Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2011 | Page 20

Photo: City of Helsinki / Munshi Ahmed

Today, design is still a strong force in
society, but many of its manifestations –
such as Nokia’s mobile phones – could not
have been even imagined 50 years ago. In
Helsinki alone, design offers employment to
10,000 people and there are ten times that
number of people working in industries
which are intimately linked with design in
one way or another.
Promoting the creative industries has
been a strong focus point for the city of Helsinki for some time now, says City Business
Director Eero Holstila.
“I believe that the most enduring value
of the WDC 2012 designation is that Finnish
companies utilise design even more.” Holstila sees a lot of potential in, for instance,
renewing public sector services through innovative service design. He believes that the
rich tradition offers a good platform to keep
pushing forward:
“In Finland, good design is recognised
and appreciated. Now it’s up to us to take
the next step, get away from the traditional
definition of design and move onwards to
new design solutions.”

Rebirth of Helsinki
Deputy Mayor Hannu Pen