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News • Helsinki • Finland • 2014-05-21

Welcome to the third newsletter of Design Driven City!

Welcome to the third newsletter of Design Driven City! This time we tell you about our new Design Agent network and how design is applied in city development in both Helsinki and Oulu. We also take a look at Nordic Design Impact, a programme launched by the Finnish Association of Designers Ornamo.

Design Agents are city change agents

The Design Agent network is a new open community established by Design Driven City for city employees interested in design. The network strives to increase understanding why cities need design to function and prosper and to present successful examples of the use of design in urban environments.

“It’s important to network city employees and to bring together experts of various city departments working on the same problems. We believe that cooperation gives us strength, and the role of the network is to share information and lessons learned,” says Mikko Kutvonen, a City Designer in the Design Driven City project.

Read more about Design Agents

Meri Karhu

Happens in May: Masters of Aalto and Pre Helsinki

The Masters of Aalto exhibition presents the visions of new graduates from Aalto University for better cities. How can the waiting rooms of the New Children’s Hospital in Helsinki best serve the wellbeing of the young patients? How should a skateboarding park be designed to best fit into the environment? How could design education be supported in comprehensive schools?

The Aalto graduates have envisioned better cities in their diploma projects. They have also tackled the design challenge involved in the development of technologies related to urban life.

Masters of Aalto is a cross-section of the projects conducted in the Aalto University’s various fields: engineering and technology, business and economics, and arts. The exhibition allows visitors to study more than 60 diploma and student projects. Masters of Aalto exhibition will be on display in the center of Helsinki, in the Southern Esplanade.

→ Find more information and the opening hours on moa.aalto.fi

The Pre Helsinki fashion event from 21–24 May presents the most exciting young Finnish designers and rising stars. The event inspires discussion about fashion and creates networks both in Finland and abroad. The programme includes the Pre Helsinki Shop & Cafe at Design Forum Finland’s Showroom, a joint exhibition by Marimekko and the Contemporary Art Museum Kiasma at the museum, the Aalto ARTS Fashion Seminar, and Näytös (“exhibition”) 2014, which puts on view diploma projects by new graduates of the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

See the entire programme of Pre Helsinki

Mikko Kutvonen

Stara construction site in Viikki, Helsinki

Stara designs a Tidy Construction Site

The City Designers of Design Driven City will work with about 10 city development projects as design experts. They will present the progress of their assignments on this Web site, making their work visible step by step.

One of the assignments is the Tidy Construction Site project of Stara, Helsinki’s in-house construction company and maintenance service provider that takes care of the city’s streets, squares, parks and other public areas. The project aims to tidy up street and park worksites as well as to improve the worksites’ overall appearance. The project aims to adapt the worksites to the everyday life of the city and citizens increasingly flexibly and safely.

City Designer Mikko Kutvonen complements the project with user-oriented approaches to improve the functionality, appearance and overall quality of worksites. Mikko reflects on the basis of the Tidy Worksite project on our Web site.

Read more about the Tidy Worksite project

City of Oulu

Wellbeing services developed by engaging residents in Oulu

Oulu started to develop wellbeing services together with residents last autumn. The City’s wellbeing services project launched a process to build a new operation model for organizing high-quality services throughout the city. The project aims to create a model for a user-oriented wellbeing centre that adapts to the needs of areas and residents. The design of the model was started from the city districts of Kiiminki, Yli-Ii and Ylikiiminki.

The new operation model is developed by means of service design in cooperation with residents and staff. Oulu residents participate closely in the development, and interaction with residents formed an important part of the preparation work for the project. The project has involved a process enabling active participation by citizens, implemented with a project to develop local services carried out by the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities and with an innovation community project for the health and wellbeing sectors.

Read more about the development of wellbeing services in Oulu

Chris Vidal Tenomaa

City Designer Pablo Riquelme

The three City Designers of Design Driven City work as design experts hand in hand with city staff. They join development projects carried out by Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Lahti, helping and consulting the cities in the use of design.

One of the City Designers is Pablo Riquelme, an interior designer who hails from Chile and comes to Helsinki via Northern Karelia. For Pablo, design is ability to understand people’s needs and wishes and to have the courage to envision the future.

“For me, citizens make cities. Ultimately cities are communities in which we interact. That is why the structure and functions of cities must support the ability of communities to interact,” Pablo says.

Read more about Pablo´s thoughts about the development of cities

Osma Harvilahti & Kokoro & Moi

\"Loikka\"

Helsinki Design Week turns 10

Helsinki Design Week, the largest design festival in the Nordic countries, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Helsinki Design Week 2014, presenting design from a broad perspective, will extend through the city under the title Take the Leap from 4–14 September 2014.

One of the main goals of Helsinki Design Week is to provide a platform for citizens to participate in the development of the city by means of design. Citizens are also invited to join the development of the 10th anniversary programme – there is an open call for proposals, which can be submitted to 30 May. Submit your proposal here.

Helsinki Design Week will take a leap to year-round operations next autumn by launching a new online publication focusing on design, Helsinki Design Weekly. This publication, linked to the newly redesigned site helsinkidesignweek.com, brings together the design sector and citizens, comments on current phenomena in design, and inspires discussion about the future of the evolving fields of design.

Read about the announced programme items of Helsinki Design Week

Nordic design mentoring programme launched

The Nordic Design Impact mentoring programme helps small design enterprises to grow and to go international together with large design companies. The programme was in the pilot phase in spring 2014, when three large mentoring companies and three small design enterprises with growth potential were selected from each participating country.

The Finnish mentoring companies are KONE, Suunto and Kekkilä, and the small enterprises are the textile company Saana ja Olli, the Nurmi clothing brand and the design agency Rune&Berg. The common denominators of the participating companies are Nordic ethics, sustainable development and online visibility.

“By joining the programme, large companies can show their pioneering roles in the development of Nordic design entrepreneurship. They can also find new insight into their own business,” points out Petra Ilonen, Project Manager for design projects at the Finnish Association of Designers Ornamo. She steers the mentoring programme in Finland.

Read more about the mentoring programme

Tuomas Uusheimo

WDC Helsinki 2012 pavilion

Finland: Designed Environments

Finnish design will be presented in Minnesota, USA, through mid-August 2014 with a large exhibition on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The exhibition entitled Finland: Designed Environments presents works by Finnish designers, architects and craftspeople from the past 15 years. The exhibition emphasizes the integration of esthetics and practicality typical of Finnish design.

“Finland is one of the world’s leading design nations and a pioneer in the application of design in new fields,” comments the exhibition’s curator Jennifer Komar Olivarez. One of the main themes of Finland: Designed Environments is how design is utilized on a broad scale in Finnish society.

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