Pop Up Hub Helsinki - London Design in Helsinki

Image: Tuuli Sotama

The Pop Up Hub Helsinki is a place where design meets social responsibility. For five consecutive days during the Helsinki Design Week the temporary pop up space will serve as an office, meeting place and a platform for public innovation in Helsinki's central Market Quaters.

The Pop Up Hub Helsinki is based on the idea of the famous global Hub community; a network of spaces for inspiration and social innovation. The Hubs operate as social enterprises, and they now spread across four continents and 12 cities offering tools, contacts and a platform for people who want to solve global problems. The Hub concept is a cross between a private members club and an office hotel, bringing together people from small and medium sized businesses, NGO's, funding organisations and civil service.

Yatta designers and a special team from Aalto University will join forces with Londoners to create the pop up version of The Hub. The group will be camping in the dedicated space throughout the week. The doors are also open to the public to come and share their thoughts and ideas about creating an ideal urban space.

On Friday September 11th top design guests from London will join the team for a special launch event. Guests include Nathan Waterhouse and Anton Schubert from IDEO, a global design agency specialising in social impact and responsible design and London based Finnish artist/designer Riitta Ikonen, whose current projects include ‘If You Could Collaborate...' "IDEO's core principle is to have positive impact in the world. Our user centred approach, unearths insights that inspire our multi-disciplinary teams to design better solutions. This collaboration with Helsinki Design Week is an exciting opportunity for us as it aligns perfectly with this core principle and our design methodology", explains Anton Schubert from IDEO.

The event launches a large series of Finnish design events to be organised by the Finnish Institute in London in 2010. "We are proud to be part of building new connections between two world class design cities. The invited London guests will bring with them fresh thoughts on collaborative design processes; boldly examining the borders of what design is", says Hanna Harris, the Finnish Institute's Programme Director for Arts & Culture.

Workshop Mon-Fri 7.-11.9. daily 11.00-17.00 Launch Event and Seminar Fri 11.9. 17.00-21.00 at Pop Up Hub Helsinki, Torikorttelit, Aleksanterinkatu 16-18, Helsinki

http://www.ideo.com/
http://www.ifyoucould.co.uk/collaborate
http://www.riittaikonen.com/
http://the-hub.net/