Join us in an exploration of the world of design at the Design Museum during Helsinki Design Week. The festival week is kicking off with the opening of the We think differently at night exhibition in the Design Museum’s Gallery space. Also the main exhibition, Iittala – Kaleidoscope: From Nature to Culture, will remain open until the end of the week. Special offers will also be available at the Design Shop, and the museum’s Taito Café will serve lunch and refreshments throughout the week.
This year, most of the Design Museum’s programme during the Helsinki Design Week will take place online, so you can participate wherever you are, in Finland or anywhere in the world. What is Wise? is the theme of this year’s Helsinki Design Week. Our festival week programme will approach this question from various perspectives, offering answers through play, creativity and responsibility.
There will be an extensive programme offering for children and families, design professionals and enthusiasts, and anyone who loves design. Check out our HDW programme offering on this page. We will be delighted to have you join us!
Designmuseon tapahtumat 9.–19.9.
Thursday 9/09
No public events.
Friday 10/09
Lunch Talk: Graphic Designer of the year 2021 Marina Veziko
Friday 10 September at 1 p.m., in Finnish / Zoom
A Zoom link will be sent to all who register for the event. You will also be able to follow a live stream of the event from the Design Museum’s Facebook page.
Marina Veziko / Kuva: Emma Sarpaniemi
The Lunchtime Talk at the Design Museum will feature Marina Veziko (b. 1988), Graphic Designer of the Year 2021. Veziko’s new exhibition, We think differently at night, will open in the Design Museum Gallery at the beginning of Helsinki Design Week, on 10 September. During this discussion scheduled for the opening day, Veziko will discuss the themes of her exhibition and her previous work. Freelance journalist Elina Iida Sofia Hirvonen, one of the writers of the exhibition texts, will join the discussion.
The exhibition We think differently at night features seven works by Veziko, in which the designer promotes new ideas and unusual perspectives with refined visuality and responsibility. The exhibition reflects on the role of intuition and the subconscious in graphic design. The works are exhibited in a dream-like space that has been created around them. The exhibition design and dramatization are co-produced by Hanna Anonen, Young Designer of the Year. The exhibition architecture as well as the texts by freelance journalist Elina Iida Sofia Hirvonen seek to transport visitors to a source of secret wisdom.
Kaleidoscope Online Festival on Creativity: Glass designer creativity
Friday 10 September at 6 p.m., in English / on Iittala’s Instagram Live
In the first episode of the festival, we get to peek behind the scenes at the Iittala Glass Factory! Is there room for creativity and experimentation in a glass factory in today’s world? Designer Harri Koskinen meets a seasoned glassblower at the Iittala Glass Factory and they discuss the unique collaborations that take place in the factory’s glassmaking studio, where glass acquires the form of the designer’s vision in the hands of a professional. What kind of things inspire the professionals and what kinds of innovations can emerge from collaboration at its best? In a tour of the factory, we learn about traditional glassmaking and get an insider’s view of the miracle of glassmaking.
As a part of our Helsinki Design Week´s programme, we will publish an online series of five events regarding our current main exhibition Iittala – Kaleidoscope. Read more about the series here. All the episodes of the Kaleidoscope Online Festival on Creativity will be broadcasted in English at Design Museum Helsinki´s Instagram Live. Kaleidoscope events will offer you multiple ways to examine play and creativity as well as on our Iittala – Kaleidoscope exhibition (open until the end of Helsinki Design Week, Sep 19) Kaleidoscope Online Festival on Creativity at Design Museum´s Instagram Live every day from Sep 10 to Sep 14 at 6 pm.
Saturday 11/09
Guided online tour to A&DO Lab in Lahti
Sat, Sep 11 at 1 pm (EET), in Finnish
Streamed live on Design Museum Helsinki’s Facebook-page
A&DO Lab is a touring learning environment and exhibition focused on themes of design and architecture. The exhibition space located in two containers challenges you to think of what kind of architecture and design promotes high-quality everyday life and sustainable development. In the future, what kind of environment would you like to live in? What are the features of a good local environment? The goal of this exhibition is to encourage you to take a critical look at your environment.
The nationwide A&DO Lab exhibition will tour Finland in 2021–2023. It will start its journey in Lahti. The Lab will first visit the Malski Square in Lahti from 30 August to 30 September 2021. In this guided online tour you get to explore the Lab with its guide.
Architecture and design belong to everyone, and we are constantly surrounded by them. A&DO – Learning Centre for Architecture and Design is a joint project co-managed by the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki. The project seeks to make information, competence and professionals of architecture and design available to all interested parties.
Kaleidoscope Online Festival on Creativity: Paola Antonelli – Design’s role in culture and society
Saturday 11 September at 6 p.m.
Iittala’s Instagram Live / The talk will be published on Design Museum´s Instagram TV at 7 pm.
The second episode of the Kaleidoscope Online Festival series features Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of the Museum of Modern Art MoMA in New York City. She will share her thoughts on design’s role in culture and society and we will hear what Finnish design looks like from the other side of the Atlantic. Antonelli was involved in the creation and production of the Design Emergency collaborative series, which explores the role of design as a tool for building a better future. Antonelli will be interviewed by Jukka Savolainen, the Museum Director of the Design Museum.
Read more about the Kaleidoscope Online Festival on Creativity series here.
Sunday 12/09
Kaleidoscope Online Festival on Creativity: Find inspiration in your immediate surroundings with this workshop
Sunday 12 September at 6 p.m. / Instagram Live
What does nature mean to you and how can you draw inspiration from it? In this Online-workshop participants are taken on a 20-minute tour of the natural surroundings nearby the city in Helsinki. The tour will help you learn to enjoy and find inspiration in nature near you, giving you a respite from the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life. After this tour, you can also go ahead and do this exercise by yourself by listening to an audio guide Verta has made especially for us. You can find the recording later on this page.
Read more about the Kaleidoscope Online Festival on Creativity series here.
Monday 13/09
Kaleidoscope Online Festival: The Iittala exhibition through the eyes of a child
Monday 13 September at 6 p.m. / Instagram Live
A group of children visit the Iittala – Kaleidoscope exhibition and give us a tour at Design Museum´s Instagram Live. What do the exhibition and its artefacts look like through the eyes of a child? Which are the essential elements that grab their attention?
Read more about the Kaleidoscope Online Festival on Creativity series here.
Tuesday 14/09
Design Club Online Talk: “Accelerating sustainability at Fiskars Group”
Tuesday 14 September at 9 a.m. / Zoom
Register here to get the link
Leni Valsta / Fiskars
Design Museum’s business network Design Club continues with the Design Club Online Talks series. This string the topics of the discussions will explore sustainability, social responsibility and Corporate Responsibility through the lens of Design and Design intensive companies.
The next Design Club Online Talk is with Leni Valsta, Vice President, Sustainability at Fiskars Group. In her talk “Accelerating sustainability at Fiskars Group” Valsta will tackle three key points on how to imagine, plan, commit to and execute a workable, profitable and comprehensive strategy of sustainability. We have also invited Jussi Impiö, Head of Sustainable Solutions, Aalto University to comment on the topic and discuss the themes
In this talk ”Accelerating sustainability at Fiskars Group” Valsta will tackle three key points on how to imagine, plan, commit to and execute a workable, profitable and comprehensive strategy of sustainability.
Why building an inspirational sustainability ambition & approach is needed?
Finding the focus: defining the short and long term commitments & targets
Driving the execution: what is needed?
Virtual tour: Iittala – Kaleidoscope: From Nature to Culture
Tuesday, Sep 14 at 5 p.m. / Live stream on the Design Museum’s Facebook page
The open virtual tour of the Design Museum will explore the summer exhibition, Iittala – Kaleidoscope: From Nature to Culture. The virtual tour will take place on a live stream on the Facebook account of the Design Museum. In English.
Kaleidoscope Online Festival on Creativity: Alfredo Häberli
Tuesday Sep 14 at 6 p.m., in English / Instagram Live
The final episode of the Kaleidoscope festival will feature a designer of international fame, Alfredo Häberli. The topics of discussion will include the requirements and obstacles of creativity. We will learn, for example, what kind of things have inspired him as a designer and how to get over designer’s block. We will also discuss the product range of Essence glasses, for which Häberli has won several distinguished design awards, including the iF and Les Découvertes prizes. Häberli will be interviewed by Päivi Niemi, the Creative Lead at the Iittala and Arabia Design Centre.
Read more about the Kaleidoscope Online Festival on Creativity series here.
Wednesday 15/09
Online presentations: Transgenic 2021 <> The imaginal disc / Residency project presentations
Sep 15 at 12-1.30 pm, in English / Zoom
Register for the event here
During this Lunch Talk, Johnny Chang (SE), Neighbours of Architecture (SE) and Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov (RU) present the research projects they have undertaken as fellows of this year’s ɬɾąŋʂɠɛŋıƈ ɧƙı residency for postdisciplinary spatial practice and research.
Johnny Chang: “In the wake of ruin, and also love” — a diasporic reading of traces-afterlives following evershifting assemblages between sound, sight, and scent.
Neighbours of Architecture: “Time After Time” — a research into ways of making the distant past and the distant future tangible in the present.
Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov: “The snake and the multiped remove a skin” — a three-channel video installation that explores the theme of the “Other,” self-identity, ecology and foreignness in reflecting on the processes of distance production in society as well as in nature, gender, and body.
Thursday 16/09
NODUS Talks: Multispecies Sustainability
Thursday, Sep 16 at 4.15 / Register here to get the link
From every bit of food we eat, water we drink, materials we use and climate and temperatures we are able to survive, the survival of humans depends on nature and everything it provides. Currently, however, many disciplines, including design, do not acknowledge that and do not consider nature and its elements when making decisions, understanding problems and envisioning solutions.
Presenters of the ‘Multispecies Sustainability’-themed NODUS Talk will discuss the theory behind and reality of recognizing nature as a vital and diverse stakeholder in and co-creator of design solutions and practical activities. The talks will inspire and provide concrete thinking models and examples of how to start striving for multispecies justice when shaping solutions of the 21st century.
The event is created together with NODUS Aalto, Aalto University and Design Museum´s business network Design Club.
Friday 17/09
Virtual webinar: Architecture and Design Learning on Both Sides of The Atlantic
Friday, Sep 17 at 7 to 8.30 p.m. (EET) / Zoom
Register here
Join us for a panel discussion on the current prospects of architecture and design learning in K-12 education and hear compelling case examples from Finland and the US.
How do you build a sustainable world? How can your creativity improve your community? These are just a few of the questions educators, parents, and students learn to solve with methods adapted from the worlds of design and architecture.
In this webinar, speakers from both sides of the Atlantic (Helsinki and New York) will discuss various pedagogies in architecture and design learning from each region, highlighting innovative developments in k-12 education curriculum, while revealing new forms of architecture and design accessibility from their respective institutions.
Saturday 18/09
No public events.
Sunnuntai 19.9.
No public events.
