Helsinki Design Week was celebrated at studios, “The Sugar Cube”, window displays and museums
21.9.2022Text: Helsinki Design WeeklyImages: Aleksi Poutanen, Helsinki Design Week
The 18th Helsinki Design Week was organized from 1 to 11 September 2022 around the city and online. Themed around design and architecture, the urban festival reached both design professionals and citizens interested in design. Close to 100 companion and satellite events ensured programme versatility. Pandemic restrictions aside, international guests, too, found their ways back to Helsinki.
Stock sale event Design Market reached its targeted number of visitors at the Cable Factory. The weekend brought together more than 10,000 vendors and customers attracted by high quality design. Helsinki Design Week for the Young featured main event Children’s Windows in cooperation with the City of Helsinki, Urban Tech Helsinki and the Design Academy of the Design Museum and Ornamo.Designer Hanna-Kaarina Heikkilä, illustrator/graphic designer Sanni Wessman and Educational Curator at Design Museum Hanna Kapanen were in charge of the conceptual design of the workshops. Learn more here. The winner of the 2022 Helsinki Design Award is designer Päivi Raivio. This joint award by the City of Helsinki and Helsinki Design Week recognizes a designer or a design team for their work in making Helsinki a better place to live in. The Mayor Juhana Vartiainen held out the award. You can meet Päivi here.The Open Studios event opened the doors of designers’ studios to a record number of inquisitive visitors: 250 participated in the tours! People peeked into about 20 creative studios around Helsinki. The highlight of the event was a club night at Kaiku in the district of Kallio on Friday.The Design studio Aivan also took part in the Open Studios. Design Diplomacy featured ten embassies this year, Latvia being one of them. This super popular discussion series made a comeback in the HDW programme after the pandemic. This year there were three PechaKucha Nights: one for kids at Oodi, one in Otaniemi in cooperation with Aalto University and one that was sold out in the Church of Kallio. The presentations seen during the week addressed football, pigeons, planetary wellbeing, creativity, deodorants and noses, among other things.The atmosphere at the pop-up restaurant Kuurna x HDW with Artek Wine Bar impressed visitors throughout the week.On the top floor of Kanavaranta 1, people met face to face for the longest time, engaging in fascinating conversations. The Weekly Talks series addressed brands, faith in the future, creative city space and clothing designers’ uniforms, for example.
