Bright young things: all the highlights from Helsinki Design Week 2015
The ever expanding Helsinki Design Week took place last week, with a range of talent swarming the city in the hope of upping the Nordic capital’s design game.
We trotted around in the sunshine from the Habitare fair and the National Museum of Finland, to various showrooms dotted around the city, discovering what Helsinki had to offer. It was the fresh talent that really flourished this year, with both rising stars and students displaying their developed creativity and skill-ranges, experimenting with innovative materials. What follows is our pick of the crop; a broad selection of intriguing design that truly whetted our design palettes...
Pictured: ‘Vertical Village’ on show outside the National Museum of Finland – a collaboration between architectural solutions programme MVRDV and think-tank The Why Factory, both based in Netherlands. For this project they explored the transformation of East Asian cities with these colourful pieces as an alternative to mundane block architecture
Writer: Sujata Burman
Also in the surrounding gardens of the National Museum of Finland was this urban forest installation by PEFC Wood Works and Puuguru, created especially for Helsinki Design Week
Located in a narrow corridor-like space inside the National Museum of Finland was the TypoCraftHelsinki installation. Celebrating the heritage of Finnish typography, these pieces explored an interpretation of age-old prints by a variety of young designers
The exhibition paid homage to the likes of Abckiria – the first book published in the Finnish language – and Mikael Agricola, the founder of Finnish literary language, included were works by graphic designer Tony Eräpuro
Café Vanha in the Old Student House was transformed into Muoto Café for the week, celebrating the winners of the 2015 Muoto Gala for the best in Finnish design. Included in the winning showcase were these intricately printed pieces by ceramicist Eeva Jokinen
Overlooking the Habitare fair was this installation in the Ahead Arena. The floating display was the brainchild artist Kaisa Berry and creative director Timo Bery and consists of more than 1,000 umbrellas. Channeling an inspirational dream cloud, the plastic forms caught the light in blue and purple hues
Habitare hosted a tribute to post-war Finnish designer Tapio Wirkklaa, celebrating the great man’s birthday. They showed a small selection of the 300 works artistic works the foundation have gathered together for a larger exhibition in Lapland this October
A selection of Wirkklaa’s ceramic works, which porcelain brand Rosenthal are putting back into production for the birthday celebration
In ’Block’, the section of the fair for new talent, Aalto University’s Industrial Design programme showcased re-invented coffee machines. The young designers experimented with materials to produce architecture-inspired models. Pictured left: ’The Untitled Coffee Maker’ by Mikko Latomäki; right: ’8 AM’ by Lauri Kakel
‘Phyto Pure’ by Yuchao Chien has the appearance of a fan or air purifier, its crafted form testing the boundaries of coffee-making by existing as a horizontal model
Aija Hannula’s ‘Coffee Cooker’ reconceived coffee making as a scientific experiment
Elina Ulvio’s display included a ‘Gravity’ light sculpture and her galactic wall lights, entitled ‘Välke’
Ulvio is currently studying for a master’s degree in Product Design at Aalto University and at Politecnico di Milano. Pictured: ‘P/P’ reversible mirror and table and ’3U15’ three-legged chair
From the ’Eco Design’ section of the fair, Meri-Tuuli Porras’ ‘Kaarre’ mirror was simplistic yet shapely
Kaija Aalto’s ‘Malva’ shelf is made of recyclable UPM Grada plywood. Its curvaceous form was carefully bent and it can also be wall-mounted
A new lighting project by Airam studio at Aalto University – based around organic light emitting diodes (OLED) – featured ‘Swinger’ by Heli Juuti (pictured). Boasting a lightweight form, its mirror-like shape can be removed from the solid circular stand
Also included were these ‘Viiva’ lights by Nathalia Mussi Weidlich. The delicately thin wire structure carefully allows the OLED light to be hidden
Artek provided the refreshments at Habitare in this Japanese inspired tearoom designed by Hanna-Kaarina Heikkilä and Anni Pitkäjärvi. Allowing a little solace from the surrounding bustle, it featured pieces from the brand’s newest ’Kaari’ collection, as well as iconic lights
On display at Helsinki’s Esplanadi Park were two wooden installations by architect Anissi Lassila. Entitled Re-creation. The Resilience of Architecture, the two wooden huts are culturally influenced, one created in Finland and the other in China. Both structures manipulate the space in a different manner. Pictured: the Chinese hut, created from metal bent bamboo to form this spiral view when viewed from the inside
The Finnish hut is formed from spruce logs; like the Chinese model, it gradually curves to a peak
Peering up inside the Finnish hut
From the ’Proto Shop’ exhibition in the ’Block’, these ’Keskuspuisto’ ceramics were displayed by Henri Judin, a funiture design student at Aalto University. The intricate grooves of the ceramics mean that the cups can be comfortably held when holding hot liquids
Marianne Huotari created these standing ceramic ’Poiju’ butter knives
Another highlight of the ’Block’ section of the fair was the ’Truth’ display of 12 Finnish ceramic and glass artists. Pictured: ‘Pikku Marie’ by Marjukka Takala – a bain-marie consisting of copper, silver and ceramic components
Habitare’s 2015 Design Competition finalists were also on show; the theme for this year’s exhibition was ’Burr’. Included were these ’Pinot’ chairs by Sanelma Hihnala, which can be playfully rearranged by sliding one on top of each other to alter their colours
Also part of the competition was Heidi Huovinen’s ’Pahkat’. Made from mosquito net, birch plywood and steel, the Aalto University master’s student has crafted a spiral structure of layers that can be expanded into a cove and drawn back to a singular form
On show at Iittala’s harbour-side shop, these new mouth-blown wall ornaments by different artists were inspired by florals, underwater life and solar systems