Helsinki Becomes a Meeting Place for Design - Helsinki Design Week and Habitare Bring the Industry Together

HELSINKI, 31 August 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- In the capital of the world's happiest country, design is an inseparable part of everyday life. In late summer, Helsinki Design Week and the Habitare design fair shine the spotlight on design and bring together designers, companies and audiences from Finland and around the world in Helsinki.

At the beginning of September, Helsinki will host both Helsinki Design Week (28 August – 6 September 2026), the largest design and architecture festival in the Nordics, and Habitare (2–6 September 2026), the leading furniture, design and interior event in the region. Together, the two events will bring the industry together and shine the spotlight on design: Habitare will host design companies, professionals and audiences at Messukeskus, the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre, and showrooms in the city centre, while Helsinki Design Week will spread across the city to studios, cultural institutions and public spaces.

These events serve to highlight Helsinki's widespread design scene and build connections between companies, designers, independent creators, cultural actors and audiences. The importance of collaboration and encounters is also reflected in this year's themes. The Helsinki Design Week theme for 2026 is The Oncoming Other, exploring what can arise from encounters between people, ideas and places. The theme for Habitare 2026 in turn is Plot Twists, inviting us to find inspiration in unpredictability, chance encounters and shifts in direction as meaningful parts of both life and design.

"The creative sector does not emerge within closed systems but through connections between people, and in networks where ideas, resources and meaning circulate. When creators, audiences, funders, media and the city meet regularly, resilience begins to form: the possibility to renew, adapt and imagine the future together," says Kari Korkman, founder of Helsinki Design Week.

"Finnish design is also of international interest, and together we can help to highlight the industry and create business, growth and internationality in the creative sector through encounters," says Tanja Pasila, Business Lead at Habitare.

City of Helsinki as a design platform

This year, Helsinki Design Week and the City of Helsinki are working together even more closely. The new two-year collaboration will focus on the city centre of Helsinki and how design, culture and new uses of urban spaces can be used to help build a vibrant city. One of the most visible initiatives is the HDW Lab that will open on Aleksanterinkatu, where workshops will be organised and decision-makers and city residents will be invited to sit around the same table to consider the city centre of the future.

Another key component of the collaboration is the Helsinki Design Award. Since 2022, the award has been presented annually to individuals, teams or organisations that have done significant work to develop Helsinki's living environment and cityscape.

Building a high quality of life through design

In Helsinki, the importance of design extends beyond the creative industry. Design thinking is reflected in how services, public spaces and city districts are developed in the Finnish capital. Good design makes it easy to get around the city, common spaces are accessible to everyone and everyday services work.

Human-centred design has deep roots in Helsinki. In July, five sites in Helsinki – Finlandia Hall, the House of Culture, the National Pensions Institute (Kela), Studio Aalto and The Aalto House – were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of Aalto Works, a series of thirteen buildings across Finland designed by Aino, Elissa and Alvar Aalto. The Aalto Works sites combine international ideals of modern architecture with human-centred and empathetic design that responded to the changing needs of society and prioritised human wellbeing.

"Good design is a key part of the building blocks of good everyday life: trust, functional services and the freedom to live your life. Often the link is so fundamental that we don't even pay attention to it. During Helsinki Design Week and Habitare, design and, above all, the collaboration behind it will be visible throughout the city," says Hanna Harris, Chief Design Officer at the City of Helsinki.

Helsinki Design Week
28 August – 6 September 2026
The largest design and architecture festival in the Nordics

Habitare
2–6 September 2026
Messukeskus, the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre
The leading furniture, design and interior event in the Nordics

More information
Leena Karppinen
Senior Manager, Brand & PR
Helsinki Partners
leena.karppinen@helsinkipartners.com

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