The Everyday Discoveries exhibition. Photo: Saara Salama / World Design Capital Helsinki 2012

World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 is at top gear this week: Helsinki Design Week offers more than ever before, the Everyday Discoveries exhibition explores design in our lives, and the Habitare design fair displays the full range of Finnish design.

Gems of everyday on display

What is everyday design? How does it differ from country to country, from culture to culture? Answers are provided by the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 main exhibition, Everyday Discoveries – International Design House Exhibition, which fills the Suvilahti cultural centre through 16 September. On exhibit are solutions by hundreds of designers from 23 countries.

Everyday Discoveries takes up four of the Suvilahti buildings and adds a café, a design shop and an urban garden.

Everyday Discoveries is a World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 Signature Event curated by Imu Design and produced by Design Forum Finland together with World Design Capital Helsinki 2012. Read more

Helsinki Design Week co-creates

Co-creation is the theme of Helsinki Design Week 2012. This year’s programme is the largest ever in the design week’s history, with over 130 design events. The main venue is the Old Customs Warehouse, but events happen all across the city. The programme incorporates exhibitions, fashion shows, design shopping, pecha kucha nights, open studios and more.

The theme is Co-Creation: co-working and bringing different design disciplines together through enticing encounters.

Helsinki Design Week 2012 complements Finnish design with international inputs. The event is becoming part of an international design week network, and more international design will be on offer in the years to come.

Helsinki Design Week through 16 September

Habitare joins World Design Capital Helsinki

The largest furniture, interior decoration and design fair in Finland, Habitare, coincides with Everyday Discoveries and Helsinki Design Week, celebrating World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 with special exhibitions.

The Timeline special exhibition offers a time trip into Finnish design. The exhibition features highlights of Finnish design and design history from the 1950’s to the present. It is a tribute to Finnish designers and shows where Finland’s reputation as a design nation comes from.

The EcoDesign special exhibition focuses on wood as an eco-friendly material. In the Trash Design exhibition, hotel rooms are built from discarded items.

Habitare 2012 features 600 exhibitors, which fill all seven halls of the Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre over four days from 12 to 16 September. More about Habitare

World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 offers a record number of events in September. Read more