Helsinki Design Week takes place around the city and online
Due to the new meeting restrictions of the Regional State Administrative Agency, Helsinki Design Week cannot organize the main event in Glasshouse Helsinki as planned, and it has been cancelled.
However, the Helsinki Design Week festival will take place as planned online and in the city from 9 to 19 September 2021, and the programme planned for the main event venue will be brought to Helsinki Design Weekly’s channels.
HDW is a series of smaller events selected through an open event search, and a calendar of events is published here. There will be 80 design-themed events, from open showrooms and studios to smaller exhibitions, workshops for the whole family and walking tours. The programme includes Aalto University’s Designs for a Cooler Planet, where the theme is resource wisdom. The ensemble includes three different exhibition ensembles as well as webinars open to everyone. HDW visitors have the opportunity to learn about radical and multidisciplinary ideas, research, and prototypes in fashion, design and architecture that will contribute to a resource-wise future.
The festival programme includes an exhibition by the legendary sculptor and jewelry artist Björn Weckström, which celebrates the long career of the versatile artist. The exhibition, which opens at the Didrichsen Art Museum, features sculptures of acrylic, bronze, stone and glass. Also on display are oil paintings on sailcloths that combine fine art with sailing, Weckström’s second calling.
The Design Museum’s Design Super Week includes the exhibition as well as a lunch discussion by the Graphic Designer of the Year Marina Vezik, guided remote tours of the Iittala – Kaleidoscope: From Nature to Culture exhibition and much more.
The Design Market is held in vendors’ own stores and online
For shopping, festival guests can head to Johanna Gullichsen‘s new flagship store in Lasipalatsi or Nomen Nescio’s new store. Bicycle manufacturer Pelago’s store will be transformed into an exhibition space featuring six bicycles from the Build-A-Pelago invitation competition. The theme of the competition was to build a bicycle using Pelago’s frame materials that fills a gap in the Pelago collection. The super-popular Design Market is also organized in a way that suits the exceptional circumstances: in vendors’ own stores and online.
There will also be fashion shows on the streets of Helsinki. Open showrooms include Pukkila, Grado, Poiat, Woodnotes and Nikari, and Tej Chauhan. Collaboration with the Helsinki International Film Festival – Love & Anarchy continues, and HDW presents Leena Kilpeläinen’s documentary Maija Isola. After the show, a discussion event will be held on the work of the legendary textile designer and its significance for Finnish design.
Children’s Design Week is celebrated by the whole family when a series of shop window installations take over the city centre
HDW Children’s Windows is an experimental step in opening Helsinki’s city centre to children’s culture, exhibitions and events. The installations are completed in front of the audience and are freely visible around the clock, throughout Helsinki Design Week. The authors of the installations have been designers and other creators of the creative industry, who together with top Nordic illustrators design and assemble the installations, making the design process visible. Featuring illustrator Edith Hammar, illustrator, fashion and concept designer Tuula Pöyhönen, illustrator Jenny Lucander, innovation and experience designer Martin Mohr, illustrator Lena Frölander-Ulf and architect Jouni Kaipia. In addition, the Children’s PechaKucha series of events, which started last year, will be continued as part of the City of Helsinki’s Culture Path.