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How is the notion of ‘culture’ understood and used in planning the transformation ofobsolete industrial space? This article analyses the evidence from a current planningproject in Suvilahti, Helsinki. It shows that ‘culture’ is imagined and employed as aninstrument capable of producing difference in urban space. The transformation of theCable Factory in Helsinki and the subsequent consensus on the importance of ‘culture’are shown to have influenced the planning of Suvilahti. On the one hand, planning isbeing carried out with a deliberate minimization of planning interventions and thepromotion of the spontaneous, non-planned practices of cultural producers: the futureSuvilahti is imagined as a ‘cultural enclave’ and its community is characterized as a‘living organism’. On the other, ‘culture’ is planned in terms of its supposedly positiveeffects on urban space. Planners do not want to interfere with the non-planned characterof ‘cultural production’, yet at the same time they express certainty about culturalproduction’s positive spatial and socioeconomic effects. The transformation of Suvilahtiis playing an important part in the large-scale planning project to redevelop the oldindustrial harbour in Kalasatama, Helsinki. The changes in the nature of planning areanalysed under the concept of cultural governmentality.
