LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS PAST YEAR

HEL/LO – Let’s Talk hosted Helsinki and London speakers throughout 2012 at four design and architecture discussions, and showed that speaking really is gold. To celebrate the rich life of the HEL/LO series, we have gathered some of the highlights from the months gone by:

//APRIL

In April, we said “HELLO HELSINKI, HELLO LONDON!” and launched our website, while our partner Blueprint magazine offers a teaser preview in their May issue. 

Designers Emmi Salonen and Chrissie Macdonald sent us the preliminary plans for the customised HEL/LO stage. We instantly love the ideas – and the eye candy.

//MAY

"The conversation was bubbling away and, like so many conversations that occur at that ungodly hour, the topics covered meandered from architecture, to design, to film, to family, to the price of houses, to the price of beer, to who will buy the next drink, back to architecture, to art, to whether we should all go home…"

– Owen Pritchard, the series’ co-curator, shares memories from how HEL/LO was born in Helsinki.

Photo by Aleksi Niemelä.

The HEL/LO series launched on a beautiful May evening in the steaming hot Gopher Hole basement in Shoreditch, London. HEL/LO – Let’s Talk About Dreams demonstrated that it can be important to think the impossible in order to start something new – and to actively share your dreams with the people around you.

"HEL/LO is a great example of a proactive Helsinki that greets the world with a new sense of self-confidence."

After the first HEL/LO talk, one of the Finnish newspapers Hufvudstadsbladet commented on our event.

//JUNE

While London prepared for the biggest sporting event of the year, we launched the theme for our second HEL/LO talk – games – and asked Martti Kalliala to elaborate on the relationship of games and cities:

Photo: Katja Hagelstam-Tanttu

“Games and the processes that constitute the building and existence of a city are not only analogous but in fact share similar structures and organizing principles.” 

In preparation of the second talk, we were treated to a glimpse behind the scenes of the HEL/LO designers.  We were absolutely thrilled to learn that the interview meant we would also capture what might be London’s most colourful workspace. 


//JULY

Photo by Aleksi Niemelä

Our second discussion HEL/LO – Let’s Talk About Games, held at the fantastic new arts venue White Building in Hackney Wick, discussed the relationship between cities, public space and games. It touched on the politics and economics of design, while discussing what it means to be serious about being silly... 

Photo by Aleksi Niemelä

//AUGUST

In August, we released the details for the last two HEL/LO talks, the first of which is to travel to Helsinki during Helsinki Design Week in September. The Finnish magazine Gloria greets our Helsinki event with open arms and calls our choice of theme and venue “a perfect mix”. Our HEL/LO 3 venue, the Pavilion, also attracted the attention of the British press. 

//SEPTEMBER

With two talks at two major design events in Helsinki and London, HEL/LO – Let's Talk really did have an exciting September. 

Photo by Veikko Kähkönen

HEL/LO – Let’s Talk About Alternatives brought the discussion to Helsinki 12 September, during Helsinki Design Week. We talked about alternative ways of thinking and doing in design, and drank hot autumn toddies.

A week later our designers set up the custom-made HEL/LO stage for the last time at designjunction, one of London Design Festival’s main venues. The fourth and final discussion HEL/LO – Let’s Talk About Tomorrow turned out to be a feisty exchange of ideas. 

Blueprint magazine’s editor Johnny Tucker, who moderated the talk, sums up the night aptly:

Photo by Aleksi Niemelä

“Tuomas Toivonen burst into song and Rachel Armstrong treated us to a discussion of a metaphysical chicken. And that was just for starters – the discussion that followed and was forthright and extremely entertaining. Who would have predicted that the two Finnish panel members would eventually plump for a vision of the future as envisaged by Nicole Kidman!”

The HEL/LO team wishes to thank all speakers who took part in the HEL/LO –Let’s Talk series: Alex Warnock-Smith, Andreas Lang, Annamari Vänskä, Asif Khan, Chee-Kit Lai, Dick Powell, Hella Hernberg, Je Ahn, Krista Kosonen, Maria Smith, Martti Kalliala, Max Dewdney, Olli Sirén, Rachel Armstrong, Sean Griffiths, Timo Salli, Tomas Träskman, Torange Khonsari, Tuomas Toivonen.

HEL/LO 3 VIDEO: "WE NEED TO START THINKING IN A NEW WAY"

HEL/LO – Let's Talk About Alternatives from The Finnish Institute in London on Vimeo.

What does it mean to be alternative in design and architecture? Why are margins important?  Do we need alternative methods of producing alternatives? HEL/LO – Let's Talk About Alternatives took place at the Pavilion in Helsinki 12 September, and focused on alternative ways in design and architecture. The speakers talked about their personal relationship to the theme, and shared their views on what constitutes alternativeness in their particular fields.

The speakers at the third HEL/LO event included Alex Warnock-Smith, Annamari Vänskä, Krista Kosonen and Sean Griffiths. Get to know them better here. The talk was chaired by Beatrice Galilee.

Video by Kirmo Kivelä.

HEL/LO 3 IN PICTURES

HEL/LO – Let's Talk About Alternatives pictures by Veikko Kähkönen.

SPEAKING OF ALTERNATIVES

The Pavilion in Helsinki is getting ready to host HEL/LO – Let's Talk About Alternatives this evening. You, on the other hand, can prepare  by getting to know tonight's Finnish and British speakers.

SEAN GRIFFITHS 
Sean Griffiths is a director and co-founder of FAT. He has extensive project experience across numerous sectors including housing, education, leisure, arts, transport and master planning. Sean is leading FAT's team on CIAC, a 80 unit residential scheme forming the first phase of Riverside One in Middlesbrough which is the UK's largest zero carbon development. He previously worked on the delivery of the St Lucas Art Academy in the Netherlands and the Blue House in East London. Sean is highly respected amongst his peers and is a prolific contributor to architectural debate through lectures, symposia and papers. Sean is also active in academia, and along with his fellow directors, is the Louis I Kahn Visiting Professor of Architecture at Yale University.

KRISTA KOSONEN

Krista Kosonen is a Finnish designer-researcher based in Helsinki. She graduated as Master of Arts from Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 2005, and has since worked in the fields of furniture and visual design, exhibitions and design research.  Krista is currently working on her doctoral thesis, which focuses on enjoying uncertainty in the creative process and the discovery of personal voice in design. Krista is co-founder of the Finnish collective Imu design, which has promoted young design talents by organising exhibitions since 2002. In 2012, Imu design has curated and created the concept for the WDC International Design House Exhibition - Everyday Discoveries, as well as co-organised the annual Protoshop event at Habitare Ahead. 

ANNAMARI VÄNSKÄ
Annamari Vänskä recently curated the interdisciplinary exhibition Boutique - Where Art Meets Fashion at the Amos Anderson Museum in Helsinki (2012). Boutique is a wide-ranging multi-art form exhibition that fuses fashion with art. Reminiscent of a department store of art with departments on different levels, Boutique is a total work of art with music and dance amply represented. Boutique has been created in the spirit of collaboration and community: it consists of five teams – each consisting of an artist and a designer – who have created joint works of art. The exhibition is part of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 official program and the visual art program of the Helsinki Festival. Annamari's latest publications include a book on children's representations in fashion advertising.

ALEX WARNOCK-SMITH
Alex Warnock-Smith is an architect, urbanist and academic. Alex has taught at several leading academic institutions around the world and has lectured internationally on issues of architecture and urbanism, social justice and current affairs. He is currently a Course Master at the Architectural Association Graduate School, and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton. Alex is co-founder of Urban Projects Bureau, a multi-disciplinary design and research practice engaged in a range of architectural, urban and research projects around the world. This year Alex also was part of a team that exhibited in the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, presenting a project that examined the role of the architect in the eyes of the public and the future of the architecture profession.

SHE FUSES ART WITH FASHION

Photo: Juliana Harkki

Where do art and fashion meet? Ask the question in Helsinki this autumn, and the answer will most definitely be Boutique. The recently opened interdisciplinary art exhibition has turned one of the most renowned museums in the Finnish capital – Amos Anderson Art Museum – into a temporary imaginative department store. The Finnish Institute in London talked to Annamari Vänskä, the mother of the exhibition and speaker at the upcoming HEL/LO 3 talk, about breaking the boundaries of art and fashion. 

Bodily norms, sustainability in fashion production, class in relation to clothing  – these are some of the themes covered by the works of art shown at Boutique. All works on display have been created by teams consisting of one designer and one artist, and the concept of collaboration has been important throughout the project, curator Annamari Vänskä points out.

– Each of these works is such that neither of the parties could have realised it alone. Boutique underlines communal spirit in making art, fashion and interesting exhibitions.

The artists and designers that have turned the Amos Anderson Art Museum into a multi-art fashion house have all been hand picked by Vänskä. With this exhibition, Vänskä, who is an expert on visual culture, wanted to explore the possibilities that arise when art and fashion are introduced to each other. 

–  Boutique has brought in audiences that have never visited the museum, and the show has been considered to be something that has never been done in art or fashion prior to this. I think Boutique breaks the boundaries of art and fashion in many ways. Or maybe rather, it brings them together in a way that is new and refreshing to both fields.

Vänskä is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Fashion Studies at the University of Stockholm in Sweden. Her recent publications include a book on children's representations in fashion advertising. For Vänskä, the visual culture is like a horn of plenty, with much pleasure and at the same time food for critical thinking and writing. 

– I’m fascinated by the surprise of the yet unknown when different fields come together. I think the exhibition shows the importance of cooperation – not only in art and fashion, but in life more generally.

Annamari Vänskä will take part in the HEL/LO – Let’s Talk About Alternatives discussion held 12 September at Paviljonki in Helsinki.

Jenni Tuovinen

HELLO SEPTEMBER

Photo: Aleksi Niemelä

The customised HEL/LO chairs are back from holidays, eager to seat Finnish and British architecture and design professionals this autumn. With two cities, two dates and two themes, the HEL/LO series offers double enjoyment this September. Join us in Helsinki or London for discussions on doing things one's own way, and of daring to think one step ahead.


HEL/LO – Let's Talk About Alternatives
Wednesday 12 September
6-9 pm at Paviljonki, Helsinki

HEL/LO – Let's Talk lands in Helsinki for its penultimate event and is inviting you to a discussion about alternatives in architecture, design and art. The speakers include London guests Sean Griffiths from architecture studio FAT and architect and urbanist Alex Warnock-Smith from Urban Projects Bureau along with the Helsinki guests curator, columnist and researcher Annamari Vänskä and designer-researcher Krista Kosonen of IMU Design. The talk is chaired by Beatrice Galilee, the chief curator for the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale.

Join us for an evening of lively conversation with some of the most creative minds from London and Helsinki, who have gained a reputation for doing things their own way.

Emmi Salonen (Studio EMMI) and Chrissie Macdonald (Peepshow Collective) will open the evening by giving an insight to their collaboration on the HEL/LO visuals and set design.

The Talk is followed by early autumn hot toddies. The event is free, but seats are limited.


HEL/LO – Let's Talk About Tomorrow
Wednesday 19 September
6-7.30 pm at designjunction, London

The fourth and final HEL/LO – Let's Talk event of 2012 will be held at designjunction as part of the preview night programme. For HEL/LO – Let's Talk About Tomorrow, Helsinki-based architect Tuomas Toivonen from NOW and designer and professor Timo Salli from Aalto University together with co-founder and design director Dick Powell from London-based design company Seymourpowell and sustainability innovator, senior TED fellow Rachel Armstrong will participate in a talk chaired by Blueprint editor Johnny Tucker.

The theme will cover the inspirations and opportunities they see in the near and distant future, and what they are doing to achieve their goals. In a year that has seen London host the Olympic Games and Helsinki attract the attention of the world as World Design Capital, HEL/LO will ask the speakers to share ideas about how we can move forward.

The talk is followed by the designjunction preview night programme, including a live auction. Drinks and refreshments will be served.

Seats are limited, please arrive early.

Welcome!
The HEL/LO Team

HEL/LO - HAPPY HOLIDAYS

HEL/LO 1 & HEL/LO 2 speakers.

The past two HEL/LO - Let’s Talk events in May and July brought together a brilliant

crowd for lively and insightful conversations. Both discussions are available in their entirety here. 

HEL/LO is now taking a break for holidays, but please save the date for the next two events coming up in September. HEL/LO 3 will travel to Finland during Helsinki Design Week. The event takes place 12 September 6-9 pm at the WDC Pavilion. The fourth and final HEL/LO discussion, HEL/LO 4, will be held during London Design Festival, 19 September at designjunction.

More information on these events will be released shortly.

The HEL/LO Team