Crafting a planning issue with citizens in the context of planning competition: a case of ‘Nordic Superblock’

This paper describes the formation of the planning issue ‘Nordic Superblock’ through the early planning phase of the Hiedanranta area in Tampere, Finland. The workshops with citizens and professionals as participants, held after a planning competition, were an important part of the area’s initial planning. The paper argues that the superblock issue emerged because the institutional context differed from the traditional zoning process. Furthermore, the issue itself challenged the traditional planning process and the current urban development regime. The case is a promising example of the outcome of expert–citizen interaction; however, it also reveals some bottlenecks in the planning process.