Int´l Social Housing Festival begins in Helsinki

The International Social Housing Festival (ISHF) has begun in Helsinki on Tuesday, said the City of Helsinki in a press release.

The event brings together housing professionals, experts, researchers, developers, architects and designers from all around the world in Helsinki for four days.

More than 800 participants from 54 countries have already enrolled for the event.

The festival program comprises a total of about 80 seminars, site visits, workshops, exhibitions and networking events. The festival highlights interaction and learning from one another.

As part of the programme, the City of Helsinki is also organising walking tours of the Jätkäsaari and Mellunmäki areas. With the help of the tour maps, anyone can take the tour at their own leisure.

The festival’s key idea is that throughout life, comfortable housing lays the foundation for good living for everyone: families, singles, youths, the elderly and the disabled.

In Helsinki, about one in five apartments are part of state-subsidised social housing production, and city-owned apartments have for a long time played an important role in housing provision.

Reducing homelessness through the Housing First principle is also a Finnish success story that will be discussed in the festival.

The main organiser of the ISHF festival in Helsinki is the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland (ARA), and the main partners are the City of Helsinki and Housing Europe.

The ISHF festival is organised under the Housing Europe concept. The first festival took place in Amsterdam in 2017 and the next one in Lyon in 2019. After Helsinki, the festival will be organised in Barcelona.