cultural activities
12
finnish cultural foundation
annual report 2012–2013
P
rojects employing a wide variety of
design tools and approaches were
selected for the programme by open
invitation.
“It was a terrific experience,” reports
Päivi Hietanen
, the programme’s Pro-
ject Manager in the Design Capital organ-
isation. “It gave us a really broad insight
into the whole field of design.”
Adds
Ira Westergård
, the senior advisor representing the Cultural Founda-
tion: “Design is very attuned to the times at
the moment, and one element of Helsinki’s
international profiling.”
The programme also convinced the out-
side auditors: according to a study carried
out by Deloitte of the impact of the Design
Capital year, Designed Solutions ranked as
one of the year’s successes.
Prizes, pilots and prototypes
The Designed Solutions programme
launched in spring 2012 officially ended
with a closing seminar in March 2013. All
the projects involved have, however, lived
on in some way or another.
The “Path of Joy” design for a nursing-
home courtyard won first prize in the In-
ternational Design for All Foundation com-
petition for barrier-free design, and the
town of Riihimäki is now seeking funds
to put it into practice.
A comprehensive project for the reorganisation of school meals in the City of
Vantaa resulted in many concrete changes
and shifts in attitude at the Martinlaakso
pilot school. The process was also docu-
mented in a manual so it could be applied
at any school.
The interior of a patrol van was com-
pletely revamped in a design project com-
Design as a facilitator
of change
The Designed Solutions programme run jointly by the Finnish Cultural Foundation
and World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 was an opportunity to gain practical
experience of design and its potential in the public and third sectors.
missioned by the National Police Board,
and the resulting prototype based on the
designs is in pilot use for the whole of
2014. The community workspace developed
in the LOFT Helsinki project will also reach
the pilot stage in early 2014 though not, as
planned, in empty premises owned by the
City of Helsinki but at the Finnish Broad-
casting Company (Yle) studios at Pasila.
The pilot will be carried out as part of a
broader Yle development project aiming
to gradually open up the studio premises
to outside media. The original target group
has not, however, been forgotten, for facil-
ities will also be offered to start-up entre-
preneurs in other fields.
The Satakunta “Forgotten Places” pro-
ject forged links between children, young
people, artists and other stakeholders. The
participant joint development approach
has also been exploited in the province of
Satakunta since the project ended.
“Some of the projects have brought fur-
ther design commissions from clients. This
proves that people have felt the working
methods tested in the pilot projects have
been worthwhile,” says Project Manager
Päivi Hietanen.
Managing change and being quick
off the mark
So all in all, what was learnt from the De-
signed Solutions applications? The strong
user orientation was, for many clients,
new, as were the holistic nature of de-
sign and the change-management atti-
tude. On the other hand, the design sec-
tor does need to be familiar with the way
the public administration makes its deci-
sions if it is to help its public sector clients
put the projects into practice.
The designers gained experience of get-
ting target groups involved in planning
and design, and in many cases they noted
greater commitment in users.
From the Cultural Foundation’s per-
spective, the project was successful: the
goals on such scores as project execution,
reporting and duplicability were achieved,
even though a slight risk had been taken in
choosing the projects. IraWestergård reck-
oned that one reason for the success was
that the Design Capital year was a reliable
and capable partner. The Cultural Founda-
tion will undoubtedly be seeking partners
of this type in the future, too.
The whole project was compressed into
just under a year, and the tight schedule
“This programme served as a practical demonstration of just how
important design can be for the whole of Finnish society. Some of the
models it produced will be implemented in, among others, the public
sector. This was definitely one of the most important programmes of
the World Design Capital year.”
–Pekka Timonen, Director of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project
