Transcript exported from the video version of this episode - Note that it has not been copyedited

00:00:00:03 - 00:00:09:19
Päivi Raivio
We founded Parkly together... with Daniel, my partner, and he's actually a Swiss guy who ended up in Helsinki.

00:00:11:22 - 00:00:30:17
Päivi Raivio
Well, we found it partly, really based on our project in placemaking and really wanted to create something different in terms of offering and well, basically stakeholders that are part of urban development. This kind of is a flexible tool to turn places around.

00:00:30:27 - 00:00:53:03
John Simmerman
Everyone, welcome to the Active Towns Channel. I'm John Simmerman and that is Päivi Raivio from Parkly in Helsinki, Finland. We're going to be talking about this new company that started about two years ago to be able to create some modular, circular, urban furniture and social gathering places for people and for pollinators. I think it's a lot of fun.

00:00:53:03 - 00:01:04:20
John Simmerman
I hope you enjoy it as well. So here is baby Hive. Thank you so much for joining me in the Active Towns podcast. Welcome.

00:01:05:14 - 00:01:06:18
Päivi Raivio
Thank you so much.

00:01:08:01 - 00:01:15:02
John Simmerman
I love having my guests just give a quick little introduction to themselves. So take about 30 seconds. Who is part of.

00:01:17:06 - 00:01:33:28
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, I am an urban designer and place maker based and work based in Helsinki, Finland. We also work worldwide, basically, but mostly in Europe. And yeah, I'm a co-founder of partly, which is urban modular Circular street Furniture.

00:01:34:24 - 00:02:00:11
John Simmerman
I love it. I love it. There's so fine urban modular street furniture. Circular street furniture. Yes, that's great. I'm sure we'll touch upon all of those those words and terminology and descriptions. What was the the real history and story behind getting started with this movement? How you know, what was the inspiration?

00:02:01:24 - 00:02:30:17
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, I mean, I've been studying design and public art back in when I lived in London, and that's sort of the living and sort of studying and actually growing up to be an adult. And so it's as if there was, I think, big inspiration for me to become interested in inner cities, in social life, in houses, sort of design settings for social life.

00:02:31:02 - 00:03:07:17
Päivi Raivio
And placemaking is really close to my heart because of my background and kind of various fields of design and social design too, that we can actually, as designers and planners have a big effect on how our cities are alive with people and designed for people and not so much sort of function driven and kind of interest driven. So we often call our work like such as this one, which we did in in Helsinki, kind of like infrastructure for social life is, is.

00:03:09:01 - 00:03:09:14
John Simmerman
Well, that's.

00:03:09:14 - 00:03:10:08
Päivi Raivio
Not so much.

00:03:10:10 - 00:03:14:13
John Simmerman
What I mean. It's less serious as I think cities should be, right?

00:03:15:18 - 00:03:48:19
Päivi Raivio
Yes, exactly. I think that people really makes it alive. They they make places live in neighborhoods like without people. And they're sort of touch on places and eagerness to organize events and meet others. Without that, we don't really have great cities. So we really have to pay attention to that. And with placemaking, this is really the point to do that with various methods.

00:03:49:06 - 00:04:38:18
Päivi Raivio
And what we really advocate in our work is, of course, playfulness. As you can see in this photo, we like to get people, yeah, less serious about their cities and also going to reimagine their cities. So play and playfulness is one key aspect of this. And children, of course, and young people, they lack this kind of preset stuff we adults might have about public places, how we can use it, what sort of rules there are, and children and young people for that reason, great sort of focus group to reimagine cities together like Carpark Places or other sort of spaces that we adjusted to.

00:04:39:03 - 00:04:52:27
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. I love this too, because, you know, this is we were joking around earlier about cities are supposed to be serious. Well, y y it can be serious fun and engaging.

00:04:52:27 - 00:04:53:05
Päivi Raivio
And.

00:04:53:27 - 00:05:19:03
John Simmerman
It and what's interesting, too, is that when we we look at the history of cities and how cities, you know, came together they were very social interact live environments. It wasn't until really the automobile took over our public realm in our space and it became, you know, we sort of dehumanized our space. And so we're just kind of taking it back.

00:05:19:04 - 00:05:40:03
John Simmerman
And it sounds like the inspiration behind partly is, you know, some of these these images of reclaiming space for people and for interaction and for fun and engagement. I think this is just absolutely beautiful. I mean, these are obviously incredibly beautiful photos as well.

00:05:40:06 - 00:05:40:20
Päivi Raivio
Yeah.

00:05:41:06 - 00:05:55:27
John Simmerman
So what was the next step, you know, from the initial you know, you know, the seed being planted or or maybe, you know, what do you draw from any global in aspirations of movements that were happening?

00:05:57:15 - 00:06:38:23
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, definitely. And you said it really poignantly that we thought of how our cities where previously and how sort of cars took over and sort of this imbalance between how we divide our space or dedicate it to rain, it really sort of happened. But this this project in the photo is a really good example of that. And actually that one of the sort of lead ways or pathways to create Berkeley so this is in has a good market square and we had a project with housing a city to create something temporary to the parking spaces that used to be there.

00:06:38:23 - 00:07:08:08
Päivi Raivio
And can you imagine this beautiful spot would be for cars to store cars. So they sort of realized that within this really vast area of development, there has to be something quicker, easier, faster, which placemaking often is. And we we came up with this modular park, which really became like a huge popular spot. And I'm still hearing from citizens, our people who visited that place.

00:07:08:23 - 00:07:32:03
Päivi Raivio
But all they could do there and see, even though it's really simple, but we had kids playing that was skateboarding, that was people lying and relaxing on this kind of prestigious spot in housing. And I really loved seeing how this this space kind of turned into a place for people. What made it after this? We took these modules to another district in the hands again.

00:07:32:03 - 00:08:00:18
Päivi Raivio
And so how easily we can do another welcoming place so natural and green with these modules and that was kind of the starting point for us also in our project, to have a tool that this kind of transformations are really fast and easy. But first and foremost, we wanted to make it more sustainable. So partly started off from thinking of how we can do the same thing with a circular approach.

00:08:00:28 - 00:08:35:05
John Simmerman
And then, yeah, I love it. This is so cool, this is so much fun and I love to that. You know, most of these images have a splash of green. There's some greenery and some natural elements to to all of this because that's one of the things that we really lost in our city is, you know, when everything gets paved over and oh, by the way, the only thing worse than this being a car parking space is this being motor vehicle travel lanes.

00:08:36:09 - 00:08:40:04
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

00:08:40:14 - 00:08:53:13
John Simmerman
We talk a little bit about that because it's it's clear as as we were looking at all these images, there's that little splash of green in there. There's natural elements that really soften the environment.

00:08:54:10 - 00:09:19:29
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, exactly. The softening is really the key word that we sort of came across in all our projects that this, this sort of wish our hope for more greenery is wherever we are working, even though Helsinki, for instance, is fairly green, but squares are really gray, streets are gray, and there's a lot of gray space where you can still green.

00:09:22:04 - 00:10:08:17
Päivi Raivio
For instance, this photo here is one of the first Berkeley projects where we did this park with with the modules. And this used to be a like spot for two cars. And the alternative we right here is a spot for 30 to 40 people with more greenery and so on. And you can really with the greenery, I think it's about control, contrasting this kind of hard surfaces, gray surfaces, but it's also something that softens the perception of our our spaces could be it's a multi-sensory experience also, as we saw, there was one photo with kids planting.

00:10:08:17 - 00:10:20:12
Päivi Raivio
And these are really important small fragments of nature that if we have a daily contact to such spots of nature and greenery, we can really see the impact in our daily lives too.

00:10:21:09 - 00:10:49:06
John Simmerman
Yeah, it's so important. And I love the fact that you you talked about, you know, the kids being able to interact with that environment. I think that is so incredibly important. We just, you know, we missed so much of this, you know, when everything's super, super sterile and and, you know, kids aren't able to, like, really get their hands dirty and play and all that kind of stuff.

00:10:49:06 - 00:10:57:09
John Simmerman
So being able to to have, you know, this type of environment that encourages that I think is just so incredibly healthy. Yeah.

00:10:57:24 - 00:11:20:08
Päivi Raivio
Yeah. We talk a lot about mixed cities and sort of health and mix of functions and health and mix of people and places. And I think we also want to sort of mix the boundaries between what's how we are with the nature and cities, because quite often if it's decorative plant thing, we're sort of do not touch and all that and we want to bring it close to people.

00:11:20:17 - 00:11:29:04
Päivi Raivio
And this I think is sort of visible in partly projects so that the greenery is, is part of this place. Is that great?

00:11:29:18 - 00:11:55:18
John Simmerman
Yeah. And this is a sneak peek of what ends up becoming, you know, from those early seeds of inspiration to the company that, you know, that emerges. And then we can see that modular aspect of it of, of we can move things around and we'll talk about that in a little bit, too. But then again, we see the greenery and we were able to integrate that into the design.

00:11:56:06 - 00:11:58:20
John Simmerman
Absolutely. It's so brilliant, so much fun.

00:11:59:24 - 00:12:30:22
Päivi Raivio
Thanks. So happy to hear that. I think that with the kind of the greenery, the aspect of greenery is goes, you can really take it quite far. So in our in our projects, for instance, those trees that are in this project that will be next summer in the city of thought that these trees for instance, can be then once they grow to a certain height, we can plant them in the parks and kind of really think of this cycle, life cycle of also the greenery, greenery and plants.

00:12:30:22 - 00:12:40:24
Päivi Raivio
So yeah, it's really nice. Nice that what's temporaries actually. So just an idea that there's a lot of permanence in this project.

00:12:41:16 - 00:13:10:14
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah, I love it. This is so much fun. So I want to take us backwards though, just a little bit to talk a little bit about the context of of where you're at in the world. And so, so so, you know, you're here in Helsinki and you know, I've got a bunch of places, you know, start here, you know, some places that I've been and some places where I've interviewed folks already on the Active Sounds podcast.

00:13:11:02 - 00:13:32:21
John Simmerman
But if we really zoom in and we we take a look at, you know, the context of where you're at in Finland, by the way, I've interviewed I think I mentioned this to you before. I've interviewed Pekka to call up in all New Finland, where, you know, towards the Arctic Circle there and we talked a little bit about, you know, the long winters and all of that.

00:13:33:01 - 00:14:03:09
John Simmerman
And I get the sense that that's one of the reasons why, you know, having these elements of color and vibrancy probably is really, really important for for you all in Helsinki as well, is that, you know, when spring comes along like it is now and your your days are getting a little bit longer, having that splash of color, having this splash of of that touch, those elements of green really, you know, help brighten your day, I would imagine.

00:14:04:18 - 00:14:33:27
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, definitely. And I think it's about also like making the most out of that outdoor season and public places so that and that was sort of highlighted throughout during COVID also that yeah that the kind of the quality of public spaces is really really important and that we can find such sort of pockets of greenery and pocket parks, close proximity where we live and work is really important.

00:14:33:27 - 00:15:03:23
Päivi Raivio
And I think Helsinki is intensifying quite rapid speed and I really can sort of sense that there's a little bit of worry of losing the some of the green green space and so on. And I think also for that to balance that, we can make squares and streets and yards that are basically like asphalt, much, much greener. And there's a lot of ways we can work around kind of creating that balance.

00:15:04:15 - 00:15:04:24
Päivi Raivio
Yeah.

00:15:05:11 - 00:15:34:27
John Simmerman
Yeah. And this is the landing page for your your website here, obviously, and I think I'd love to to play a little introduction video. Hopefully the music won't get us in trouble. Do we think that we can give our voices? This is just a moment and and we'll listen to your partner as I scroll down to this. Why don't you just give a little bit of an introduction to your partner in crime here in terms.

00:15:34:27 - 00:15:36:00
Päivi Raivio
Of, Yeah, sure, you're.

00:15:36:00 - 00:15:38:07
John Simmerman
Still here. Here's you're here you are.

00:15:38:11 - 00:15:39:14
Päivi Raivio
Yeah. Yeah, I've.

00:15:39:15 - 00:15:39:29
John Simmerman
Daniel.

00:15:39:29 - 00:16:12:03
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we founded Berkeley together with Dan and my partner, and he's actually a Swiss guy who ended up in Finland for him. Well, we found it partly, really, based on our project in placemaking and really wanted to create something difference in terms of offering and, well, basically stakeholders that are part of urban development, this kind of easy, flexible tool to turn places around.

00:16:12:03 - 00:16:28:25
Päivi Raivio
So Daniel is in charge of mostly the product development, but we are running the company. And also, yeah, with his sort of space background and connections to the German speaking countries in Europe, we we have already projects there too, so.

00:16:29:10 - 00:16:36:06
John Simmerman
Wow, that's great. Okay, nice. Let's, let's give let's give this a try. Let's see if we can actually play this and not get in trouble.

00:16:37:12 - 00:16:56:04
Päivi Raivio
All right. Let's give it a go from Berkeley is about innovating public space. And we found in Berkeley to track sustainable urban change. It's modular, multi-functional furniture for adding life and urban brain in public spaces.

00:16:58:04 - 00:17:37:13
Audio Parkly Video
We wanted to design a product which functions in many ways is durable and easy to use. It's just like playing Lego in public space, and it was designed with circular economy in mind. We launched a software to code partly create in which you can easily build your own designs. Visualize them with a are on site and share them with others, partly based on collaboration, because together we co-create better cities.

00:17:42:20 - 00:17:48:09
John Simmerman
Very cool. Now, how many years ago have it? Has it been since you you started Parkly?

00:17:49:17 - 00:18:10:28
Päivi Raivio
It's two years ago and it was kind of like a also a COVID time project for us because some of our projects where we work as consultants and designers sort of slowed down and we we started to have a things like how would we like to work with this modular idea that we've had long time ago already and had tested in this market square?

00:18:11:17 - 00:18:38:09
Päivi Raivio
And when we actually linked the concept to circular economy, it started to make more and more sense. And also interviewing our colleagues around the euro and also architects and city planners, we really realized that there's a need for something that's kind of straight furniture but created by place. So know about places and not so much just putting benches around.

00:18:38:09 - 00:19:07:01
Päivi Raivio
So what we what we sort of highlight is that we it's not just a brought together with people. We form places. So we want to with the kind of assembly of modules and setups, we want to bring people together. And if the outcome can be an outdoor office, it can be an outdoor gym, a pocket bar for pollinators or an edible garden, or there's a fireplace.

00:19:07:15 - 00:19:38:26
Päivi Raivio
And this kind of multi use multi-functional aspect really creates this sort of opportunities that we can actually reimagine our spaces, whether it's a street corner or a riverside or like outside an office, which are often very boring places actually. So why not having like an outdoor, you know, like a room for having a nice break or meet your colleagues and so on.

00:19:38:26 - 00:19:53:01
Päivi Raivio
So we've seen a lot of Yeah. Need for something like this, what we are doing and of course we are really happy about it because that's ultimately our passion to create change and sort of turn places around.

00:19:53:23 - 00:20:25:20
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, I love this too, because it's like, you know, for cities that are in communities that are starting to come to grips with an understanding that their public spaces can be utilized more effectively and become more people oriented, then they get to sort of this that next step and they're like, okay, yeah, but what do we do and how do we do it in a way that isn't tacky and terrible and in just, you know, kind of icky and then we get lots of complaints about it being not well done.

00:20:25:28 - 00:21:07:03
John Simmerman
And so this gives this this empowers, you know, many cities, many communities and in maybe even, you know, a cluster of businesses to try to activate and beautify and and improve and enhance and make a spot, a dead area outside of a, you know, a business park area or outside of a bunch of eateries and really bring some life to it and partly create is your interactive platform that kind of helps right in in kind of gives some power innovate in helps people be able to figure out how to do that.

00:21:07:09 - 00:21:37:07
John Simmerman
And so literally you can just press start you know, start here to create and and you can start going. And so you end up, you know, popping over to this screen here. It gives, you know, individuals that ability to use the partly Ed and and be able to do that and and you sent over a project that you're it was sort of already in the works that we can once it loads up here we can actually kind of play play with a little bit.

00:21:37:13 - 00:21:46:25
John Simmerman
And let me zoom out just a little on this one so that we can get the full view. There we go. So once we're here, we can actually like this is interactive, right?

00:21:48:11 - 00:22:11:00
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, this is actually a plan that we are working on, on a pocket park. So as you can see, like with different the different modules, it's this like endless combinations. And I think what's what's really inspiring, even though it's super simple, the same place, it is actually key that you can make many things out of it. And we also have different sort of add ons.

00:22:11:00 - 00:22:37:06
Päivi Raivio
We have, for instance, now working with company, which does modular skateboarding elements. So we'll have one modular skateboarding ramp attached to a project. We now work in city of Helsinki. But yeah, this, this tool is really fun and also a tool that basically anyone can use to try things out with the modules, see how it would look on site.

00:22:38:13 - 00:23:00:28
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, like just again, like we wanted to make it as easy and simple as possible. And I think this tool really helps in that, that you can realize that basically if you would like to cover, let's say five parking spots where the mini forest, you just create quickly a set of modules and see how it works and how it would look.

00:23:01:15 - 00:23:32:00
Päivi Raivio
So it's very simple. I think like someone just said to me, Berkeley is a transitional tool and I really like that. That's sort of thought that you can really it's not only already in the planning stage, you are sort of thinking what this face could be rather than what it's currently is. But also then when you see that real change, once we've implemented it, it's transitioning how we think of our public spaces and what what it can be in the future.

00:23:32:20 - 00:23:58:10
Päivi Raivio
So even though we call our place like temporary solution but then break in, been anything between two months to ten years. But what we want to sort of keep in mind that in the long term we recreate these spaces that planners and decision makers could really embed these sort of solutions in public spaces already in the planning, planning space.

00:23:59:11 - 00:24:23:12
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love you know, I love speaking in those terms as well. And I think this really came into our our dialog and part of our our language was when we were describing during the pandemic, when we're trying to move lighter, quicker, cheaper, and we're doing very temporary types of installations to try to create more people oriented places.

00:24:24:09 - 00:24:51:06
John Simmerman
I mean, I would say, yeah, that first step that's really, really, you know, piloting, we're just putting some stuff out there and then, you know, it's like, Oh yeah, after we loosen things around, then we get into like that transitional phase. And so then you have your, your interim materials that are maybe a little bit more robust, like the Berkeley materials here before a city can be like, yeah, no, this is super, super effective and, and, and wonderful.

00:24:51:10 - 00:25:14:06
John Simmerman
We need to, to double down and actually put in some permanent infrastructure. And so I love that, you know, those different stages of you know, that initial lighter quicker cheaper put it in and then you guys Yeah you guys still that that nice little space although in some places there you may skip right to your phase which is this transitional phase of the interim phase.

00:25:14:06 - 00:25:17:24
Päivi Raivio
Yeah. Yeah. And the thing that Yeah.

00:25:18:20 - 00:25:40:15
John Simmerman
As you going to say I love I love some of your case studies that you have here too. So thank you. We have a little, you know, pocket park here in Groningen, there in the Netherlands, and you know, and you can kind of see a little bit of what's going on here. Talk a little bit about your your clients and the locations.

00:25:40:15 - 00:25:56:03
John Simmerman
And it's you mentioned they're mostly in Europe. And so talk a little bit about the clients. How how do you how do they hear about you and how do you kind of service them and be able to actually deliver, you know, product to them?

00:25:56:28 - 00:26:27:20
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, Yeah. I guess our sort of key client groups, our target groups are cities and municipalities. As I mentioned, we have met many already also in Switzerland and Finland that are really hoping to create fast change and and appealing places for them so that they can also do something quicker because cities are a little bit slow and rigid.

00:26:28:25 - 00:27:05:26
Päivi Raivio
So we can change that. Our other target groups are like office parks and campus areas because there's actually quite a lot of potentials, a lot of unused potential in those. I know this exceptions in this, but many campus areas and office parks haven't really thought of the space in between buildings much at all. And there's actually some some kind of unused potential off and that's how you could actually have an impact on on people who work or study there and that sort of daily, daily reason, wellbeing, connecting to others and so on.

00:27:06:19 - 00:27:32:25
Päivi Raivio
And then we of course work with urban designers and architects or developers who want to use our solution in their projects. So somehow, like what we do also that we use Berkeley in our face making projects because it works. So we have this sort of collaborations and yeah, the one in Groningen, in the Netherlands is one. One example of this.

00:27:34:26 - 00:27:48:13
John Simmerman
Yeah, that's fantastic. Now earlier we were mentioning the fact that we're striving to, to create this in a way that is circular. Talk a little bit about that terminology. What do you mean by circular?

00:27:49:13 - 00:28:21:14
Päivi Raivio
Yeah, yeah. It's, it's somehow really interesting topic in terms of design aspect also. So we have a product which is based on circular economy from a design principles. So that means that every path is we can replace it if it breaks or is this something happens to it So we can replace parts, we can modify the use of the partly set up so that basically it has this flexibility.

00:28:21:14 - 00:28:56:01
Päivi Raivio
So if there's some needs for use change, we can add up stuff instead of getting like new products in. So the kind of lifecycle is circular through the materials and parts circulating in different projects or within within one project and they are dieterbohn materials and so on. So the circularity affects our materials choices, but also a lot of the design decisions we make in terms of creating these parts.

00:28:56:13 - 00:29:29:10
Päivi Raivio
So we've actually moved on. From what you can see, we have a set of wooden side modules, but now we chose for the durability reasons and design reasons to move more towards having like metal sided modules so that we can still make it even lighter in terms of set up and flat back and so on. One of the, for instance, one kind of challenge way that we've sort of identified is that cities and municipalities have less and less storage space themselves.

00:29:29:22 - 00:30:08:14
Päivi Raivio
So whatever the the solution is, it should be something that really fits small places and all this kind of mass of modules and greenery, all that can be packed away and for store stored in the winter. But what we are also now doing in Finland, and I'm really happy about we can together with the company which is developing innovative green solutions called Integrate, we can now offer to cities and municipalities these and other clients sort of a package so they can basically get a factory pocket block with all the greenery.

00:30:08:14 - 00:30:39:09
Päivi Raivio
Everything's set up and taken away for the windows needed and all the green materials and all the parts also cladding within the system. So it's quite advanced, I would say, in terms of how in a small timeframe we managed to get it going. And in other European countries we are we will start looking for partner companies that we can do the exact same thing in other, let's say in the Netherlands.

00:30:39:24 - 00:30:47:20
Päivi Raivio
So I'm really enthusiastic about what will the next few years that have held for us in that.

00:30:48:10 - 00:30:59:17
John Simmerman
Yeah. So my, my, my next question is more of a business related question. When are you going to be opening up your office and distribution here in Austin, Texas?

00:31:02:10 - 00:31:32:25
Päivi Raivio
I don't know, but I definitely I, I feel like I could say something very encouraging, like next year, but I think I have to hold myself a little bit back. It takes a while to establish such things, but the amount of interest we've had and also we've had connections from Canada and Japan, this gives us sort of encouragement to to really, yeah, look into that opportunities.

00:31:33:09 - 00:31:39:21
Päivi Raivio
I'd say we first focus on the new European first European partner companies have.

00:31:39:27 - 00:31:42:11
John Simmerman
Got a lot of work ahead of you right where you're at. Yes.

00:31:43:06 - 00:32:09:00
Päivi Raivio
Applaud what you keep saying. This is a global solution and there's really need for it. I think this urbanization and all the sort of opportunities as well as challenges it brings, such solutions are really needed and we keep hearing this. So I think, yeah, it's it's it's only going to grow in terms of what are the opportunities with this sort of solution.

00:32:09:19 - 00:32:38:14
John Simmerman
Yeah, Yeah. Well, and just the fact that, you know, in a very, very short period of time of two years, you all have been able to, you know, establish, you know, so many locations and case studies and different client locations and and really bringing vitality and vibrancy in life to to space. And this isn't a new idea, really, when you think of it.

00:32:38:14 - 00:33:05:29
John Simmerman
I mean, it's it's been something that has been, you know, really talked about in reimagining space. I was just interviewing Blaine Merkur. In fact, his episode, you know, published just yesterday from when we're recording this now on April 13th. And, you know, he was part of the the parking day movement with rebar in San Francisco when they, you know, kind of took over that very first parking spot.

00:33:06:00 - 00:33:36:04
John Simmerman
And, you know, because they were like, well, wait a minute, it's $2 an hour to take, you know, to park a car there. Well, what if we turn this into a park? And so they did. And, you know, it's you know, all these many years later, this continues to evolve and develop and mature. And to your point, yeah, during the pandemic and during the lockdown, we started to, you know, reframe our thoughts of, oh, my gosh, you know, what about that public space?

00:33:36:04 - 00:34:02:22
John Simmerman
Well, what about that? That place is, you know, just dedicated to moving cars or parking cars or is this dead space? And let's let's bring some life and vitality to it. So I have to applaud you guys. I mean, this is just absolutely wonderful to achieve in such a short period of time for your final thoughts here, any anything that we didn't cover that you think is really, really important that the audience needs to hear?

00:34:04:15 - 00:34:33:12
Päivi Raivio
Well, I think we covered a lot and I'm really, really happy about it, that what I what I really feel and what we've maybe kind of highlight is really that with this picture there with so pollinator friendly plants and all that, when we place these modules in in let's say public squares, for instance, we carried out studies together with stakeholders in a project.

00:34:33:12 - 00:35:09:00
Päivi Raivio
They it was really encouraging to hear that even with such fairly small islands of greenery can really have an impact. In so far urban nature and biodiversity. So I think that this this is important to highlight that it's not just nice to look at it, but you can really have an impact and we all often and always you're saying that working with small places can have a big impact, kind of big change because we can create a network of them.

00:35:09:18 - 00:35:19:01
Päivi Raivio
And yeah, that's that's our sort of mission through this network of small public spaces where you can create more livable cities in total or in whole.

00:35:20:28 - 00:35:45:05
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, I love it too. And it's I'm glad you highlighted the pollinator side of it because again, it really emphasizes the importance of having those green elements integrated into this. So it's not only people oriented places where we're welcoming and in that softening that environment and welcoming people there, but we're also inviting and welcoming the critters too.

00:35:45:05 - 00:35:54:20
John Simmerman
We're in bring in, you know, we're saying, hey, you know, nature, come back. Come back, please. Is there's some pollination opportunities for you.

00:35:55:15 - 00:36:27:19
Päivi Raivio
Yeah. Yeah. And what's also encouraging them to hear from people because they there's a lot of let's say maybe not despair is maybe a drastic word but kind of worry about climate change and all other environmental all sort of huge challenges we are facing. Sort of citizens really feel that these are way too vast sort of phenomena to understand or even sort of picture what sort of solutions we could have for them.

00:36:28:06 - 00:36:53:16
Päivi Raivio
But the feedback we've gotten is really that seeing this small positive change in where they live and work has really given them kind of concrete examples what can happen in their surroundings towards sort of that are linked to these big phenomena. So I'm trying to resolve this and develop more by finding climate friendly spaces. So this has been really also a nice and empowering message.

00:36:53:16 - 00:37:07:27
Päivi Raivio
Then also maybe kind of a greeting to our audience there. Yeah, small public places have a really big meaning to people's lives, so let's keep developing them into more social and green.

00:37:08:26 - 00:37:31:06
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love it. I love it. And again, folks, you can you can find partly out at Hello Park Lidcombe and here's the contact information that's out there on their website. So pop on over to the website and check it out and and play around, you know, see if you can design your own little create your own little Berkeley pie.

00:37:31:17 - 00:37:36:19
John Simmerman
Thank you so very much for joining me on the Activities podcast. It's been an absolute joy and pleasure.

00:37:37:20 - 00:37:40:08
Päivi Raivio
Thanks for having me. It's been really fun. Thank you.

00:37:41:01 - 00:37:57:24
John Simmerman
Thank you all so much for tuning and I hope you enjoy this episode. Even if you did, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below. Can you think of some places in your community that could use some life? Bring in some more people, maybe some pollinators, some fresh greenery? I can think of quite a few.

00:37:59:16 - 00:38:25:14
John Simmerman
And also, if you haven't done so already, please subscribe to the channel. Just click on that subscription button down below and ring the notifications below so you can customize your notification preferences. We'll be back soon with another episode. So until then, this is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers. And again sending a huge thank you to all my active towns ambassadors supporting the channel on Patron Buy me a coffee YouTube super Thanks.

00:38:25:21 - 00:38:36:17
John Simmerman
As well as making contributions to the nonprofit and purchasing things from the active store, every little bit adds up and it's much appreciated. Thank you all so much.