Open Studios

WalkPartyOpen place
When Fri 15.09.2023 Fri 15.09.2023

Helsinki is a growing and fascinating city for creative professionals!

Open Studios invites citizens, partners, customers, students and everyone interested in the creative fields to explore the world of design studios, offices, processes, creators and creative work in a laid-back, inspiring atmosphere. The event is to reveal how and where creative work is done.

How does multidisciplinary cooperation work?
What is it like to live in a design city that keeps changing?

Open Studios will be organized on two Fridays during Helsinki Design Week:

The first event will kick off the festival on Friday 8 September as the studios in the districts of Hakaniemi, Kallio, Sörnäinen, Vallila and East Helsinki open their doors to visitors.

The second Open Studios event will take place on Friday 15 September in the districts of Eira, Punavuori, Ullanlinna and Kamppi. The main venue of the festival, Merikortteli, is located in the same area.

Open Studios will once again feature a versatile collection of studios representing several design fields including architecture, brand design, furniture design, business development and contemporary art.

You are welcome to tour the studios freely, at your own pace.
Below you will find the registration form, which, with the help of the information collected, the studios know how to prepare for the right number of visitors. However, registration is not required, you can also go on a tour on a whim!

Register for Open Studios

Below you can find a suggested route for exploring the Open Studios events. HDW team has calculated this carefully and there should only be a maximum of 20 mins walking (a lot less if you have a bike) distance between studios (Vaarnii in Herttoniemi being the exception to the rule and to theirs it’s only about 13mins from the Herttoniemi metro station!).

Friday 8 September
At 3–8pm

  • Publics
    Sturenkatu 37-41, 00550 (NOTE! Only open until 6pm so a great place to start the tour)
  • Nordkapp
    Kaikukatu 2c, 00530 Helsinki
  • Studio Bom
    Suvilahdenkatu 7, 00500 Helsinki
  • Paja&Bureau
    Suvilahdenkatu 7, 00500 Helsinki
  • Suunnittelutoimisto Amerikka
    Vilhonvuorenkatu 11 D 8, 00500 Helsinki
  • Vaarnii
    Sorvaajankatu 15, 00880 Helsinki

Friday 15 September
At 3–8pm

  • Flip Fantasia
    Liisankatu 5 C, 00170 Helsinki
  • Klaus Haapaniemi & Co
    Aleksanterinkatu 44, 00100 Helsinki
  • Kobra Agency (note: open until 6 pm)
    Kalevankatu 31 A, 8b, 00100 Helsinki
  • Qvik
    Urho Kekkosen katu 5 C, 00100 Helsinki
  • Arkkitehtitoimisto Avarrus
    Punavuorenkatu 1, 00120 Helsinki
  • LS Design Agency
    Merimiehenkatu 22, LH1, 00150 Helsinki
  • Hellon
    Pursimiehenkatu 26 C, 00150 Helsinki
  • World of Mouth
    Pursimiehenkatu 26 C, 00150 Helsinki, 6th floor
  • Paja&Bureau
    Korkeavuorenkatu 7, 00140 Helsinki

Would you like to know more about the participating studios? Together with StoryDrops, we’ve created mini interviews in which the creatives tell about the working processes as well as about what is the most important things in living in Helsinki. Listen to these stories on site by downloading the free StoryDrops application here.

Friday 8 September
Studio Bom is an artistic and visionary community, where creative work moves at the interface of art, industrial design and interior design.
Paja Bureau Studio is a furniture design studio and workshop located in a historic building, previously a silk weaving factory. Paja&Bureau is specializing in metal materials. During the two-day Open Studios event, the company will also open the doors to its gallery and showroom in Ullanlinna, where a collection of materials and products from the furniture collection will be on display.
Amerikka is located in Sörnäinen and combines design and architecture with commercial development. Their designs can be seen in several notable locations, such as the Ruohonjuuri flagship store on Mannerheimintie, the Food Hall of Helsinki-Vantaa Airport and the renewed Kamppi in Helsinki.
PUBLICS is a curatorial agency with a dedicated library, event space and reading room in Vallila Helsinki, known for its industrial working class histories and, more recently, for its influx of divergent artistic and academic communities.
Finnish furniture manufacturer Vaarnii invites festival-goers to visit their studio in Eastern Helsinki. Vaarnii uses Finnish, certified pine in its production in cooperation with local carpenters and factories. Vaarnii products are designed by a group of international designers, and their aesthetics combine refined details and brutal design.
Nordkapp is a creative, strategic business advisory. Nordkapp works with forward-thinking businesses to create future value, help them turn challenging situations into strategies, and implement them into a sustainable business.
Friday 15 September
Located on the edge of Fredantori, the award-winning Avarrus Architects invites Open Studios visitors to visit their working space. The company's passion is to design buildings and spaces that are aesthetically and ecologically sustainable.
Kobra Agency is a designer-led design agency focused on comprehensive development of brands. Kobra's office consists of the most passionate, skilled, intelligent and funny people, and by combining different areas of expertise, the company creates impressive, memorable and attractive brands for its customers around the world.
Paja&Bureau opens its doors to a gallery and showroom space in Ullanlinna, where a collection of materials and products from the furniture collection are on display. The gallery also hosts art exhibitions. The place located on Korkeavuorenkatu has become known for its communal workshop activities, where ten jewelry professionals work in the same premises. Paja&Bureau also invites event visitors to the village on the first Open Studios day on September 8. Suvilahti's production facility.
Hellon is a strategic customer experience and innovation partner. We support companies to understand, innovate, and transform their business. By driving change, with a solid purpose, we deliver true customer value and increase loyalty.
World of Mouth is the ultimate insider's guide to the world's best restaurants, bringing together some of the world's leading names in food and drink to curate the best places to eat and drink globally, in every category and at every price point. The platform gives a voice to over 500 chefs, sommeliers, food writers, and other culinary experts and guides you in over 2000 cities, from the best place to grab a slice of pizza to the latest must-visit new opening by a wunderkind chef. Come visit our office, located in an old atelier of Johanna Ehnrooth – and have a taste of the World of Mouth.
Open studio at Klaus Haapaniemi & Co. studio in historical Väinämöisenlinna. Mythological stone sculptures of trolls, bears and vegetations by Hilda Flodin lead inside the Pohjola building by architects Gaselius, Lingdgren, Saarinen. Inside the vestibule the rustic folklore motifs continue in lead glass windows, metalworks and wood carvings. On second floor next to Kansallissali, Klaus Haapaniemi studio opens doors to evening of architecture, art, design, music and drinks.
Welcome to Flip Fantasia Talo to experience how we create spaces that inspire creativity.  Art and colors play a big role in creating moods in corporate culture as well, and one of our missions is to get more of them in company premises. We design new business models and create dream jobs. We work on our dream jobs in a charming courtyard building, FF Talo, in Kruununhaka. The house has been created to look like its founders Emmi and Karolina, a wild and colorful entity. Come and see Ida Toivanen and our founder Karolina Santa's paintings and Tero Kuitunen's ceramics on display. In Tero's ceramic vases flowers from Studio Frö. Drinks and snacks available.
Qvik's office is centrally located in Kamppi. Qvik has two locations, one in Helsinki and the other in Stockholm. More than 100 digital business professionals work at the Helsinki office, of which 29 are designers. Their services include consumer research, design, digital business, and technology. The office's design expertise has been awarded several times at Grand One. For example, in the spring of 2023, awards were received for the best digital design, the best use of data, and the best service design. The Grand One Grand Prix award was also granted for Terveystalo's Medoma application. Qvik functions as Sanoma's Design partner. Their customers include notable names such as Terveystalo, Suunto, Posti, and Elisa.
LS design agency is a Helsinki based interior design studio specializing in interior concepts, commercial styling and visual communication. The agency was founded in 2015 by Laura Seppänen, a Finnish interior designer, stylist and decoration editor. Her work has been published widely in both Finnish & international media. LS design agency creates interiors for both public spaces and private homes. The studio works in the fields of commercial interiors such as hospitality and workplace design, private residences, product design, creative direction and editorial collaborations for commercial and private clients here in Finland and around the world.