Habitare, Finland’s leading furniture, interior decoration and design event, explored new trends in the trade
For five days, Habitare provided interior design inspiration and explored new products and phenomena. Habitare will next be held at Messukeskus in Helsinki from 13 to 17 September 2023.
According to preliminary data, a total of 34,500 visitors, including both trade professionals and the general public, attended the event. Habitare was held at Messukeskus in Helsinki from 7 to 11 September 2022.
Habitare chosen as the most interesting phenomenon
Joseph Grima, the British architect, curator, researcher and journalist, and the 2022 International Friend of Habitare, chose his favourites from the fair offering. Grima chose, for example, his most favourite stand, product and material at Habitare.
Grima chose Habitare as the most interesting phenomenon.
“I would like to highlight Habitare as a phenomenon and, at the same time, offer an outsider’s perspective on the event. I think it is especially great that it is not only trade professionals, but also everyone interested in interior decoration and design who is welcome to Habitare. This is, in my opinion, Habitare’s greatest strength: many international events lack the atmosphere that Habitare has. International design events are often huge, which means visitors have absolutely no way of exploring the whole offering. Habitare is accessible and approachable, making it easy to get to know the people behind the products and designs. It is rare that one event can bring together companies, end-users and designers. We need more events like Habitare around the world!” said Grima, describing his choices.
Read more about Joseph Grima’s choices here.
Habitare’s theme, Reimagine, invited open-minded reflection on what our homes and lives could be like in the future. This year, Habitare featured several exhibitions that enabled visitors to explore, for example, young design talents, award-winning designers, trends, and social phenomena. Habi Kids, the Habitare area for children and families, which was realised together with the Moomin Museum, offered adventures with the Moomins.
Young and upcoming designers presented at Habitare
The winner of the Habitare Design Competition, organised by Habitare in cooperation with Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, was Finnish industrial design student Kaisa Minkkinen with her work Origo. The Origo floor-dining furniture set includes a table and futon seat cushions. It creates a relaxed, intimate setting for friends or family to get together and share food – and good moments. There is a recess at the centre – or origin (origo in Finnish) – of the circular table, in which you can fit a serving bowl that everyone sitting at the table can reach. The competition’s theme this year was “bread and water”, and the competition sought designs for pieces of furniture and objects that are essential for us to enjoy good food and company.
Young and promising designers and their products and prototypes were presented in Habitare’s The Block. The area featured the Talentshop presenting the most interesting and up-coming designers, the Protoshop presenting new product ideas, curated by Imu Design. This year’s designers at Talentshop are product designer Ekin Kayis, Mari Koppanen who works with different materials, carpenter and designer Ville Aakula and textile designer Zuzana Zmatekova.
More information about Talentshop designers here. More information about Protoshop designers’ works: 2020 and 2021.
People visited Habitare to learn about new products and to get information for making purchases
Things were busy at the Veke, Finnish furniture company’s stand in the Folk area during what was the company’s debut showing at Habitare.
“The idea was to bring a mini shop to Habitare, in order to showcase complete interiors, to offer inspiration, and to sell furniture and small decorative products, which actually turned out to be big sellers. We also wanted to have a debut showing at Habitare of our new product lines, Taimi and Havu, which we manufacture ourselves from Finnish pine and which attracted a lot of interest from visitors. Another goal was to increase our recognition among fair visitors. At Habitare, we were able to tell visitors about ourselves and how, in addition to our popular online shop, we also serve our customers in our shops”, says the sales manager of Veke, Samuel Kuusela.
The goal of Woodio, a Finnish manufacturer of bathroom products made of wood-plastic composite, was to increase its recognition and to meet consumers and people in the industry.
“It was a pleasure to meet people who are interested in us. This has reinforced the feeling that there is a demand for and interest in our products, and that we are on the right track! We reached the right target group at the event: we engaged in fruitful discussions with many professionals visiting our stand and forged new opportunities for cooperation. We also had the opportunity to meet a number of consumers who had been tentatively interested in Woodio. A new material, while attracting a lot of interest, also raises questions, which we were able to address together with visitors”, says the chief sales officer of Woodio, Juha-Matti Luhtasaari.
Habitare will next be held at Messukeskus in Helsinki from 13 to 17 September 2023.
Images of the event are available from the Messukeskus media bank.
More information:
Habitare, communications manager Marissa Rämänen, marissa.ramanen@messukeskus.com, tel. +358 44 046 7220
Habitare
Habitare, the largest furniture, design and interior decoration event in Finland, will be held at Messukeskus in Helsinki, from 7 to 19 September 2022. Habitare offers experiences and ideas on interior decoration, and on the functioning and look of homes and other spaces. Habitare highlights the ideas and works by a new generation of designers, and sparks discussion. The International Friend of Habitare in 2022 is Joseph Grima. | www.habitare.fi | @HabitareFair | www.facebook.com/habitare | #habitare2022
