Residential expansion in the suburban fringe of Helsinki

Abstract

This paper is a study of residential housing production in the suburban fringe of Helsinki in 1950–60. The regression models obtained indicate that, in each suburb, housing production was closely correlated to the number of residential buildings already in existence, to the distance from the CBD of Helsinki, and to the distance from the nearest main artery (road or rail). In other words, all three classic models of urban expansion played a role simultaneously in the growth of Greater Helsinki. The relative significance of the models, however, varied with distance from the CBD. The above three factors form a rough framework, within which other factors also affected the growth. The clearest subsidiary factors found here were the effect of State housing programmes and the deliberate retardance of housing production in places inhabited by minorities of agrarian or Swedish­-speaking populations.