Helsinki: Designing the Future with Sustainable Solutions and a Visionary Urban Strategy

In 2012, Helsinki was named the “2012 World Design Capital” by the International Council on Industrial Design, and in 2014, it was awarded the title of “Design Capital” by UNESCO’s Global Network of Creative Cities. Despite Helsinki’s sophisticated technology, livable environment and beautiful scenery, her soul is always design.

Finland’s sustainable capital, Helsinki, is a vibrant coastal city, one of the world’s highest living standards, the world’s most livable city, and the only city in the world with a chief design officer.

Map of Helsinki Source: Finnish Tourism Board’s official website visitfinland.com

The “design” of government intervention

Before the founding of Finland, the seeds of Helsinki’s design were planted. In 1875, the Finnish Craft and Design Association, the predecessor of the Finnish Design Forum, was born in Helsinki. In the same year, the Finnish Crafts and Design Association was born, and Helsinki hosted the first Finnish General Fair, and since then, Helsinki design has begun to enter the international stage. In 1898, in Kuorta, Finland, Alvar Aalto, the father of Finnish design, came to earth. In Finland today, every household has at least one Aalto-designed product, including the national treasure glass manufacturing brand Iittala. Aalto was the first designer to design wooden chairs using the principle of suspension trusses, creating the far-reaching Paimio chaise longue, which is more comfortable than you can imagine!

Aalto Studio and Aalto House Source: Finnish Tourism Official Website visitfinland.com

Paimio Chair Source: Travel Links TLD

Design is arguably one way for Helsinki to achieve its goal of becoming the most functional city in the world. As a pioneer in the fields of design, education and sustainable urban development, Helsinki continues to strengthen its expertise and reputation in these fields, and is known as a “test bed” for innovative cities. Taking Helsinki’s city image as an example, her city logos are very diverse, and there are countless of them. In 2017, Werklig Design in Helsing-based created a new set of visual identities for urban tourism, business promotion and urban operations. The original city image directly adopts the design of the city emblem, and the new image reflects the brand value of modern society while retaining history and culture, and the overall becomes more concise and clear. At the same time, the new image also adds 14 different colors in addition to Finnish, English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc.

Old and new signs of the city of Helsinki Source: Signs Intelligence Service

Source: Sign Intelligence Agency

With the development of the design field, the concept of design has been expanded by the city, extending from tangible object design to intangible public services and government governance, forming and long-term adherence to the strategy of “design-driven urban development”. Helsingbase launched the “Design-Driven Cities” project in 2013, which aims to promote the use of design in urban public services, forming a detailed and generalizable paradigm. In addition, Helsinki has appointed 600 civil servants from different government departments to form a “network of design agents” to incorporate public input when designing services wherever possible. For example, the museum has a special customer committee composed of citizens, which can participate in planning the operation of the city’s museum.

Helsinki Design Week with a vibrant design district

Every year during Helsinki Design Week, Helsinki shines brightly. In the Helsinki Design District, design is not only a theme of the four seasons, but also a habitual way of thinking. Located in the heart of Helsinki, the design district is home to more than 200 design shops and venues, including art studios, shops, galleries, museums, restaurants, design hotels, and more. The Design Zone was born in 2005 as the Finnish Design Forum, the official design association of Finland, with the intention of bringing together Helsinki’s craftsmen and creative practitioners to form industry alliances, hold regular design industry seminars for professionals, and open “late-night shopping” and “Design District Bazaar”. In addition, Helsinki Design Week is also held here. Launched in 2005, Design Week has become the largest design event in the Nordic countries. Its scale effect has made the design area a cultural business card of Helsinki, guiding people to understand the development of cultural and creative industries and disseminate new ideas; While developing the cultural industry, it also drives the tourism industry.

Source: World Cities Day official website

If you haven’t fallen in love with Helsinki yet, then grab a map of the design district and follow the marked paths! The Design Museum is an ideal first stop to explore the Design District, with its permanent collection that presents a condensed and comprehensive history of Finnish design, from the pioneers of the late 19th century to Alvar Aalto, the father of Finnish modernist design, to the latest contemporary achievements. Today the museum has 35,000 exhibits. Also worth a visit is the Rock Church, designed by architects Timo and Domoso Malainen. Between the deep golden dome and the rock walls, light enters the interior of the church through louver-shaped concrete slices, creating an incomparable beauty of tranquility. The interior of the church is made of rock, and the acoustics are excellent, making it a popular venue for concerts.

Practical inspiration from Helsinki

Design strategy is one of the reasons for Helsinki’s success in the construction of the Design Capital. Helsinki takes design as the focus of its urban development strategy, emphasizing the importance of urban sophistication and design to the city, and sustainable urban development is at the core of its design.

As one of the world’s leading smart cities, Helsinki is known for its design excellence and long design heritage, and she wants to build a fully functional and sustainable city through smart solutions and the development of digital city services, and strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. For Helsinki, design is not just an art, but also a way of thinking or a strategic tool to solve social problems. Secondly, to infiltrate the innovative ideas and ways of thinking of cultural creativity into people’s thinking, we can first try to start with local governments and public officials to improve the efficiency of the formulation and implementation of supportive public policies for cultural creativity. Industrial gathering places such as the design district not only allow design enterprises and designers to form a close relationship network, generate a large number of possibilities for cooperation, but also create a “window” to display the soft power of urban culture, so that the world can “see”.

Source: International Center for Creativity and Sustainability
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