Helsinki Design Week holds 250 events till Sep 17

The largest design event in the Nordic is putting more than 250 events targeted at design enthusiasts and professionals in Helsinki from September 7 to 17.

Novelties include DesignCommons that brings top international design stars to Finland, a mini apartment house built in the city centre and design discussions on the tram.

Helsinki Design Week 2017 launches a new event concept called DesignCommons that allows the audience to dine and discuss with international design super stars. The stars include world-renowned architect David Adjaye, Ikea design director Marcus Engman and Dutch architect Winy Maas.

One of the participants is Chris Sheldrick who just won the biggest design award in the world the InderxAward.

DesignCommons is part of the two-day World Design Weeks Summit of design leaders from all over the world hosted in Helsinki. Helsinki Design Week director Kari Korkman chairs the summit until 2020.

“Finnish design will only succeed by creating international connections. DesignCommons is the result of this effort. Its evening concept has been created by two experienced event organizers: Design Indaba and Helsinki Design Week, and the idea is to make speakers sit with the audience instead of stepping up on a stage,” Korkman said.

HDW HOP brings six new artworks to the city centre of Helsinki. The installation series consists of works by Finnish and international designers and architects, addressing the theme of a city in development.

To be built on Keskuskatu, the Tikku installation is a demonstration of dense residential development in the future as well as Finnish wood construction. Tikku was designed by architect Marco Casagrande.

Another installation, Enter, invites citizens to come together in front of the old Kaartin maneesi building to enjoy outdoor cinema on Sunday September 10, to participate in discussion events throughout HDW or just to marvel that this left over space can now be used by the people. Enter´s opening will be celebrated openly in a parade organized by We Jazz on Thursday, September 7 from 18:00 onwards.

Q&A Tram Discussions is an event series that takes place in the “culture tram” of Helsinki Regional Transport, touring the districts of the city and functioning as an arena for discussions. Each ride will feature its own theme, including visuality in the city, the challenges of creative work, the future of work, and consumer behaviour, organized together with Grafia, the Ompeluseura network, Maria 01 and Avantage Oy. For the first time the Data-Driven Design Day is part of the festival programme. This year its theme addresses online and retail trade. The event will provide inspiring stories about developing products and services based on data.