How are companies’ changing needs for premises met in Espoo?
Espoo is known as an attractive city with a strong focus on research, development and innovation. This fast-growing city generates demand for different services and products, which in turn attracts more companies to the area. How to ensure that there are enough suitable business premises?
The business environment of companies has changed rapidly. With advancements such as technological development and increasing remote work, companies must be prepared to provide their employees with more diverse premises that support different ways of working. The strong presence of research, development and innovation in Espoo creates a need to have premises that are suitable for experimentation and development. By combining different and easily modifiable premises, we can promote the creation of new products, services and urban solutions.
Many ways to support operating conditions of companies
How can companies' changing needs for premises be prepared for in the long term? Regional Architect Mervi Hokkanen from the City of Espoo considers urban planning a good way to take these aspects into account. “Planning can be used to influence many factors that can in turn be used to support companies’ different needs. These factors include transport connections, environmental friendliness and flexible use of premises.”
In addition to the tools accessible through planning, the city can encourage property owners to make the most of their premises by, for example, providing startups or artists with temporary premises. Temporary use of premises has been found to create opportunities for the growth and development of companies, of which the temporary utilisation of Keran Hallit is an excellent example. The hall buildings of Keran Hallit, which will be demolished to make room for a new urban area, have provided almost a hundred companies with temporary rental premises.
This type of approach supports the development and expansion of companies’ operations, as the premises are often inexpensive and easily customisable. For example, the companies operating out of Keran Hallit have praised the good location and communality of the business hub. This means that there will be a demand for premises that foster development in the future as well. This may also create a need for new types of service models, such as facility operators, that take care of renting and marketing. “In order to promote temporary use, we need separately tailored operating models that differ from traditional lease agreements and property economy operating models. Temporary use is an instrument of local regeneration as well as a platform that offers opportunities for a wide range of operations, often at a low cost,” says Hella Hernberg, researcher at Aalto University, who has studied the temporary use of the Keran Hallit premises.
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