Clarion Hotels have an important role during Helsinki Design Week, featuring a pop-up store, installations and an art exhibition
The Clarion Hotels in Helsinki are full of design during Helsinki Design Week. In addition to the two main events of the festival, the hotel guests will have an opportunity to drop by a pop-up store curated by TRE, experience nature in a sound chair installation and check out the results of Basware’s international art competition.
Clarion Hotels opened their Design Hotel in the Jätkäsaari district of Helsinki in 2016, and this year they are again a strong partner for the Helsinki Design Week festival. During the week, the Clarion Hotel Helsinki in Jätkäsaari will house the two main events of the festival: the design gala Helsinki Design Awards and the service design seminar Data-Driven Design Day.
Design is embraced at Clarion in many other ways, too. Both the Jätkäsaari and Clarion Hotel Helsinki Airport at the Helsinki-Vantaa will feature a pop-up store and a sound chair installation that highlight Finnish design. The lobby of Clarion Hotel Helsinki in Jätkäsaari will also display the results of the Art of Basware competition.
A lobby store to approach trustworthy furniture
The idea of the Clarion x TRE pop-up store is related to HDW’s 2018 theme TRUST. Each product chosen for the store is considered in some way trustworthy and can finish the sentence: “TRUST is…”
The products on display can be purchased in the store or ordered to be delivered to the hotel or to your home. There is a store in both the Jätkäsaari and the Helsinki-Vantaa airport hotels, and the stores offer a discount for visitors staying over.
The stores are built near the reception desks, and in them design fans can find items by Artek, 24bottle and Guardian of the Baltic Sea. The stores are open from 6 September to 6 October.
Sound chairs let you be engulfed in nature in the middle of the city
This year Clarion provides installations in each of their hotels in Helsinki. Designed by Esa Vesmanen, the installation consists of three elements: nature sounds recorded by WWF and a sound chair and a lighting fixture made of Finnish birch.
The sounds heard inside the sound chair come from the WWF Wildlive website. They transmit the beauty of Finnish nature and tell the story of our endangered species through sounds and video clips. The nature effect is further emphasized by the curve-hugging veneer-made Balance Lounge Audio Chair, which represents modern design and plugs into any sound device. The chair can be transformed by removing the sound cushion.
These installations include a birch-wood lighting fixture collection designed by Vesmanen and produced in collaboration with his brother Jukka Vesmanen. Titled “Finom Lights”, the lighting fixtures strive to appreciate wood with a new approach. Vesmanen likes to work with birch because no other wood type is the same: birch trees stay equally firm through the harsh winters as well as the light summer nights.
Room for international art in the lobby
The Art of Basware exhibition opens on 11 September in the lobby of the Clarion Hotel Helsinki in Jätkäsääri and will continue until the beginning of October. An international art competition for under 30-year-olds will present all the works that have reached the finals as well as the winner, which will be revealed at the opening. The works selected for the exhibition are on sale.
The theme of this year’s competition is “Every Action Counts”. Basware is a leading online invoicing and Purchase-to-Pay solution provider. Young talent, courage and innovation are the qualities emphasized by the company. A history of 17 years and the successful careers of many previous Art of Basware winners prove the competition’s popularity.
The lobby exhibition will stay open until 10 October.