continue with functionality of Helsinki Railway station, it can be easily said that it serves more than one function. Station is used as a railway station, meeting point and also providing some services to people via shops like restaurant, kioski, flower shop, tourist information, exchange money shop, bank and pubs. Railway Station generally used with different reasons. Station is basically a transportation hub. Therefore the primary aim for the board of directors is to secure the easy and safe handling of the mobility of people and products. The management of the station in an effort to recognize and in a way show respect to the social character of the building, offers the West Hall as exhibition and events place for the public. In this way this part of the station is not strictly monofunctional. This is not simply a place of flux where people and goods are mobile. It’s not so much a place of commerce as shopping activity is at a minimum compared with other areas of the station. 6 As mentioned above, other parts of Railway station has also a commercial character. This is a building of Finnish national heritage and protected as such; in addition, it is a high value marketable commodity; especially after the station building came under the responsibility of the real estate management of the Finnish Railways Group of Companies. The Finnish Railways were a revised type of public enterprise before 1994 when they are turned into a corporation, in order to increase competitiveness in the transportation market.6 It’s possible to see that station building is a place where a several meters-long banner of Tourism Company advertisement. Like Michael Galanakis pointed out even if railway station’s function is looking basically transportation, when we take a look its functionality is more likely a merchandise space.
Picture.1: There is a big billboard for advertisement and some tourists are waiting their train
Because of its merchandise character, as mentioned before, place have different kind of services and shops. That’s also reason of place has more than one schedule. There are different kinds of schedule for Railway Station. ‘On the main entrance doors to the station and the Central Hall there is a small blue sign with white letters informing the public that station is open every day from 05.00 in the morning until 01.30 after midnight The other two entrances to the station, east towards the Railway Square and West towards the Eliel Square, carry no such signs. The Eliel café-restaurant, at the east of the Central Hall, is open during week days and on Saturdays between 08:00 and 23:00. The Ticket Sales Hall is open from 10.00 until 21.00 while the services are provided everyday from 10.00 until 18.00. There are ticket sale desks in the Central Hall too open every day from 6.30 to 21.30. The Tourist Information Office in the Central Hall is open from 09.00 to 18.00 on weekdays and from 09.00 to 17.00 on Saturdays, while on Sundays it’s closed. The schedule for the toilets is nowhere to be seen; however the toilets are open for the public from Monday to Thursday between 6.00 and 23.30, on Friday between 6.00 and 01.00, and Saturday and Sunday between 07.00 and 01.00.8 The kiosks, cafes and a few take-aways, which are housed in the Main concourse as well as in the East and the West Halls, have different and rarely displayed schedules. In the East Hall there is the Cigar shop and Pullman Bar. These are open from Monday to Wednesday between 12.00 till 01.00. Sundays they are closed. The R-Kiosk at the main concourse has a schedule announcement that informs the public that the shop is open from 06.15 to 22.45 during weekdays, from 07.30 to 22.45 on Saturdays and from 08.00 until 22.45 on Sundays.’ 8 There are many different opening and closing time belongs to different kind of shops and services in Railway Station. It’s also an evidence that railway Station doesn’t serve with one function. It also shows that place has a role for gain. As Michael Galanakis pointed out his book ‘Space Unjust’, uncertainty of the right to use services and spaces in the station between 01.30 and 05.00 enhances the stratification of the public. My understanding is different schedule causes people to benefit Railway Station in different time periods with different purposes. It also causes a flux or dynamic movement of people on Railway Station. Even if railway station has a public role in city of Helsinki, it also has many characteristics of private space with its different schedule and services. That process of privatization of Railway Station damages to its public characteristics. Because accessibility of public places should be freer but in that case, accessibility of Railway Station is restricted by different kinds of time schedules.
Functionality of Railway Station also gives us ability to classify people according to their purposes of being there. Station used by travelers, homeless people, commuters, young people and tourists. They have different schedules to be there. In Saturday night, it’s possible to say that young people are much more than other kinds. Because they use station as a meeting place and it’s also possible to see young people who are drinking before going party. In that time, station serves as a preparation place for party. Place is also serve as a market place for hucksters .There are some young people who are selling beers after 6. (It’s quite hard to find alcohol after that time in Finland) Most of Young people on Friday and Saturday evenings in Station don’t prefer to consume anything in Railway Station, just use benches and use place as meeting point. If there are not enough benches to sit, they usually are standing in a circle shape in front of entrance doors or some corners in Railway Station. Other group is consisting of travelers and commuters. It’s possible to see tourist groups too. They usually spend their time by using pubs and cafes inside. But huge amount of them also tend to use benches and prefer to not consume. There are not enough benches to provide place to people. Thus, many travelers are sitting ground or standing even if they primarily deserve to sit.
Physical design; Railway Station took shape by a few buildings which are attached to another. Proximity from one section to another is possible but when you are inside, you can’t say place promote a good togetherness. Accessing from one building to another is provided by corridors and narrow entrances. Even Railway Station does not reflecting togetherness, it can be said proximity from one building to another is high. In addition to that, ages of buildings are looking same.
Security of Station is provided by a private company named; Clear Channel Outdoor Security. Security workers don’t carry guns but they use truncheon. There are security cameras on corners of station walls. But numbers of cameras are not so much like numbers of security workers. There are some parts in station which not everyone can access, and used by administration and security workers. It’s quite hard to see security workers while they are patrolling. The fact that Railway Station’s security is provided by a private company, gives us to claim that publicness of station is disputable. Privatization allows greater control over access to space, and that control almost invariably stratifies the public that uses it.9 It’s possible to see that while security don’t let some groups of people being in station. During my research about Railway Station, on 07.01.2011, Saturday night, a group of young people (Somalis) who are just standing corner of station were routed out by security. In theory, if you don’t use any service inside, you shouldn’t suppose to be there. But practically, if you are not visible by security, no one will try to get you out. Being visible depends on your physical appearance. It shows publicness of Railway Station is in danger in some points. But also it would be good to say, security in Railway station has some positive aspects. There are not so much security workers who are patrolling and controlling area all the time. Because, in the wrong circumstances in can destroy the ‘publicness’ of public space just as surely as excessive police control and surveillance’ 14 Over protection on public space can give terror to people, and being watched by police or security is a kind of threat for citizens in terms of feeling free on public space. Addition to that, ironically, advocates of more police on the beat and their critics both see urban public space as under siege, even if, in the contemporary city of antagonisms, they cannot agree whether the threat comes principally from crime, disorder and moral decline or from unemployment and uneven development.’ 16 So it can be said that over protection also can lead to put risk on publicness of places.
Let’s continue with benches in station, they have ‘bum proof’ in order to make laying or sleeping uncomfortable. Place tend to deny vagrants and other undesirables. Direction of benches is not looking each other. Which means it doesn’t give a chance to interact between people. They have to sit back to back. There is also a horse-show shaped bench in the entrance of Metro. The station authorities ameliorated the benches in the year 200010. In the west of the Central Hall of the station there is Ticket Hall with benches and chairs for long distance travelers. The central area of the hall functions as a waiting room with approximately eight wooden benches. In this hall there are four recently designed two-side-sitters with a low back-rest/divider, and four older wooden benches lining the wall. 13 Other point of benches is usage of benches by people. Even with a basic eye observation, it can be easily said that benches are not used by only commuters or people who have a purpose of being there. An ambiguity results, because there is no well-established principle to order the sequence in which various claimants, already ensconced, will be obliged to give up their exclusiveness. A field is thus opened for personal enterprise. 11 It usually leads to a competition between people. Benches are count like a symbol of public character of Railway station. But, unfortunately, there are not enough benches for people in station. ‘People tend to sit most where there are places to sit (…) The most attractive fountains, the most striking designs, cannot induce people to come and sit if there is no place to sit.’ 12 According to that fact, importance of benches are incontrovertible and in order to keep public character of Station strong, there should be more benches for people.
There are four main entrances in Railway Station. In one entrance, door is opening automatically, but if you want to access from other entrances, you have to use power to open. My critics about Entrance doors, they are challenging to open. Even If I’m 22 years young man, it comes to me hard to open that door with one hand and usually cause me to wait until someone firstly open door. As we consider old population, children and handicap people in population, it’s not easy for them to open these doors. As I describe in the beginning, publicness is a kind of measure of accessibility to the place by each group of society. With the aim of keeping publicness of Station, all doors should be automatic or at least they should be easy to open by children, old and handicap people.
Design feature of Station, tend people to consume. It can be said that place is lack of non-consumption activity. When you are walking in corridor of Railway Station, there are mainly restaurant, kiosk, flower shop, tourist information, exchange money shop, bank and pubs which you suppose to consume in order to benefit. There is no rest room for travelers because rest rooms were converted to restaurants and other consumption places. As I mentioned before number of benches is also quite poor. According to my observation on Friday between 5-7 pm, even there is a crowd of people, restaurants and cafés were not full. That means people don’t want to use that places because of some reasons. It can be several of reasons, but it’s not hard to predict. Prices of places are not suitable for everyone. If we compare space occupied by those consumption activity places with non-consumption place and space, it can be said that there is an injustice. Because, number of people who use that consumption activity place is much more lower than people who are using free benches and space. Thus, they deserve more than a few stony bum-proof benches. It can be also said that, in some time period of day there is not enough place to even stand and wait. Because crowd in railway station is not only about people who are willing to use any service in station, corridor of station is used by people who want to just walk from one side to another. It makes station uncomfortable for people who want to benefit from station. But it looks quite challenging to reduce people dynamism in station because of its location. There are two big bus stop different sides of station and also it attached to a market square which locates underground on the way of metro. It makes also impossible to control people who access to that place. Like Certeau’s assertion that everyday life works by process of poaching on the territory of others.

Picture 2: Pocket Shop, Foto Shop and their platforms on main hall

Picture3: Flower Shop and its platform
On the pictures above, there are some platforms which belong to Photo Shop and Flower Shop in station and it obstructs movement of people in main corridor. In order to increase movement of people in main corridor, there should be some restriction about these platforms.
Around Railway station there is not enough parking place for bicycles, that’s reason of People are parking their bicycles to iron barriers. (Picture 4) This can be commented as ‘tactics’ of people like Certeau pointed out.

Picture 4: Some bicycles are locked to fences
Eventually, with the help of knowledge I introduced you above; it is possible to put Helsinki Railway Station in a model of public space. (Iveson 1998) There are four main models for public spaces according to Iveson; Ceremonial, Community, Liberal and multi-public. To begin with Ceremonial model; it represents dominance of public character over the commercial, market space. Space’s ownership is in the hand of public and those places can be used for some celebrations of tradition or other purposes by society. Haussman’s reconstruction of Paris is one the good example of these kind of places. In Ceremonial model, place has also political character, that’s to say it’s the place where people reflect their political identities or protest. I will not go further with that and if we go back our case: Helsinki Railway Station, it’s easy to say that Station is not suitable for that model because of its visible private character. Second model is Community Model which refers residential developments designed around central public spaces like squares and plazas. It looks more likely fellowship of public space with community. When we consider again Helsinki Railway Station, there is not any residential place around or in the station. Because of its location in heart of city, museums, historical buildings and vast open squares are seen around Helsinki Railway Station. There are two big bus stop front and back part of Station, and those areas include some museums, post office and historical buildings but not any residential apartment. Thirdly, Liberal model; it refers accessibility of space should be open to each group in society and there shouldn’t be any restrictions about it. Because of its liberal character, those places usually have more than one function. In our case, Helsinki Railway Station can count in that model in some points but it is also disputable to count the station as a Liberal Public Place. To start with the reasons of why we can count the Station as a Liberal Public Place, firstly, Helsinki Railway Station have more than one function; it’s not only a transportation hub but also serve as a meeting point and commercial market. It also explains why the station is used by every kind of people with different reasons. In a practical manner, it looks like a liberal place but when we ask question of accessibility by each group in the society, does Railway Station achieve to be a place for everyone? I mean, does the Station really open to each group in society? If we consider the fact that the Station is governed by special company and also its security is provided by a special company, we can easily say that, purpose of that place is not serving as a liberal public place where every kind of person can use and reflect his/her being. To remember the example I gave above, while some young people were just talking with their group on Saturday night, they are removed by security. It is a well known fact that also, you can hear the announcement by security that order people who has no purpose of consume or benefit from any service to go out. It’s easy to say that accessibility of Station is varying among individuals in terms of their social, physical identity. Even if functionality of Station can be similar like liberal space, its regulations and different accessibility levels by people are a significant obstacle.
Our last model for public spaces is Multi-Public. It refers interaction between publics. Each group reflects their identities on place and Public Place takes shape according to that. Eventually it can be said that, there is mix of publics which has some conflicts and differences. That model is characterized with four main virtues: Social differentiation without exclusion, supporting a variety of groups that flourish in the city through promoting multiple uses of public spaces, cultivating the eroticism or pleasure generated by diversity and the idea of public occurs on a much larger scale. Crucially, the diversity of national and international population becomes realized in the city’s public spaces. If we go back to case, among the four models, Multi-Public Model is best fit to describe Helsinki Railway Station. Firstly, there is a social differentiation in the station. It is possible to see Roman women with their traditional clothes, Somalis and other kinds of groups at the same time. Of 200.000 people passing daily through the main hall of Helsinki central train station half are commuters; this means that 100.000 people are using the hall for a multitude of other purposes.14 It gives the Station to achieve social differentiation in place. It is easy to say that behind that differentiation and flux of people, of course, multiple use of Helsinki Railway Station is playing a big role. Multiple function of place affect people to use station. It’s also possible to see tourist groups and it shows diversity of place is not only a local level but also in international level. With the help of its multitude functionality and great accessibility of its location gives the Station become an ideal example of Multi-Public place. After all, it can be said that there are many factors and characteristics of the station which damage its public identity at the same time.

In entrance of Railway Station, Some Somalis people are standing
DISCUSSION
Eventually, we can count Helsinki Railway Station as a semi-public place which has both characteristic of public and private. Control over the station is in the hands of private companies and its merchandise character is quite visible with its shops, restaurants and other consumption places. Even if it looks more commercial space in that point, Helsinki Railway Station is still continued to be most popular public place in Helsinki city with the help of its location advantage, services and accessibility. Authorities should be careful about balance between commercial and public character of the station. Public role of the station must be protected for the citizens of Helsinki. Actually not only protected but also it should be improved with some ways. Space of Station can be larger than this, and it can include more benches and rest rooms for people. If authorities don’t want to do any changes on station, they should provide alternative places to those people who use station as a public place with non-consumption purposes. It’s not solution to remove people who don’t purpose to be there. Instead of that, there should be some researches about why those people prefer to being there and according to result, some projects should be planned. I mean, alternative public places should be provided by public. With that way, flux of people in the station will also decrease and Security-control over the station will be freer.

REFERENCES 1. Cresswell (2005), pg 128 2. See Klinge&Kolbe 1999 p.62 and Högström 2004, p.11 3. Klinge&Kolbe 1999 p.67 4. Michael Galanakis, ‘Space Unjust’, 2007 p.213 5. Högström 2004 6. Michael Galanakis, ‘Space Unjust’, 2007 p.222 7. Goffman 1972, p51 8. Michael Galanakis, ‘Space Unjust’, 2007 pg. 224 9. Holston 1998, p.44-5 10. Michael Galanakis, ‘Space Unjust’, 2007 pg 225 11. Goffman 1972, p.34 12. Whyte 1980, p.28 13. Michael Galanakis, ‘Space Unjust’, 2007 pg 226 14. Saarinen 1996,p5 15. Lees 1998, P.238 16. Lees 1998,p236