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News • Helsinki • Finland • 2012-09-05

WDC Helsinki 2012: Newsletter: September 2012

In September World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 is more lively, international and busy than ever before: Everyday Discoveries exhibition takes over Suvilahti. Helsinki Design Week and Habitare start. Recently opened Kellohalli serves up tasty urban culture. The new main library of the University of Helsinki is of everybody’s interest. The design community of the world again gathers into the design capital. And on September 16th we will say a cheerful goodbye to our good friend Pavilion.

Everyday Discoveries Exhibition Takes Over Suvilahti

What is everyday design? This simple question, relevant to all of us, will be answered by Everyday Discoveries – International Design House Exhibition that takes place in Suvilahti, Helsinki between 6.-16.9. Altogether hundreds of designers from 23 countries are participating in the main autumn exhibition of WDC Helsinki 2012. In Suvilahti there are the four exhibition spaces: Kattilahalli, Puhdistamo, Tiivistämö and Konttikatu as well as a cafe, a design shop and an urban garden to be found. Everyday Discoveries is a World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 Signature Event curated by Imu Design and produced by Design Forum Finland together with WDC Helsinki 2012. Welcome to a voyage of Discoveries.

More information here.

Helsinki Design Week + Habitare

Helsinki Design Week (6.-16.9.) is more international than ever. As well as offering a number of meetings with experts the week offers a wide variety of fashion and design related events. The events will be mostly taking place at the Cable Factory but also at the Old Customs Warehouse located in downtown Helsinki. HDW also offers several WDC Helsinki 2012 exhibitions: there will be the Everyday Discoveries, a Tomás Saraceno at the Taidehalli, the Venturo house at Katajanokka, Boutique exhibition at the Amos Anderson Art Museum and Open House Helsinki that opens doors to spaces that are usually beyond the reach of the public. Habitare will be organised in the Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre between 12.-16.9 and it, once and again, will offer furniture, interior design and design for the entire family.

More on Helsinki Design Week here.

More on Habitare here.

Food, Drinks and Urban Culture at the Kellohalli

The main stage for food and design related events in WDC Helsinki 2012 is Kellohalli. The building is designed by Bertel Liljequist, located in the old slaughter house area of Abattoir, next to the Kalasatama metro station. In Kellohalli one can enjoy lunch or dinner and participate in different events combining design and food culture such as the food flea market. Kellohalli is open for public from Wednesday to Sunday. As well as serving lunch during weekdays Kellohalli offers brunch during weekends. The Abattoir/Kellohalli area is generally open for public and one can come and lounge around in there. Kellohalli also includes a reading room open for both children and grown ups. The autumn program for Kellohalli is put together by restaurateur – head chef Antto Melasniemi along his talented friends.

More on Kellohalli here.

The University of Helsinki’s Main Library: Service Design at its Best

The University of Helsinki’s new main library is a model example of customer oriented design where the opinions of the end users have really been taken into consideration. The service design thinking is visible in the technology, logistics, walls and hallways of the library. The building is for example colour coded according to the acceptable levels of noise. Colours reveal whether a space is meant for total silence, working or socialising. The new main library of the University of Helsinki serves roughly 22 000 students, over thousand teachers and researchers, roughly hundred members of staff as well as tens of thousands of Helsinki citizens. The recently opened library more than welcomes absolutely everyone, not just the students. The library is located in the Kaisa House in Kaisaniemi, Helsinki. It is designed by architects Selina Anttinen and Vesa Oiva from the AOA Architects Ltd.

More on the University Helsinki’s new library here.

The International Design Community Gathers in Finland

The grand design September 2012 in WDC Helsinki 2012 is also a time for diverse expert meetings. Feeling for Wood conference (5.9.-7.9.) gathers a significant crowd of internationally renowned wood architects in the Sibelius Hall, Lahti. An international urban planning seminar Suburban Design organised in Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa during 12.- 14.9 tackles the central question for the global metropolis: how to make the future suburbs more vital and comfortable places to live in? The European Design Innovation Summit organised in the Helsinki City Hall during 17.-18.9. ponders on the role of design in the collective development of Europe.

More on Feeling for Wood conference here.

More on Suburban Design seminar here.

More on European Design Innovation Summit here.

Bye Bye Pavilion

True it is. The Pavilion, a hugely popular summer meeting place of WDC Helsinki 2012, located between The Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture will be closed for good on the 16th of September. Luckily there will be a final sprint of events. Amongst the September programme in the Pavilion there will be a senior weekend, a dialogue between Helsinki and London: HEL/LO – Let’s Talk and a Make Helsinki workshop. The final weekend of the Pavilion (15. – 16.9) will offer dancing, drawing lessons, films and, of course, debates on how design can makes cities better places for us all. You are warmly welcome to come and say a wistful yet cheerful goodbye to the Pavilion.

More on the final weekend of the Pavilion here.

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