Sneak peek to Children’s Design Week main and pre-events

Children’s Design Week is organized during Helsinki Design Week from 6 to 16 September 2018. However, the youngest of the family don’t need to wait until September because there’ll be pre-events starting mid-June.

Children’s Design Week offers a versatile array of events, workshops and things to see for the whole family, from toddlers to 13-year-olds. During the week, kids will be provided with creative programme to promote design education and knowledge of the built environment.

Children’s Design Week starts at pre-events organized together with the playgrounds of Helsinki and spreads during the summer outside the city centre, providing design programme to more and more families with kids in the Helsinki area.

These events start on the Helsinki Day 12 June. There’s a workshop in the lobby of the Helsinki City Hall to build trees and animal vehicles for the Magic Forest together with artist Leena Kisonen. See detailed information about the times and locations of the pre-events in Facebook.

The pre-events include a naming competition, of which you can read more at Weekly: Children’s Design Week’s pink Hobo Mouse needs a name take part in a naming competition.

Children’s Design Week offers all kinds of programme for school children, too

Children’s Design Week takes over the Helsinki City Museum with plenty to do for school children in particular. Kids can try design and architecture in different workshops throughout the week.

The Helsinki City Hall is the main event venue of Helsinki Design Week, exploring this year’s theme Trust from various angles. For example, during a week-long project, sixth year pupils leave the lobby of the City Hall to explore Helsinki using corporeal and experiental methods under a theme “the city as a designer”. During the week, the kids study how different city spaces can produce different ways of life in an urban environment.

The contents of the project week combine urban geography and phenomenon pedagogics with communal art methods. The focus is on the kids’ point of view, and they’ll participate in the planning of the study since the get-go. The project will provide information about Helsinki for Kids right now and what it could be in the future. There is a plan to organize a phenomenon-based learning week in the lobby of the City Hall in relation to free school lunches. School groups can come and visit daily to learn about school nutrition. The week will be concluded with a school meal banquet.

Kids to co-design one of the HDW HOP installations

Immensely popular during the festival, the HDW HOP city installations will once again spread around the centre of Helsinki. Last year’s hit was a parking-space-size apartment house on Keskuskatu. This year one of the installations will be co-created with kids. It is to be designed by awarded design agency NEON that worked on the Trust theme together with the Arabia school’s fourth year pupils specializing in design. The pupils produced suggestions for the installation that can be seen during Children’s Design Week at the Helsinki City Museum.

In addition to the installation, kids receive their own map of the HDW HOP city installations including tasks that help them view the installations from different angles. The map is created in cooperation with the teachers of the Arabia school.

VIMMA to launch new #bebrave prints during Children’s Design Week

VIMMA is to launch new #bebrave prints during Children’s Design Week. The prints have been created by interior design architect Natalia Ritari based on the works of children who participated in the #bebrave afternoon club of Design Skidiakatemia. Muotoilun Skidiakatemia is a design education concept based on an afternoon club organized by the Design Museum and Ornamo Art and Design Finland in the comprehensive schools of Helsinki since 2010.

Ritari led a #bebrave club to ponder how to prevent harmful phenomena like bullying and discrimination. The core idea of the club was to support diversity, empathy and courage to intervene injustice. The new prints can be seen and bought during Children’s Design Week and HDW Children’s Weekend at Kattilahalli from 15 to 16 September 2018.

Vimma: Silmä
Vimma: Silmä

The week’s highlight is popular Children’s Weekend at Kattilahalli

The high point of HDW Children’s Design Week is the Children’s Weekend family event organized at Kattilahalli in Suvilahti on 15 and 16 September.

For the weekend, the building becomes a magical forest created by illustrator Leena Kisonen where kids can experience design and architecture through various workshops. The visitors can participate in creating a Giant’s Lantern of recycled material in a workshop by the Helinä Rautavaara Museum and learn about interior design at the Silja Line workshop together with hundreds of families with children. The youngest ones are welcome to play along by exploring their reflections in a fun Cuckoo Cupola and by admiring its colourful accessories.

In addition to workshops, Finnish and international design brands will have their children’s collections on sale at Little Market. VIMMA’s new #bebrave print will be available to see and buy at Little Market.