I first became aware of the Helsinki Design District a few months before my trip, at Wanted Design Brooklyn. There was a group of Finnish students from the University of Lapland exhibiting at the event, and I spoke with them and told them of my upcoming trip. I asked if they had any tips for me, and they suggested that I check out the Design District.
The Design District spans several small neighborhoods, and is comprised of retail stores, fashion companies, galleries and museums, design studios, and a few other categories of businesses in some way involved with design. There are also some amazing coffee shops and restaurants in the area.
Helsinki Secondhand is hard to discover, unless you know to look for it. Its entrance is that of an underground garage, and there isn’t any obvious signage, so it’s easy to miss, even if you are standing right infant of it.
The store has some great finds, with an emphasis on Finnish made/designed goods, however, much of it is too big for a tourist to travel with.
This red rocking horse, I have been told, is the quintessential Finnish toy. Practically every Finn had one, or remembers playing with one as a child. I have seen similar, yet slightly different renditions made in other Scandinavian countries. Roy Borjesen, a Danish designer, is typically credited with the concept.
Below: Second-hand Artek furniture in good condition
The Design District also has a store exclusively selling second-hand Artek Furniture, however, it happened to be closed while I was in town, since my visit coincided with the two weeks that many Scandinavians go on vacation .
Of course Artek also has a flagship location in Helsinki, located further North in the more “department store” part of the design distric. Here they sell all of their classics, as well as new takes on these old designs.
The Punavuori and Kamppi neighborhoods have a much more vibey atmosphere and are home to smaller shops with more eclectic character. It has the kind of artsy-coolness that Brooklyn, NY strives for, yet in a more authentic and less contrived way. Here you can find a lot of well-curated gift shops with a thoughtful selection of unique, well-designed wares. There are also several stores that sell home furnishings from smaller, lesser known Finnish brands. (Hakola, Lumo Kids, Casaurina)
The Design District is home to some of the coolest coffee shops. One of them, Plootu, doubles as a furniture showroom. I also visited one that sells an assortment of secondhand tea cups and espresso mugs. My Instagram has a lot of pictures of the furniture that I found inside of these places.
One of the larger shops that shouldn’t be missed is the Out of the Dark showroom and concept store. They carry products (mostly home goods) from carefully selected brands that emphasize design, form, function, and fun. Inside you will also find the showroom for Woodio, an innovative Finnish company that is making washbasins out of a moulded composite wood material that they developed.
Helsinki as a design city seems underrated. If you are involved in design and want to learn more about their scene, consider visiting during Helsinki Design Week, which takes place in September. If you can’t make it over there, they come out with a weekly newsletter that has a lot of great content about what’s going on in their world of design.
