Urban Space and Social Welfare

During the whole of his career Otto-Iivari Meurman's main focus of attention was on the everyday environment of ordinary people, on the small-scale urban environment of Finnish towns. For Meurman, the main task of urban planning was to create an architecturally succesful built environment which would allow for the life-enhancement of all citizens. This study focuses on the formative period of his work as a planner, the time from his graduation in 1914 until 1937. In the study Meurman's work as a planner is anchored in two contexts: first, in urban planning and its on-going professionalisation and institutionalisation, and second, in the social processes of interwar Finland.