Aila Svenskberg. Photo Juuso Noronkoski.

It’s that time of the fall again. Helsinki Design Week and the Habitare fair will temporarily make Helsinki the focal point of design events. The atmosphere in the city is relaxed and energetic, like in London or Milan. Temporary galleries and exhibition spaces are filled with trendy fashion, design and people with MP3 players playing Olavi Uusivirta sings “Olet nuori, kaunis…olen onnellinen”.

This is quite apt as this year the expectations and contributions to design are exceptionally great. The World Design Capital 2012 year will be here in no time and Helsinki has to show its best design and service skills to the rest of the world. There will be no shortage of design potential. But where will we direct the streams of locals and visitors hungry for design? Pop-up stores and restaurants are a welcome phenomenon. The city has to stay on the move.

The Helsinki Design District is young and beautiful with its small boutiques, but is it enough to satisfy the hungry design tourists looking for ALVAR AALTO, TAPIO WIRKKALA and other icons’ traces in the city? There is no point looking for Aalto’s designs in the maestro’s Rautatalo, which is a pity. It would be great if the protected building was open to the public.

Next summer the Design Museum will display items from the golden age of Finnish design, the reconstruction time. However, unfortunately the exhibition will only have space for less than one percent of the museum’s over 75,000 items. The spaces in the Design District museums are cramped and the Sandwich project is waiting for the decision-makers. Design is gathering dust in storage rooms instead of being displayed to the public.

The lovely young designers are also less happy today because there is a shortage of exhibition and work spaces. It will be a great loss to all of us if the future Aaltos don’t even get a chance to show their skills. Recently a group of Guggenheim Museum staff from New York visited Helsinki. They were wondering why the internationally renowned design city doesn’t have up-to-date and appropriate spaces for displaying design. Exactly. Maybe it’s a “shoemaker’s children have no shoes” phenomenon.

We have too much young (and older) beauty, which should be enough to make us happy. Why do we need shoes (spaces)? They would just run away to the world. Fortunately, next year the students of Aalto University will set up a design capital year pavilion in the courtyard between the museums, temporarily refreshing the supply of spaces.  Design belongs to everyone. It has to be close to people and available to everybody. The WDC2012 decision shows that this is the time to open the city (spaces) for design. †

The writer Aila Svenskberg is a design journalist from Helsinki.

Photo Juuso Noronkoski

Maryam Razavi. Photo Osma Harvilahti.

A few years ago, when I lived in Hoxton, the Punavuori of London, the area was characterized by TERRY RICHARDSON snapshots and American Apparel. The East London style consisted of combat boots and a combat jacket, preferably by the aforementioned American Apparel, a short skirt and thin stockings that simply had to include carefully placed ladders.

My outfits always included a special twist as well, usually the latest Hoxtonian craze such as a gigantic fur at wintertime, which was totally not the coolest thing in the conservative Helsinki scene (at least not yet). I always felt like an outsider when I was visiting over here.

Now, when I look at the cityscape, I can clearly see that Hoxton has arrived to Helsinki. Frizzy-haired girls with red lips and army jackets walk past me at every corner.

The outfits don’t always seem quite as personal, though, but maybe even uniform-esque. Few dare break the boundaries of their chosen style. Of course, there are exceptions documented for example by Hel Looks (www.hel-looks.com). I run into fans of the website abroad all the time.

Along with the blog revolution, Helsinki’s fashion has become distinctly more European and definitely improved, especially among the youth. People read fashion magazines, take ideas, and make their own clothes and accessories inspired by fashion shows. High fashion isn’t just an illusion anymore, but something you can touch and approach easily. Fashion has become a part of culture, and it isn’t dismissed anymore.

Louis Vuitton’s arrival to the heart of Helsinki on Esplanadi and various online stores have enforced the statement piece culture started by Sex and the City. People want to invest in quality clothes, shoes and bags, and people can and aren’t afraid to combine them with pieces found from sales and flea markets.

New young designers bring another fine touch to the cityscape with their creations. The overall atmosphere shows how proud Helsinkians are of their young designers. Everybody recognizes ANTTI ASPLUND’s cross, Makia’s down jackets, R/H’s eye trinket, MINNA PARIKKA’s shoes and TIIA VANHATAPIO’s dresses.

According to a good friend of mine, all the world’s fashion originates in Eastern London, because there nobody looks at you funny, even if you made a dress out of a garbage bag. The same blossoming open-mindedness can be seen in Helsinki as well.

I’m traveling back to London, and I’m excited to see what Eastern Londoners have come up with this time. We’ll see what influences make their way into Helsinki, but I’m even more excited to see all the things that Helsinki will send abroad. †

The author Maryam Razavi is a model from Helsinki currently working in Finland and abroad.

Photo Osma Harvilahti

Pauliina Jalonen. Photo Anna Kiuru.

Everyone wants to be happy. The pursuit of personal well-being can also be an excellent way to reduce your ecological footprint, if your pursuit includes finding meaningful activities, having an impact on your surroundings and being a part of communities that matter to you.

If Helsinki were to promote happiness, it would be an urban, efficient, stimulating and ecologically sustainable city. So far, Finnish urbanites have wanted to have their cake and eat it, too – people have wanted to be near both nature and services. However, there’s not a lot of space to waste. Everyone needs to take only a little for themselves, and share the rest with others. Every additional square foot causes heating costs and a need for furniture and results in hoarding stuff, which means a smaller yard or a longer distance to work or the store. The art of sharing is vital to a city-dweller.

In addition to ecology, a good place to live takes into account the social aspects – nearby services, entertainment and neighbors. In happy cities, people live in dense blocks that ooze personality. Housing cooperatives look like their inhabitants, and people have more common space at their disposal. You can turn your yard into e.g. a cinema, a garden patch or a modern art exhibition.

This is possible, as long as people shape their own environment. However, true participation is a challenge for citizens and urban planners alike. People should take over more space from the city, but at the same time remember to support other people’s ideas as well.

When we can build a personal, meaningful relationship with the space around us, we take root into the city. We know where to find park benches in Helsinki, where to go for an easy Sunday stroll, and where to head to find some action during the weekend. The city can’t be experienced just by driving past it.

At its best, Helsinki offers local services, safety and something to spark everyday life. It’s a living suburban neighborhood where you can run around in nearby forests. It’s a lively urban center with places for work and hanging around, where your feet, a bike and a bus become the means of transport. It’s an opportunity to live a simple and straightforward, but yet diverse and encouragingly authentic life. †

The writer, Pauliina Jalonen, is the president of environmental association Dodo ry. www.dodo.org

Photo Anna Kiuru

Antti Nylén. Photo Sanna Lehto.

In LUIS BUÑUEL’s The Exterminating Angel (1962), a bourgeoise dinner party suddenly realizes that they can’t leave the premises. The reason is never revealed, they simply can’t leave.

The party ends, but it is forced to be continued. Buñuel turns his ironic idea into a moral nightmare. People are stuck within the stage they have built for themselves. An unknown force punishes them by cruelly giving them exactly what they wanted in the first place: an evening so divine, you wish it never ended!

The Exterminating Angel makes you chuckle, because it feels familiar somehow. And not just from our dreams.

Isn’t that the situation we – I mean we who don’t know what poverty and meagerness are – live in every single day: we can’t end the party, because our portions are always bigger than our hunger?

We have too much food and junk. At the supermarket, the first thing that pops to mind is that everything in the world is here. Many feel the same way even at home. I know I do.

It’s conventional to complain about this. Everyone tends to agree.

What’s weird is that we do nothing to rectify the situation. That’s the real conundrum. If you say to a fine-looking gentleman, “you have a sausage on your nose,” he will no doubt take it off.

We are that man – and yet we do nothing! Is the sausage stuck on our nose as mystically as the door is stuck shut in The Exterminating Angel?

There is no feast unless there is first famine. The barely tolerable, gray, tedious and boring ordinarity.

The annual cycle in all ancient cultures is based on this fact. Suffering (or tolerance) and enjoyment (or rest) must alternate.

When superfluity is ever-present, it is logically impossible to feast.

Christmas is around the corner. I suggest that we start tweaking our christmas songs into more zealous versions, for instance like this: Well I wish it wouldn’t be Christmas every day…

The most common platitude said about Christmas is that it has been ruined somehow. Some complain that “Christmas has been commercialized” without saying what it used to be like (because they don’t know). Others mourn the fact that Christianity brutally hijacked an old and prestigious pagan celebration and framed it as their “savior’s” birthday.

Both versions speak of our inability to celebrate. There’s no mention of a reason. But like I said before, the reason is this: Christmas is truly gone, and it won’t return.

What can we do?

I don’t know. All I can think of is to fast from Christmas Eve until the night of Boxing Day, singing slow hymns in the dark.

Now that would be lovely for a change. †

The writer Antti Nylén is an essayist living in Helsinki.

Photo Sanna Lehto

Kivi Sotamaa. Photo Juuso Noronkoski.

Computers and software have replaced fountain pens, rulers and transparencies in the toolkits of young architects and designers. Just like the electric guitar and JIMI HENDRIX created a new psychedelic sound in the 1960s, computers and the manufacturing robots they control are now enabling the discovery of new forms of expression in architecture and design for the third millennium.

Digital design technology provides exciting possibilities for expression because it enables the management of variation. Digitally designed totalities – buildings or product families – can be made up of components that are all unalike. The realisation of such polymorphous building and product totalities through traditional methods, which are based on industrial duplication, would make no sense, but a robot can just as well be instructed to craft a set of identical components or a series of parts that are all unique.

Digital planning and manufacturing technologies make it possible to replace the product duplication process that evolved during the industrial revolution with the production of different adaptations, thus enabling the realisation of increasingly polymorphous and unique environments and products.

The utilisation of free-flowing natural forms in architecture and design is of course nothing new in Finland. ALVAR AALTO, EERO SAARINEN, TAPIO WIRKKALA and REIMA & RAILI PIETILÄ were all masters in the application of natural forms. The world’s best-known expressive architect FRANK GEHRY has noted that he follows in the footsteps of Alvar Aalto more than anyone else.

Nor are digitality and sophisticated technology something new in our country, which is home to pioneering companies like Nokia, Tekla, Baltic Yachts and Remedy as well as influential personalities such as LINUS TORVALDS and trailblazing bands like Pan Sonic and Rinneradio. The engineers of forest industry corporation Finnforest help the world’s top architects create geometrically curvy structures using the company’s products. Fine examples include JÜRGEN MAYER’s Metropol Parasol in Seville and the Aquatics Centre by ZAHA HADID in London.

Finland is both artistically and technologically well poised to reclaim its pioneering role in free-form architecture and design. Technological creativity and a love for natural forms merge in our country.

It would be great if young designers boldly seized these new instruments and departed on a voyage of discovery to find out what kinds of sounds they can produce. There’s no reason to fear that sexy digital forms will replace the reserved and minimalistic modern expression that dominates contemporary Finnish architecture and design. After all, the electric guitar never replaced the acoustic guitar – it just enriched the field of music with a new source of sound. †

Kivi Sotamaa is a designer and the managing director of Sotamaa Design as well as a associate professor  of architecture and urban design at the University of California Los Angeles, UCLA. He returned to Finland last June after spending 6½ years in the USA. www.sotamaa.net

Photo Juuso Noronkoski

Meri-Tuuli Lindström.

When I tell foreigners about Finns, I start off by describing how in the wintertime everyone just wants to sit on their couch at home. You don’t keep in contact with your friends that much, because you don’t want to go outside. “But when the spring comes and the snow has melted, before the grass is even dry, everyone is out on picnics in the city’s parks. The earliest enthusiasts catch colds, because we’re so happy about the spring and worked up over the prospect of warmth that we don’t remember to dress properly,” I say.

I’ve never recommended travelling to Helsinki in the wintertime. In the winter, your only contact withthe locals would be at bars, where we’re shouting around in packs, drunk as a skunk because we started the night at a friend’s place with a couple of bottles of wine or a 12-pack of beer and a bowl of potato chips. When we make it to the bar, we’re shooting booze by the platterful, and come last call we grab a kebab and wobble into the taxi line. How can you become part of the jolly tradition of Finnish intoxication, if you don’t know anyone and just happened to buy a return ticket to exotic Helsinki?

The summer starts in May, with the official blastoff being May Day. After that it’s game on: the first beers in the park are enjoyed after work, on the bench, because the lawn is too muddy and filled with serpentine and dog shit. But it won’t be long until people whip out the pro gear and walk the streets with picnic baskets and blankets.

You sit in the park at lunch, after work, in the wee hours when bars have already been closed and on days off. I’m pretty sure some people sit in the park also when they should be working.

The park calls for some wine or beer, and the basic rule is ‘bring your own bottle’. Food is involved as well, the most popular choices being the classic baguette and cheese, or a take away pizza. In the last couple of years portable or single-use grills have also enabled the more hi-fi picnickers to have a barbecue, as long as the authorities don’t intervene.

The most popular parks are Sinebrychoff’s park, Plague park and the northern lawns of Esplanade’s park. In Kaivopuisto you can combine picnics and team sports, Alppipuisto is a rendezvous point for hippies and punk fanatics, and you can also find DJs spinning there in the weekends. Tervasaari is a good choice for thos who appreciate privacy – and can deal with chilly ocean winds. My personal favorite is the Siltasaari boat dock opposite of Kaisaniemi. There the sun shines until late and it’s comfortable to sit on the piers.

All of this summer fun wouldn’t be possible, if the city didn’t give a blind eye to the regulation that prohibits drinking in public. And so be it. Of course, the police will intervene if necessary to remove the biggest drunk idiots, but I think the system works really well as is.

I predict that this summer will be awesome for picnics. The restaurant and take away offering in downtown Helsinki has improved, and Stockmann’s grocery store Herkku has expanded. When the sun goes down, you can gather at your favorite tavern or find new bars and make new friends in the summery Helsinki nightlife. †

Meri-Tuuli Lindström

The author is a television presenter living in Helsinki as well as the founder and owner of movie catering company Elokuvamuonitus Nakki and cafe Nakki Tehtaanmyymälä.

www.nakkimuonitus.fi

Samu-Jussi Koski.

”Bullshit.”

The US reporter looked at me in amazement as I blurted out my reply to his jovial question. At the time, I was working for a large Finnish clothing company, and I was giving an interview to Vice magazine in New York City. I was so exhausted that when the reporter asked me what it was like working in the fashion business in Finland, I didn’t have the energy to muster up a politically correct reply. So I just spit out “Bullshit. Utter bullshit.”

However, there was some truth to my brainfart. I later discussed the topic with a Swedish designer friend, and she totally got where I was coming from. “The Finnish way” was to my friend a combination of jealousy, competition and underhanded tactics. Sweden was a whole different ballgame, she claimed. “Over here even bands praise other Swedish bands in interviews. We’ve understood that it’s important to work together.”

Finnish design has a glorious history, but also a very interesting present state. If you look at it from the outside, it’s evident that there’s a larger worldwide market for Finnish design and culture than ever. The only thing stopping us from taking over is the Finnish parochialism. We don’t support each other or enjoy other people’s success.

Marimekko SS 2010 by Samu-Jussi Koski.

Helsinki has been chosen as the World Design Capital for 2012. How about we make that into a good excuse to change our old ways? What would it feel like for once to let people know who you’re proud of? Which artists, restaurant-owners and entrepreneurs do I feel grateful for? Who and where has made my Design Capital into an inspiring, beautiful and fun place? Here are a few:

• The Sauna Society in Lauttasaari. Vaskiniemi’s smoke saunas are as Finnish as you can get.
• Clothing designer MIIA HALMESMAA. A true find: a designer whose clothes are both simple and original.
• Design do-it-all MARI VATANEN. Mari’s fingerprints are all over any Finnish design that looks good and feels nice.
• Restaurant Kuurna. Ateljé Finne, owned by the same people, is also nice, but I feel more at home at the intimate Kuurna. Anyone interested in conceptualizing modern Finland should check it out.
• Restaurant Pikku-Vallila. My go-to-pub. It smells horrible, but the company keeps you there all night.
• Miss Saana & The Missionaries. Not really underground anymore, but who cares. I happened to catch them live at Club Liberté and rediscovered what it was like to catch a good sweat jumping up and down to an awesome live band.
• Kumpula Botanic Garden. If Pikku-Vallila is my regular pub, this is my botanic haven. The garden was finally opened to the public, and I bought a season pass right away.

So, in the spirit of Helsinki’s World Design Capital year: Thanks, guys! Congrats on a job well done! And good luck and courage to us all. †

Samu-Jussi Koski

The writer is a designer based in Helsinki.

www.samuji.com

The World Health Organization divides their definition of health into three subcategories: physical, psychic and social well-being. In other words, well-being is almost synonymous with WHO’s definition of health.

During the skimpy years after WWII, people in Finland strived for material well-being. They wanted fancy cars, houses and boats. Work was held in high regard, and Finns truly worked hard. Work also played a big part in defining the social identity of a Finn.

After slowly achieving a standard of living withstanding even international comparison, Finns found new values that overcame simple materialism. The age of experiences began. People wanted new experiences, be they trips or events. Brand clothing became “passé”, and the new big thing was individuality – unique clothes and thoughtfully selected items. Price wasn’t the biggest factor, differentiation was.

At the moment people are concerned about their well-being. We’re spending on ourselves, looking for beauty, long life and health. This phenomenon has brought with it different ways of pampering ourselves, and even aesthetic surgery has become more common. I’ve been able to witness the situation first hand, as I’ve brought many methods of aesthetic surgery into Finland.

Aesthetic surgery keeps on growing, and it’s a highly profitable business. This has brought along so called ‘cowboy surgery’, in which unqualified doctors perform procedures. As the chairman of the Training Evaluation & Accreditation Committee of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, I’ve seen how much incompetent medical work is done in hopes of making money. I’ve also witnessed it in my own hospital, where a third of the patients are unsatisfied with the treatment they have received elsewhere. That’s way too much. Customers should be able to find accurate information about the level of different hospitals and surgeons instead of having to rely on ads or downright frauds.

I’m delighted that the late Pope JOHN PAUL II already in 2000 held a congress to research how aesthetic plastic surgery could improve the quality of life. I was the only Nordic speaker on aesthetic surgery at the congress. As the wise man he was, the Pope understood that aesthetic surgery could improve the quality of life and well-being of people. I tip my hat to the late Pope and his wisdom. †

Professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Rolf Nordström is one of the most esteemed experts on aesthetic surgery in Europe. He has developed operational methods used worldwide for example in the field of hair transplants.

www.nordstromhospital.fi