During Helsinki Design Week, the city is filled with launches and other news; parties and exhibitions, as well as encounters with new and familiar faces. Helsinki Design Weekly selected its favorite events from the extensive programme for creative professionals. Get your calendars ready and head out into the city!

The week’s most inspiring afterwork events: HDW’s main venue at Paasivuorenkatu 3, 11-14 September, and The House by an Architect evening on 12 September

 Helsinki Design Week’s main venue is located at Paasivuorenkatu 3. The event, hosted in an old bank hall owned by the main partner Antilooppi, promises engaging discussions, exchanges of ideas, and networking. A conceptual bar called Bar Unikko in Residence at Helsinki Design Week, created in collaboration with Marimekko and the international interior magazine Apartamento, will be open from Wednesday to Sunday. Each day, there will be discussions on design under different themes.
Thursday’s theme is architecture, with talks in collaboration with the new Museum of Architecture and Design, discussing radical concepts related to the museum’s development. In the afternoon, a keynote presentation by Paola Antonelli from MoMA will explore the role of museums as change-makers. Thursday culminates in the popular House by an Architect evening, where architects Timo Karasalo, Esa Laaksonen, Anu Puustinen, Miisa-Liina Tommila, and Henrik Ilvesmäki will share which residential buildings they wish they had designed. You can find the daily schedule for Paasivuorenkatu 3 here. Entry is free, and no pre-registration is required. Space is limited, so it’s advisable to arrive early for events like House by an Architect and PechaKucha Night.

Showrooms Habitare x Helsinki Design Week around the city, 11-15 September

As usual, showrooms open during HDW, showcasing the most interesting new products from the top of Finland’s design world. You can visit the showrooms at your own pace, especially on Thursday, September 12, when there will be special programs and a festive atmosphere. You can find the list of showrooms here. You can find more information about the Habitare Fair here.

ARTEFAKTI 24 – Aalto Contemporary Design Graduation Exhibition at Cable Factory, 6-14 September

Every creative professional should know what the new generation of designers is thinking. ARTEFAKTI is the annual final exhibition of Aalto University’s Contemporary Design, where design students graduating with a Master of Arts degree present their work. The exhibition consists of personal projects, with recurring themes of storytelling, craftsmanship, interspecies relationships, material exploration, and process-driven design. More details can be found here.

Creative Leaders Forum at Musiikkitalo on 12 September

Creative Leaders Forum is a fireside chat of creative professionals and leaders. Their topics include stories and insights, solutions and inspiring practices and philosophies in the fields of creative work, collaboration and leadership. This year’s event is hosted by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and features speakers such as Aleksi Malmberg, general manager of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra; Iiris Autio, managing director of the Tero Saarinen Company; and Margit Aasmäe, founder and CEO of Fotografiska Tallinn. Topics include questions like: How to lead creative work and collaboration? How to manage an organization of creative professionals? How to create, collaborate, and lead together?
Free entry, but space is limited. You can find more information here.

Fiskars LAB Design Talk: What if? at Fiskars Headquarters in Keilaniemi, September 6

In these uncertain times, staying open to change is essential. What does it take to think differently? How can we enable serendipity in development work? Fiskars LAB, Fiskars’ new agile innovation platform, celebrates the company’s 375th anniversary this year. It offers the award-winning Fiskars design team the opportunity to experiment with exciting new ideas, materials, and approaches to design.During Helsinki Design Week, Fiskars LAB is hosting a breakfast discussion on the theme What if? The discussion will explore ways to think differently, design differently, and imagine extraordinary things in everyday life. The speakers include Fiskars’ design director Petteri Masalin, development director of the EMMA museum Saara Suojoki, and fashion designer Sofia Ilmonen, known for her modular clothing pieces. The discussion will be moderated by HDW’s programme director Anni Korkman.
Attendees will also get an exclusive look at LAB products hosted by the Fiskars design team and a peek into the Fiskars Group offices, home to many renowned design brands.
Free entry, but pre-registration is required. More information here.

Skanno x Acerbis: The visionary world of Acerbis 6–14 September

On the occasion of Helsinki Design Week, Skanno and Acerbis present ‘The visionary world of Acerbis’. In the evocative neo-Renaissance setting of the Erottaja Palace, the Acerbis collection is revealed within two large rooms decorated with frescoes, ceiling rosettes and arches, evoking a small piece of Milan in the urban heart of Helsinki. Each element of the collection blends harmoniously with its surroundings, creating an intense dialogue between avant-garde design and the classic architecture of the spaces. The most recent products blend naturally with the historical pieces of the Remasters collection, emphasising the versatility of a design capable of adapting to different contexts, from the most classic to the most modern, and affirming its contemporary nature, which endures over time. More information here.

Open Doors at Antilooppi’s Always Ready Space, 11-13 September

The past few years have radically changed the way we work, which is also reflected in office spaces. Antilooppi, a responsible property owner, has developed Always Ready – a space that offers everything traditional offices don’t: ready-to-move-in, high-quality, responsible, and effortless, a place where you can bring people, business, and life. The design is based on the building’s architecture and original material choices. During HDW, the space on Siltasaarenkatu will have open doors, offering a chance to explore this new approach to office design. On Friday, September 13, the entire building will also participate in the Open Studios event, with more information available here.
Psst! The Aina Valmis space is located right across from the main event venue at Paasivuorenkatu 3. You can find more information here.

Lectures at Gallery Forum Box, 5 and 11 September

As part of Forum Box’s 25th anniversary programme, a lecture series is being held during HDW. The programme includes a lecture by architect Juhani Pallasmaa (5 September) on Alfred Hitchcock’s relationship with visual arts and a talk by Canadian landscape architect and Buddhist Dennis Alan Winters (September 11) on the spirituality of spaces. Free entry. More details can be found here and here. You can find these and dozens of other events here.