During the Helsinki Design Week, from 3 to 13 September, Design Museum will stage special events as a part of the festival. Check out all our events below and join our design celebration! Participation in all events with a museum ticket. Free entrance with the Museum Card and for children under 18.
We follow the situation with the corona pandemic and the guidelines of the officials carefully. Your safety is our priority. This might mean that some changes to our programme may occur. More specific intructions regarding the separate events can be found below.
We urge all visitors to follow these instructions during the visit to the museum.
Deisgn Museum’s exhibitions during Helsinki Design Week:
Soil Matters
Gallery, 0. floor
During the museum’s opening hours
The Soil Matters exhibition explores how soil and its changes are intertwined with human activity. The exhibition makes the soil visible and encourages viewers to reflect on their human-soil-relationship. The exhibition is curated by ceramic artist and Aalto University professor Maarit Mäkelä, and ceramic artist and Aalto University doctoral student Riikka Latva-Somppi.
Guided tour to Soil Matters in English:
Sat, Sep 5th. at 3 pm
Travel as a Tool – Nordic Designers on the road
2. floor / During the museum’s opening hours
Travel as a Tool (1st June 2020 – 7th March 2021) is a joint Nordic exhibition that considers the significance of travel for the work of Nordic designers from the 1940s to the present day. Trips have been sources of new ideas and inspiration. They have provided valuable contacts and created new opportunities, along with introducing designers to materials and manufacturing methods. Recent international events place travelling in a new perspective – the exhibition gives current affairs a point of reference in past decades – at a time before long-distance travel became an everyday matter.
Utopia Now – Story of Finnish Design
1. floor/ During the museum’s opening hours
This exhibition features iconic pieces from the golden age of Finnish design of the 1950s, Nokia mobile phones and the Angry Birds game alike. Utopia Now is Design Museum’s collections exhibition, telling about the central role of design in the emergence of the Finnish welfare state. It falls into five themes in which the history of design is presented in living narratives. The exhibition’s digital applications permit the display of previously unseen materials and a much greater amount of information than previously.
The events during Helsinki Design Week:
Opening weekend of the Soil Matters exhibition
Sep, 4–6, daily at 11–18
A new exhibition Soil Matters will open at the Gallery of the Design Museum on Friday, September 4. Instead of the traditional invitations, the fresh Soil Matters exhibition is celebrated throughout the weekend. The program of the opening weekend includes a discussion, guided tours in Finnish and English, Design workshop for families, and an Open Studio of ceramic artist Katharina Cajander.
Lunch Talk: Soil Matters / In Finnish
Fri, Sep 4 at 1 pm
As a safety precaution, we have limited the number of seats to this event. Please book your seat in advance: info@designmuseum.fi When booking your seat, please tell us your name and specify the event you would like to participate.
At the Design Museum’s Lunch Talk, guests can meet the creators behind the Soil Matters exhibition. The curators of the exhibition, Riikka Latva-Somppi and Maarit Mäkelä, talk about the project and discuss the materiality of soil through the themes of the exhibition. In the Soil Matters exhibition, designers, artisans and artists explore the relationship between earth and man by working on experimental design projects on the subject. The event will discuss, among other things, soil remodelling, land contaminated by the glass industry and the role of plants in land remediation.
Design Workshop for Families: Painting with Soil
Saturday, Sep 5th from 2 pm to 4 pm
As a safety precaution, we have limited the number of seats to this workshop to 10 persons. Please buy your ticket on the day of the event from the counter. No advance reservations.
The Design Workshop for Families lets the participants’ paint with soil. Different coloured soil samples are made into paints and then used to make art. In the Workshop, you learn how different minerals and metals in local soils affect their colours. Why different soils have different colours? Why is Finnish clay grey, but bricks reddish? Where do white and yellow clay come from? We keep the workspace spacious so that everyone can keep a safe distance. You can join the nonstop workshop as soon as there is space in the Studio. The workshop is for everyone and does not require any special skills. Recommended for over 4 years old, under 10 years old accompanied by an adult. No separate material fee.
Soil Matters Open Studio: Catharina Kajander
4.–5.9. at 3–6 pm
6.9. at 12–3 pm
8.–9.9. at 5–6 pm
10.–11.9. at 12–3 pm
Ceramic artist Catharina Kajander is building a large vessel from Finnish red clay in the open studio of the Soil Matters exhibition. The artist works with the sausage technique, which is one of the oldest ways of working clay.
Design Talk: The life and art of Timo Sarpaneva / In Finnish
Tuesday 8.9. at 5 pm
As a safety precaution, we have limited the number of seats to this event to 30. Book your seat in advance: info@designmuseum.fi
Marjatta Sarpaneva lived for almost five decades alongside her husband, artist and designer Timo Sarpaneva. With great accuracy, she followed her husband’s handprint throughout the years. In an open public event at the Design Museum, Marjatta Sarpaneva talks about life alongside designer Timo Sarpaneva.
Rescheduled to October: Planetary Picnic Workshop (Fin/Eng)
This event has been rescheduled for later occation
Read more
Planetary Picnic is an eating experiment and a workshop. It provides territory for exploring sustainable eating and the structural change of cities in the age of the climate crisis. Different needs for modifying and reconfiguring public spaces, which result from environmental issues such as declining soil health and the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea, will be examined collectively by focusing on food culture.
Architecture and Design Learning DesignLab: Mini Jam
Workshop and open webinar (Fin/Eng)
Sep 11, Fri 8.30 am – 2 pm
Read more and register beforehand
A&DO Learning Centre for Architecture and Design organizes the very first DesignLab: Mini Jam. Inspirational talks from Finland and Scotland will set the beat for jamming. After the talks, we all get together to jam ideas on what future architecture and design learning in nationally touring DesignLab could look like. This event in collaboration with the City of Helsinki, both Helsinki and Dundee are part of UNESCO – Creative Cities network and UNESCO Cities of Design.
Our events in English
Guided tour to Soil Matters in English:
Sat, Sep 5th. at 3 pm
Online Design Talk: System Innovations for Business Sustainability
Thursday, September 10th: 1 pm – 2 pm
Register for the event here!
Design Museum’s Business network Design Club and Aalto University organize a free online lecture with Dr. Idil Gaziulusoy. Read more
Intelligences: Helsinki Design Residency 2020 seminar
September 10th at 9.00 – 12.00
Design Museum’s auditorium
As a safety precaution, we have limited the number of seats to this event to 30. Please book your seat in advance: info@designmuseum.fi When booking your seat, please tell us your name and specify the event you would like to participate.
The participants of the ninth edition of the Helsinki Design Residency meet at the Design Museum on September 10. We invite everyone to take part in this open seminar that explores the theme of this year’s Design Residency ”Intelligences” through the lens of Design practice.
