Habitare 10 Fair

Habitare, Finland’s largest furniture, interior decoration and design fair, was held on 1–5 September at the Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre. In addition to its regular offerings, this year’s fair promises some interesting new content such as the Interiore area for public spaces, the Made in Finland collective area for Finnish manufacturers, and the Material ConneXion exhibition of materials.

The Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre featured three other events simultaneously with Habitare: the multidisciplinary design event Designpartners100, the Valo event for the lighting industry, and the ArtHelsinki contemporary art fair. Visitors were able to visit all events with the same ticket.

Interiore enters public spaces

Habitare’s new public space area in Hall 3 focused on the design, implementation and functionality of public spaces. Professionals found a high-quality programme on the area’s own programme stage. Interiore’s change of venue from Wanha Satama to Habitare has been warmly welcomed by companies and professionals alike.

The Made in Finland collective area featured Finnish furniture makers

Finnish furniture is beautiful, practical, durable and safe. The new Made in Finland collective area in Hall 6 featured authentic Finnish-designed furniture and furniture production. Visitors had an opportunity to speak directly with designers and producers, and a variety of information wasavailable at the area’s joint information desk. The impressive, harmonious architectural design of the Made in Finland area provided an excellent setting for displays by long-established, traditional companies as well as new small-scale enterprises. The area’s architectural environment has been designed by Jonas Hakaniemi and Janne Tyynismaa, two recent graduates of the Institute of Design at the Lahti University of Applied Sciences.

Ahead! design area draw strength from synergy

Habitare’s Ahead! design area showcased modern design and future trends based on today’s values. This year’s main theme was synergy, which shifts the attention of the design industry from individuals to communities: work groups, interest groups, and networks of designers, manufacturers, clients and users. Joining forces like this is a necessary factor in the success of Finnish design, both at home and abroad. The exhibition’s operational sections Confront, Share, Learn and Change create prerequisites for the co-operation between exhibitors, guest speakers, and visitors. Through this co-operation, current challenges may just transform into design projects creating new solutions.

Habitare furniture, interior decoration and design fair, EcoDesign 10 Special Exhibition, Valo Light, ArtHelsinki and DesignPartners100 events attracted 68.012 visitors during five days. Visitors per day

Wednesday 5.784
Thursday 10.737
Friday 14.507
Saturday 18.374
Sunday 18.601

Thank you for participating at the fair and see you next time 14-18 Sept. 2011.