The doctoral dissertations of the former Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) and Aalto University Schools of Technology (CHEM, ELEC, ENG, SCI) published in electronic format are available in the electronic publications archive of Aalto University - Aaltodoc.
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The Role of Partnerships in Sustainable Urban Residential Development

Matti Kuronen

Doctoral dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Science in Technology to be presented with due permission of the School of Engineering for public examination and debate in Auditorium TU1 at the Aalto University School of Engineering (Espoo, Finland) on the 9th of September 2011 at 12 noon.

Overview in PDF format (ISBN 978-952-60-4220-6)   [1679 KB]
Dissertation is also available in print (ISBN 978-952-60-4219-0)

Abstract

This dissertation explores partnership-based urban residential development processes which aim towards achieving greater sustainability. Urban development is a complex phenomenon and involves a multitude of participants. Also, sustainability is a complex concept. The problem field, combining the two, is a real-life challenge which the research approaches with a pragmatic view.

The primary investigation method of the study has been a multiple case study using both an action research case study approach and observatory case study approach. The study suggests that Public-Private-People Partnership, a framework developed during the research, is a social innovation that improves the viability of technical and economical solutions in urban development, and it is these solutions that contribute to greater sustainability, especially low-carbon solutions that are considered a most urgent sustainability issue within the built environment. During the research, examples of these solutions were a viable development-wide geothermal energy solution and economical scenarios which enabled low-carbon refurbishments by redevelopment.

The evidence has been gathered from two complementary residential development cases in the Helsinki region, Finland. The data includes both qualitative and quantitative data. As the carbon challenge and the operating environment in urban development are rather similar in western market economies, the findings can be generalized elsewhere.

Theoretically, the study places the urban development process between urban planning and property development theories and introduces urban development as an open social system according to systems theory. This allows research to examine not only the parties present in urban development but also the relationships between them and the sustainability aims. The research suggests that a concept of customership emerged in the research that can be useful in explaining the relationships between Public, Private, and People parties.

Besides the findings, the study presents an emerging theory for considering urban development. The theory holds that Public, Private, and People parties enter urban development processes under different rationalities in order to reach their own various targets.

This thesis consists of an overview and of the following 7 publications:

  1. Matti Kuronen and Wisa Majamaa. 2006. The problem of future inhabitants - Finnish context. In: David Bennison and Dominic Medway (editors). Destinations and Locations: Exploring the Multiple Identities of Place. Proceedings of the 2006 Annual Manchester Metropolitan University Conference on Contemporary Issues in Retail Marketing (CIRM 2006). Manchester, United Kingdom. 6-7 September 2006. Manchester, United Kingdom. Manchester Metropolitan University Business School. Pages 97-103. ISBN 0-9551732-2-1.
  2. Wisa Majamaa, Matti Kuronen, Juha Kostiainen, and Chris Heywood. 2008. A new customer-oriented participation method for communicative planning. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, volume 1, number 1, pages 68-80.
  3. Wisa Majamaa, Matti Kuronen, Chris Heywood, and Juha Kostiainen. 2008. A consumer-oriented technique for planned residential developments. International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, volume 1, number 3, pages 231-245.
  4. Matti Kuronen, Seppo Junnila, Wisa Majamaa, and Ilkka Niiranen. 2010. Public-Private-People Partnership as a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from residential development. International Journal of Strategic Property Management, volume 14, number 3, pages 200-216.
  5. Jukka Heinonen, Seppo Junnila, and Matti Kuronen. 2010. A life cycle assessment of carbon mitigation possibilities in metropolitan areas. In: Pekka Huovila and Ville Raasakka (editors). Sustainable Community - buildingSMART. Proceedings of the Sustainable Building Conference 2010 (SB 2010). Espoo, Finland. 22-24 September 2010. Helsinki, Finland. Finnish Association of Civil Engineers. 13 pages. ISBN 978-951-758-506-4.
  6. Matti Kuronen, Jukka Luoma-Halkola, Seppo Junnila, Chris Heywood, and Wisa Majamaa. 2011. Viable urban redevelopments – exchanging equity for energy efficiency. International Journal of Strategic Property Management, volume 15, number 3, pages 205-221. © 2011 by authors and © 2011 Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. By permission.
  7. Matti Kuronen, Jukka Heinonen, Christopher Heywood, Seppo Junnila, Jukka Luoma-Halkola, and Wisa Majamaa. 2011. Customerships in urban housing redevelopment – a case study on retrofitting a suburb. In: Proceedings of the 17th Annual Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference (PRRES 2011). Gold Coast, Australia. 16-19 January 2011. Pacific Rim Real Estate Society. 16 pages. © 2011 by authors.

Keywords: urban development, Public-Private-People Partnership, sustainability, customership, residential development, case study

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Last update 2012-07-11