Showroom brings 100-year-old backdrops out of the Finnish National Theatre
![](https://helsinkidesignweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/HDW_showroom_FONDI_ja_SILUETTI_1276_867.jpg)
A new Showroom event features 100-year-old original backdrops from plays staged at the Finnish National Theatre for the first time outside the theatre.
Showroom features over 100-year-old original backdrops from plays staged at the Finnish National Theatre for the first time outside the theatre.
The exhibition design will play an important role at Showroom. The event features original backdrops from plays staged at the Finnish National Theatre. Some of these cloths are more than one hundred years old, and are now shown for the first time outside the theatre.
Showroom is a new event in design, spatial design and lighting for professionals by Helsinki Design Week and Habitare. It will present dozens of companies that represent products, services and solutions targeted at professionals in interior design projects and interior architecture. It will be held in conjunction with Habitare at Messukeskus, from 7 to 9 September 2016.
The exhibition design will draw its spirit from the world of theatre, and the space will feature related elements and technical solutions. The Showroom exhibition design will be by ALA Architects, which designs both the common areas in the hall and the overall look and the feel of the stands.
“A trade fair is just as much a play as it is an exhibition. We want to create a theatrical atmosphere, and in this way promote active interaction over passive watching. Scenes are acted out at the exhibitors’ stands, which are delimited using dramatic lighting and framed using gigantic, more-than-one-hundred-year-old masterpieces: genuine hand-painted backdrops from the Finnish National Theatre”, says Samuli Woolston of ALA Architects.
Notable projects by ALA Architects include the Central Library in Helsinki and the new Lappeenranta City Theatre.
From craftsmen to economists
The programme will include speeches and dialogues on six different themes, bringing different ideas onto the stage. The speakers at the event include urban planners, chefs, artists, designers, craftsmen, economists and officials.
The curator of the Showroom stage programme is Tuuli Sotamaa of Ateljé Sotamaa.
“What will bring about change? What has meaning for people and society? All the speakers are successful figures and absolute professionals in their respective fields, who all have an enterprising attitude and an ability to create non-mainstream projects. To these practitioners, however, being different is not an end in itself. It is the result of uncompromising, goal-oriented work. The results of their work spark discussion: they create new things and lead the way forward”, says Sotamaa.
Together, Showroom and Habitare make for the most interesting and current interior decoration and design event in the autumn of 2016, for both professionals and consumers, during Helsinki Design Week. Companies have the opportunity to be featured at both events and to reach the most important professionals in the field, as well as tens of thousands of consumers interested in interior decoration and design.
Showroom 7.-9.9.
Helsinki Design Week 1.-11.9.2016
Habitare 7.-11.9.206
The biggest single event of Helsinki Design week, Habitare, will be held at Messukeskus in Helsinki from 7 to 11 September 2016. To be held concurrently with Habitare are the professional events Forma and Showroom, by Helsinki Design Week, and the public events ArtHelsinki, Antiikki, HifiExpo, and ValoLight.