Unconventional Helsinki, a tour of the city where design is sustainable

The Municipality of Helsinki has launched a competition for the redevelopment of Makasiiniranta, the last area of ​​the old port to be converted for public use and where the new Museum of Design and Architecture will be built: over 83,000 square meters of land facing the sea, currently used as a terminal port and parking. Among the proposals there is also Majamaja, a wooden cabin, designed by Littow Architects, completely off-grid (23 sqm), prefabricated and transportable, furnished in a minimal and functional way to be completely self-sufficient and allow total immersion in the zero impact nature. The collection of rainwater and gray water filtered by a purification system ensures water autonomy, while the drains of the dry bathroom are composted and reused as fertilizer. Electricity is supplied by solar panels and a fuel cell, finally the heating is methane. It is the first of a series that will create a mini-village.

Concepts such as “zero km”, circular economy, community gardens, environmental protection have always been part of Finnish culture. It is therefore no surprise that Albert Franch Sunyer (Spanish), Carlos Henriques (Portuguese) and Luca Balac (born in the former Yugoslavia), the three founding chefs and owners of Nolla (“zero” in Finnish), have chosen Helsinki for their project. Opened in February 2018, Nolla is the first restaurant in Scandinavian countries and among the first in the world to have eliminated the amount of waste produced. How? Thanks to a biocomposer (positioned in plain sight in the dining room) that “grinds” 85 kg of kitchen leftovers per day. In a perfectly circular way, the compost produced from the waste is sold to the restaurant's suppliers, all within a radius of 200 km from Helsinki. 

In the restaurant (which is also a bar and microbrewery) plastic is not included even for the packaging of the ingredients and every object is recycled: the staff uniforms, the napkins in recycled PET and the glasses made from old glass bottles.

In a country where women won the right to vote in 1906, and where the premier, Sanna Marin, 34, is the youngest in the world at the head of a coalition of five parties all led by women, gender equality is an almost established fact. Nomen Nescio (from the Latin, “anonymous”), the most radical Finnish clothing brand of the moment in terms of sustainability goes in this direction: no logo, with a minimal aesthetic, with unisex collections re-proposed with a few variations season after season and in a single color, black. 

Founded in 2012 by the Finnish fashion designer couple Niina Leskelä and Timo Leskelä, it boasts a local production (in Finland or neighboring Estonia) and materials, carefully selected in Europe, strictly organic.

Following the recent inaugurations of the Amos Rex Museum designed by JKMM Architects and the Oodi Central Library by ALA Architects, with the opening of the new Scandic Grand Central hotel, in the former railway offices designed by Eliel Saarinen in 1909 next to the central station (also by Saarinen), the careful transformation of the center of the capital continues. The large Art Nouveau complex was extended by Futudesign and restored by Soini & Horto Architects. The interiors, on the other hand, are designed by the Puroplan studio, who explained how they aimed to “maintain the original spirit of the building by transforming it into a modern Scandinavian hotel, which does not look like a museum”.

Housed in a charming former school building from the late 19th century, the Helsinki Design Museum has a collection of over 100,000 images, 75,000 objects and 40,000 drawings. A permanent exhibition on the history of Finnish design from 1870 to the present day alongside temporary exhibitions. After the exhibition dedicated to Iittala's 140 years of history (“Iittala - Kaleidoscope: From Nature to Culture”, curated by Florencia Colombo and Ville Kokkonen), “Intimacy” (8.10.2021-13.3.2022) explores the Finnish fashion design of 2020s and the intimate relationship between the body and the clothes we wear, introducing the creative process, from initial sketches to finished products and analyzing the impact of digitization.

Basta (“Enough” in Italian) is a new design brand born from the encounter (in Milan) of Marcel Wanders (design star and founder, among other things, of Moooi), Joel Roos and Stefan Mahlberg (who worked both for One Nordic and Hem). Wanders defines it as the “Tesla of industrial design”: sturdy, elegant pieces, easy to assemble anywhere, to move “wherever life takes you”, with very long life cycles and an eye to sustainability. A strong supporter of a more romantic and humanistic design thinking, the Dutch designer also explains that the next step will be to find reliable partners for local productions. The first products in the catalog are two different sofas, designed by Marcel Wanders and Stockholm Note Design Studio, a wooden coffee table by young Finnish Antrei Hartikainen and a table by Danish designer Søren Rose.

Curated by Pirkko Siitari and Taru Tappola and produced by the Helsinki Museum of Art (HAM), the first edition of the Biennale took possession of Vallisaari with the works of 41 artists, local and international, installed outdoors in the unspoiled nature of island (where 1,000 species of butterflies, 6 of bats and 400 different plants live) and in the former military buildings. A strategic outpost for the control of the Gulf of Finland disputed between Finland, Russia and Estonia, Vallisaari (open to the public only since 2016) is accessible in 10 minutes by boat from the capital and is an essential stop. The title, “The Same Sea”, taken from a text by the Estonian poet Jaan Kaplinski, reminds us how human beings all live on the same planet where everything is interconnected. Among the best known artists, Pawel Althamer, Alicja Kwade (whose work will be permanent), Katharina Grosse (photo), Janet Cardiff and Maaria Wirkkala. The appointment with the next edition will be in 2023.

Jaakko Niemelä, Quai 6, 2021. Opera commissionata da HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021

Alicja Kwade, Pars pro Toto, 2018. Commissioned by HAM/Helsinki Biennial 2021 and Kalasatama Environmental Art Project

Anssi Jokinen and Tommi Saarnio have seized a market gap in the interior paint sector. In their opinion, there was a lack of a brand with a high-level decorative approach and that was as simple as possible for end users. Starting from the rich color palette that characterizes Finnish homes and public places (where, in the post-war period, the lack of building materials gave rise to a tradition of using color to create shapes, style and atmosphere), in 2020, they founded their brand, naming it Cover Story. More like an interior decoration studio and closer to a lifestyle approach than to a paint company, Cover Story also focuses on plastic-free materials. The debut was in 2021 with a catalog of 38 colors, all inspired by the Finnish interiors of the 1920s and 1950s, and a capsule collection designed by Finnish designer, based in Paris, Linda Bergroth.

Cover Story Paint Studio founders

The EMMA Museum (Espoo Museum of Modern Art) is always worth a visit for more than one reason. First, the architecture – the museum is housed in a former printing house, a brutalist concrete building from the late 1950s immersed in a forest – with its permanent art collection (the largest in the country). On the first floor, there is also the section dedicated to the works of Rut Bryk and Tapio Wirkkala. Museum within the museum, it is conceived as a look behind the scenes and as an immersion in the archive of the Finnish iconic couple of artists. In chronological order and on the shelves, some of the 2,000 items in the collection are displayed in rotation, while the rest is stored in wooden crates and on open shelves. Last reason, the temporary exhibitions. “Ceramics Facing the New” (until 7.8.2022), offers the works of 12 artists and two groups who have worked with kintsugi, the Japanese tradition of repairing broken ceramic with gold or another metal, embellishing it. In this case, kintsugi is also a metaphor for society: a fracture can be the signal of something new. How can the fragments be brought together to create a lasting structure?

Inaugurated in 2020 in an art nouveau building on the historic Aleksanterinkatu street, where the presidential palace is also located, the Glasshouse was born on the initiative of Mirkku Kullberg, with the aim of encouraging people to think (and buy) in a sustainable way. Arranged over five floors, it houses a shop and art and design gallery. On the ground floor, since March 2021, the Lokal gallery has a space, founded by the photographer Katja Hagelstam, which combines art, craftsmanship and design, between unique pieces and small productions.

Two timeless jewels and an unmissable stop, Alvar Aalto's family home and studio, built respectively in 1936 and 1955, are located in Munkkiniemi, a residential neighborhood surrounded by a wood. Maintained thanks to the activity and dedication of the Foundation under the same name (which has also managed the Alvar Aalto Museum in Jyväskylä, in Central Finland since 1966), they are a dive into the architecture and personal history of one of the icons of 20th century architecture.

The restaurant designed by Alvar and Aino Aalto more than 80 years ago has found its original spirit – a comfortable and human-sized, functional and elegant environment, where natural materials dominate – after the intervention of Ilse Crawford (Studioilse) and Artek of 2019. Starting from the original drawings of 1937, the London studio has restored original furniture and fixtures, bringing to light the different types of wood (oak, elm, pine and mahogany) originally planned. The only concession is the long bench at the edge of the room with the padded backrest lined with black and white striped fabric: it is a tribute to Aino Aalto who, in a renowned photo, wears this very fabric. For the terrace, Artek then created a special edition of the Chair 611 from 1929.

The new headquarters of the Urban Environment Division of the city of Helsinki (responsible for design, construction, maintenance, construction management and environmental services) was inaugurated in 2020 but, due to the pandemic, has not yet entered full capacity. It brings together under the same roof, and on an area of ​​40,900 square meters, 500 professionals (and only 75 parking spaces, confirming the green vocation). The project is almost zero emissions and is signed by the Lahdelma Mahlamäki Architects studio, which defines it as “archaic modernism”: a mixture of references to the history of architecture and new construction technologies, where formally exposed brick, concrete, wood and copper are the dominant materials. KVA Architects collaborated on the interior design - which alternate informal and newly conceived workspaces. The spaces on the ground floor, thanks to the very generous volumes, are also open to citizens.