Young designers at the Block

As said before when visiting design fairs I am particularly interested in young designer area’s, and at Habitare they were presented at ‘The Block’ where next to the prototype shop with the ideas of 14 young Finnish and Finland-based designers, six designers and designer groups got the opportunity to showcase their work. Read more about the prototype shop here

Northern countries seem to be much more proud on their design heritage and new designers, invited by Habitare we had a full program and I thought our guides were really informative leading us along the different design, not only at the fair itself, but also in town in different galleries, fashion and concept stores and even at some of the restaurants we went, I recognized the work of different designers seen at the Block.

Invited by Habitare me and 4 other bloggers, in case you didn’t read about them in my previous post Agatha, Elisabetta, Riikka and Stefan, were asked to choose our favourite design and had a small talk about it on a mini stage together with other Finnish bloggers, great to finally meet Maja of Musta Ovi! FYI I choose the Botanic shelf. I thought the Block was one of the most interesting area’s at the fair, here are some of my favourites, first the bar stool above.

Finding a manufacturer is not easy for designers and it was this idea that made Finnish Design Shop, an online store decide to launch the FDS Award, by bringing the winner of the FDS into production they like to help young designers get their design on the shelves. Winner of the first FDS award was the design duo Wesley Walters and Salla Luhtasela, and their bar stool has been brought to market by Nikari, known for its high-quality wooden furniture. Available in oak and black stained oak via Finnish Design Shop

  
Turnaround Cloth rack and mirror
Turnaround cloth rack is designed especially for small spaces. By turning 180° you can place it behind a door, tiny hallway wall or multiply the space with having more of racks pushed against the wall and open them when ever needed. The turnaround mirror works almost the same, a perfect combo for your hallway or bedroom wall. More info on Turnaroundrack 

Ceramic tiles by Laura ItkonenBeautiful handmade ceramic tiles by Laura Itkonen which can be combined with square tiles, there is another unusual shape that is really gorgeous as well, more info on laura’s website Laura Itkonen

Hapero coat hooks

The shape of these coat hooks comes from the mushroom called Hapero (Russula), which are also known for their beautiful color palette. Hapero, designed by Maija Puoskari comes in six different sizes. They can be used singly or grouped to make a wall composition like done at the fair in combination with different kokodame plants. Also inspired by nature is Terho, pictured below, a series of lamps designed for Mater.

Piippu
Loved this single flower vase in glass by Marjukka Takala 

pictures 1/2 Riika Kantikoski | 3/5 Katri Kapanen | 6/7/9 Vosgesparis | 8 Maija Puoskari 

These pictures were made during design week Helsinki and Habitare 2016, Finland’s leading event for furniture and interior decoration and design, find all my posts about Helsinki under ‘habitare’ and have a look at this Habitare Pinterest album