Towards WDC 2012: Design matters

The European Commission’s Design Secretariat, located in Finland, is doing its part to find new ways of thinking to back up design.

Text Sirje Niitepõld
Photos Anna Kiuru

Teeth: EP

Teeth’s songs start off somewhere around dubstep, but end up closer to futuristic house and techno.

Text Teemu Fiilin

Mirel Wagner: Mirel Wagner

You don’t want to listen to Mirel Wagner’s stories, filled with death, self-destruction, sin, deep lakes and dark woods, alone in the dark.

Text Teemu Fiilin

Angelica Kult: Before and After the Flatline

The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees come to mind often, although Angelica Kult’s sound is a couple of shades more modern and metallic.

Text Teemu Fiilin

Viola: Viola Music Club

Almost all of Viola’s songs in 2010 were small, bittersweet and slightly twisted chunks of nerd pop, done with extreme style.

Text Teemu Fiilin

Urban coworking: From shared offices to smart cities

Urban coworking – offering temporary office space for those who need them – can be used not only for business purposes, but also to educate and combat marginalization.

Text Simo Vassinen
Photos Vesa Mäkinen

The world in a bookshop

Arkadia Bookshop is not only a bookstore, but also a stage for culture. Despite its short history, this international bookstore is known as the living room of Töölö district.

Text Sirje Niitepõld
Photos Sanna Lehto

Smooth operator

Many people bought frozen yogurt from the white Kippo Yogurt truck seen at public events last summer. The next phase is Café Kippo, which opened its doors at Iso Roobertinkatu at the turn of the year.

Text Juhana Hurula
Photos Jussi Puikkonen

Out of the forest

Islaja is one of the biggest names in the Finnish forest folk genre. Despite this, her music is nothing like forests – or folk.

Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Hertta Kiiski

Portfolio: Woodism

Consisting of designers and fine carpenters, the Woodism group produces wooden products made from trees felled in parks and private yards that would’ve otherwise ended up chopped or dumped.

Text Heini Lehtinen

Places of well-being

Column by Pauliina Jalonen

“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.”

Photos Anna Kiuru

A Shiny Diamond

Shine 2009 makes dance pop with emotion and logic.

Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Kaarle Hurtig

Henry Ford’s Helsinki

The post-Madonna era of Jätkäsaari could well be an urban utopia that has been dreamt of since way back when. As the Low2No project takes flight, old ladies, families with children and young night crawlers grow their food together and relax at the neighborhood sauna.

Text Simo Vassinen
Images Sitra/Low2No/ARUP

Towards WDC 2012: The neural center

A yellow building at the corner of Senate Square is uncovering after a renovation. In a year, it will be the epicenter of Helsinki’s World Design Capital year.

Text Heini Lehtinen
Photos Juuso Noronkoski

Pintandwefall: Time Is Right for Romans, Baby

Pintandwefall’s music is so full of pop sensibility and catchy hooks that it can grab even people who aren’t fans of trashy rock.

Text Teemu Fiilin

Nightsatan: Midnight Laser Warrior

The album re-imagines the imagery (and especially soundtracks) of 1970s and 80s hilarious trash horror and sci-fi films, but also has elements of Vangelis’ and Jean-Michel Jarre’s slightly deeper sounds and even progressive rock.

Text Teemu Fiilin

Uusi Fantasia: Heimo

Uusi Fantasia moves effortlessly from moody electro to trash jazz to rubbery disco to shady pop to cosmic funk and all the way back.

Text Teemu Fiilin

Shotgun Club: Love Under The Gun

Shotgun Club takes minimalistic post-punk bass runs and overdramatic wailing, adds some garage rock flakiness, and sinks the whole thing in a marsh of reverb.

Text Teemu Fiilin

Thicker than water

More and more 20-to-30-year-olds spend Christmas Eve at a bar. Inviting friends over to spend the holidays is a new phenomenon in Finland. In spite of all this, traditions seem to be far more important now than for previous generations.

Text Heini Lehtinen
Photos Miika Saksi

Well I wish it…

Column by Antti Nylén

Christmas is truly gone, and it won’t return.

Photos Sanna Lehto

Greetings from paper paradise

A small paper shop in Kruununhaka is offering Christmas shoppers papery dreams from all over the world.

Text Laura Friman
Photos Kaarle Hurtig

Superfood haven

”Is food to you a fuel or an enjoyment of life? Do you eat so you can walk, or so that you can sit down in good company and let the hours melt away? Food is supposed to do us good”, says Nima Ehsani, the owner of Café Caneli.

Text Juhana Hurula
Photos Juuso Noronkoski

All that jazz

Saxophonist Timo Lassy is one of the do-it-alls of today’s Finnish jazz. He has seen the rise of the genre from music academies to club dancefloors.

Text Teemu Fiilin
Photos Osma Harvilahti

A bazaar Christmas

At We Got Beef’s Christmas bazaar, designers sell their own products, customers can try haggling and santa hats may end up on the catwalk.

Text Teemu Fiilin

Portfolio: Company

Design agency COMPANY is known for playful and humoristic products and projects such as their toadstool stool and apparel-come-furniture.

Text Heini Lehtinen