From the Heart of Helsinki Design Week into Everyday Life

The Suomitalo building, which served as the main venue of HDW 2025, is about to welcome a new tenant.

Helsinki Design Week is known for its annually changing main venue. The festival takes a long-term approach to observing the city and identifying places where people might come together and connect.

Helsinki Design Week 2025 -päätapahtumapaikkana toiminut Suomitalo saa uuden asukkaan.

Helsinki Design Week tunnetaan vuosittain vaihtuvasta päätapahtumapaikasta. Festivaali tekee pitkäjänteistä työtä katsellen kaupungissa ympärilleen ja tunnistaen paikkoja, joissa ihmiset voisivat kohdata toisiaan. — HAPPINESS – Can happiness be designed? exhibition was curated by Anniina Koivu. Photo: Justus Hirvi.

At the heart of Helsinki Design Week 2025 was Suomitalo, a historic building on Lönnrotinkatu dating from 1911. The building hosted the exhibition Designing Happiness, where visitors explored the ways design can contribute to human wellbeing. The venue also housed a symposium examining happiness from multiple perspectives, drawing an audience that filled the fourth-floor hall for an entire afternoon of discussions led by internationally renowned speakers.

Festival visitors praised both the atmosphere and the location of the building. Having stood largely quiet for years on the edge of Old Church Park, Suomitalo became newly connected to a wider network of European cultural destinations and offered visitors a fresh perspective on Helsinki’s historic city centre through its windows. Placemaking does not necessarily mean replacing the old with the new; rather, it is about recognising potential and connecting people, places and ideas in ways that allow them to thrive.

The rotating HDW main venue shines a spotlight on a different location each year while also creating opportunities for its longer-term revitalisation. A new and promising chapter is now beginning for the culturally significant Suomitalo, as consulting company Accenture becomes the building’s principal tenant. The company will bring new daily activity to the building and its surroundings, introducing people whose routines might otherwise have taken them elsewhere in the city.

The Kuurna pop-up restaurant crowned the fifth floor of Suomitalo during Helsinki Design Week 2025. Photo: Justus Hirvi.

Office tenants also contribute to the vitality of local services and cultural offerings. The longstanding Galerie Forsblom will continue to operate in the building, while several other notable galleries and museums can be found just a short walk away. A strong cultural presence also plays a role in creating happier and more sustainable working lives. Moments spent with art, and the opportunity to encounter new ideas on a regular basis, help ensure that we do not become consumed solely by the business of getting through life.