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Paper short abstract

This paper explores the usage of the concept of "cityscape" in Finnish urban planning and showcases how the concept often neglects such things as nature and change and over-emphasizes the significance of buildings and their visual characteristics such as facades.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores the concept of cityscape (kaupunkikuva in Finnish) and how it is interpreted in Finnish city development and city planning language. According to Hentilä and Wiik’s (2003, p. 7) definition "the cityscape refers to the visually perceptible whole formed by buildings, structures, and nature together." Furthermore, it “is the visually perceptible dimension of the built or urban environment, which typically holds significant architectural, aesthetic, or other cultural value." (Tieteen termipankki 2025).

In many Finnish cities, there are “cityscape councils” or “cityscape architects”, that evaluate city plans and building projects and their impact on the cityscape. Consequently, the “cityscape analysis” has traditionally been conducted in an expert-driven manner. These analyses are typically based on visual observations made by professionals during field visits, where aspects such as, building characteristics and forms, building density, heights and widths, as well as the adaptation of buildings to one another and to the surrounding environment are examined.

This study examines different definitions of the “cityscape” collected from sources such as legislation, reports and dictionaries to understand how they define a “city” and its significant qualities. Besides the expert-led nature, the challenge of the concept is that it focuses on the visual and static interpretations of the city, whereas it often neglects such things as nature and change and over-emphasizes the significance of buildings and their visual characteristics such as facades.

Hentilä, H-L. ja Wiik, M. (2003). Kaupunkikuva asukkaiden kokemana: Vantaan kokeiluprojektin kuvaus. Ympäristöministeriö.

Tieteen termipankki. (2025).