
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