Senate Square in Helsinki, design brought to life
Imagine an easy city, of human dimensions, pragmatic, simple, accessible, friendly, open, tolerant... in which everyone is invited to plan it, to improve it in the short term... What where is that habitable place to emigrate right now? I'll tell you: it's Helsinki, and its trajectory as the flagship of a city of-design-for-man (and not vice versa) has been recognized. Their celebration will last all of 2012. The metropolitan area of Helsinki does not reach a million inhabitants and, with what is going down out there, this haven-city of hospitality and kindness in today's predatory, anti-human Europe, has to be experienced. World contemporaries. Let's go live in Helsinki!
We suggest you take a look this summer, as a 'land reconnaissance' plan. You will find hundreds of excuses to escape and, who knows, maybe you come back from there with that healthy spirit of constant reinvention that here, in our obsolete bull skin, by the way, is considered extinct (did it ever exist?) .
The city of Aki Kaurismäki will live one of the great moments of him in September. All the Finnish design firms like Bruun Design, Globe Hope, or Focus Fabrik... will throw the house out the window. They will all fit: from any discipline, bigger and smaller... All of them will bring their stocks at bargain prices to the Helsinki Design Week (from 6 to 16) that will take place at the Cable Factory (Tarllberginkatu, 1 C, 15). Old warehouses with an industrial look and design content will open their doors at The Finnish Design Shop (from 15 to 30) to sell affordable design from all over the world.
The Finnish Design Shop
Varied proposals to fall more and more in love with objects that make life easier and more beautiful. Calm... If you don't want to buy you can also come. It is what a city has that still preserves a human soul. Fun raves break out anywhere (and the mystery remains until the very last minute). They advertise in unusual magazines like dislocations , and surprise celebrities line up to attend these raves that seriously compete for the clubbing podium that old Berlin has held for years.
Meanwhile, the greats of Finnish design have not been sitting idly by and have set out to improve the appearance of the city's shops, and the design district par excellence, the Design District proves almost every day that design can be part (for good!) of people's daily lives (although it is difficult for our Mediterranean spirit to understand that it is not a sheep with wolf ears). As in this city with hardly any hierarchy, everything is accessible (even the Administration, although I really have to see it to believe it...) you can go from one side of the city to the other by public transport (on one of its 10 tram lines and one metro), by bicycle or on foot.
You cannot leave without visiting the heart of all this soiree, the Design Pavilion, an impressive building that is a hymn to Finnish sustainable architecture, bioarchitecture. Inside you will not only eat well, but you will listen to the sounds of the Finnish summer, you can attend reading groups, talks... and exhibitions such as the one that will cover the golden years of Finnish design at the Design Museum: Finnish Design (1945- 1967), and that will honor the fathers of this entire cultural movement that has penetrated to the bone: Tapio Wirkkala, Timo Sarpaneva either Marimeko These are some of the names that should be familiar to you, stranger.
Helsinki Cathedral, classic design
Also, to add insult to injury, Helsinki celebrates the 200th anniversary of its appointment as the capital of Finland (1812) and has prepared even more events so that things don't go downhill. Under the title Helsinki Festival (from August 17 to September 2) other events will take place: Boutique will bring together big names in the fashion world like Paola Suhonen and Mina Parikka with the world of art galleries to create something new. So that you can recover from all this (especially if you have to go back to homeland hell), do not forget that Finland is the country of the sauna, so the rest of the main dishes of the year will be moving to a new epicenter, the ecosauna (Kulttuurisauna) that he has designed Nene Tsuboi and the architect builds Tuomas Toivonen , which will open its doors in September.
If you come as a family, the children would not forgive you if you did not take them to the Annantalo Children's Art Center, where the design has also been cast to play with them. In a country in which 68% of its extension is green and wood continues to be the construction material par excellence, it is not surprising that coming from where we come from, The children of the brick, let's find this Martian city, cold but magical and wonderful!!!
Peaceful life in Toolo Bay, Helsinki
CN Traveler Tips:
Hotel Klaus K : Also colonized by design, it is divided between light and dark areas that are intended to symbolize good and evil. High-flying Scandinavian comforts.
Hotel Torni - an icon of the city that opened in 1931, with the honor of crowning the roof of Helsinki on that date until the mid-1980s , combines art deco areas with a functionalist design.
Hotel Helka : Finnish atmosphere in wood and Nordic colours. The home quality mixed with state-of-the-art technology.
Holiday Inns: central and modern hotel , of details and affectionate with the pocket.
Helsinki is also gastronomic design, yes, without forgetting respect for traditional Finnish cuisine.
Chez Dominique : with two Michelin stars, well-deserved recognition for its sensitivity to culinary trends.
Olo - Known as the 'aristocrat' of Scandinavian cuisine, there is nothing.
Klaus K hotel room