Digitalisation defining the future vitality of city center shop premises after the COVID-19 pandemic

The corona virus has changed the everyday life, behavior, interacting and consuming habits of the people significantly. One entity to have been more hardly hit than others are the city centers, where services, cultural activities as well as shopping opportunities form a vital meeting environment for people.

The versatile future of living city centers is being built now in dialogue between various actors. In collaboration the existing resources may be used in a wise way thus better anticipating and preparing for future needs. City centers are no longer merely centers of commerce, social encounters and community spirit will also be accentuated. The empty spaces and premises in the center offer plenty of opportunities to many different dimensions of working life, novel ways for working and encounters.

Lahti is a city of design, music, theater and fine arts, with long roots in the field of cultural education in Finland. In the future, this must also become visible in the center of Lahti. Culture is at the heart of a sustainable, dynamic city.

1. is to speed up alternative ways of using the empty premises by applying novel digital solutions for supply and demand to meet. 
2. is to develop and pilot novel digital solutions which will help transform the empty walk-in business premises more active and informative in essence. These digital solutions will also offer novel opportunities to direct activities and communication efforts in a more productive way for the existing facilities. This will also offer new business potential and collaboration possibilities to the small companies.