Our picks for Habitare and Helsinki Design Week 2026
The Minestrone Workshop from Helsinki is behind Habitare’s 2026 Theme Exhibition. Photo: Justus Hirvi.
Habitare 2026
Habitare’s theme for 2026 is aptly Plot Twists, and the fair’s program feels more compelling than it has in years. Several timely names are giving keynote talks, including design studio All The Way To Paris, which has designed pieces for &Tradition, among others, and Kallesø Architects, aka Pil and Martin Kallesø, whose charming home in Denmark we got to peek into earlier this year. The Kallesøs will talk about restoring a home and blending different eras, along with what Aino and Alvar Aalto mean to them.
All The Way To Paris is graphic designers Tanja Vibe and Petra Gendt.
Pil and Martin Kallesø founded architecture firm Kallesø Architects in 2009, with a focus on homes.
Also taking the stage are Petrus Palmér, founder of the Swedish brand Hem, and Serbian-born designer Ana Kraš, whom some may recognize from her Bonbon lamps for HAY. A number of prominent Finnish interior design professionals will speak too. We can’t wait to hear these talks.
Habitare’s popular Neighbours themed exhibition gets a new interpretation this year courtesy of Oulu-based office Arkkitehti Takkunen. The exhibition promises to bring together contemporary design and materials with themes of living, interiors, and construction. Neighbours has long been one of Habitare’s most compelling features, a place to spot emerging trends and possibilities in how we live. Now we’ll see how this well-known architecture firm takes on those themes.
Waltter Mahlberg's wood sculptures can be seen in the Talents exhibition. Photo: Henri Vogt
Beyond the brand pavilions, this year it’s well worth checking out The Block, the fair’s new design area, home to the Habitare Talents and Habitare Protos exhibitions.
The fair’s Themed Exhibition, meanwhile, comes courtesy of the Helsinki-based collective Minestrone Workshop. “We wanted to bring a space to the fair that shows design before it’s finished. We’re interested in process, experimentation, and the unresolved, the stage where ideas are still moving and can still change,” the designers explain.
Habitare, September 2 to 6, 2026, Helsinki Messukeskus
Helsinki Design Week’s visual identity was designed by graphic designer Milja Liedes.
Helsinki Design Week
Helsinki Design Week’s theme for 2026 is The Oncoming Other, an invitation to encounters and shared city space. There’s no single main venue this year; instead, installations, exhibitions, and gathering spots are scattered across the city.
Returning favorites include Design Market (already happening the last weekend of August), PechaKucha, and Design Diplomacy hosted across several embassies, plus plenty more. Here are a few highlights from an extensive program.
Helsinki Design Week, August 28 to September 6, 2026, multiple locations
Matti Suuronen’s Futuro stood on the Finnish countryside in 1977. Archive photo: Veikko Tabell / Keitele Municipal Library.
Marimekko and Futuro
Matti Suuronen’s Futuro house, designed in 1968, touches down in the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden for the duration of Helsinki Design Week, in collaboration with Marimekko.
It’s worth noting that this is a brand new plastic house, built from the original molds, the 21st Futuro ever made in Finland. Led by American architectural heritage expert Jan van Dijs, the project brings one of Finland’s most iconic visionary buildings back into the spotlight. The installation celebrates Suuronen’s legacy and invites us to consider how the building might meet today’s needs, challenges, and hopes.
Inside, the Futuro comes alive through Marimekko’s lens, as the beloved brand brings its own take on contemporary living and design to the space. The interiors feature patterns created for Marimekko by Danish textile artist Vibeke Rohland.
August 28 to September 6, 2026, Kaisaniemenranta 2, registration required
Iittala brings the Aalto 90 pavilion to downtown Helsinki. Photo: Iittala
Arno Rafael Minkkinen’s photographic work Savoy Flower. Photo: Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Aalto 90 pavilion
To mark the 90th anniversary of the iconic Aalto vase, Iittala and Hydro are bringing the Aalto 90 pavilion close to the Market Square. First seen this spring at 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen, the pavilion’s shape naturally draws on the recognizable silhouette of Alvar Aalto’s famous vase, scaled up to a monumental size.
Designed by Lars Beller Fjetland in collaboration with TABLEAU CPH, the pavilion is built from Hydro’s low-carbon aluminum. During Helsinki Design Week, it becomes an exhibition space for photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen. The show is part of The Spirit of Aalto series, in which Iittala invites contemporary artists to interpret the legacy of the celebrated vase through their own artistic practice.
August 28 to September 6, 2026, Lyypekinlaituri, Eteläranta, registration required
Re-Think Re-Form can be found at Primo Kitchen in the Lapinlahti area.
Ossi Karvonen’s sculpture Halftoned. Photo: Henri Vogt
Re-Think Re-Form
On show at Lapinlahti’s historic hospital grounds, Re-Think Re-Form looks at contemporary design, craft, and material-driven artistic practice from new angles.
This year’s theme is We, the second exhibition under the Re-Think Re-Form concept, which examines contemporary design, craft, and material-driven artistic work from fresh perspectives. The concept is built on exhibition-specific curation, where a chosen theme runs through every piece and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Each work is seen in relation to the others and to the space around it.
The exhibition takes place at gallery-café Primo Kitchen, curated by Piia Jalkanen, Anna Pirkola, Anniina Dunder-Berg, Päivi Keski-Pomppu, and Susan Elo. Around 20 artists are featured.
August 29 to September 4, 2026, Lapinlahdenpolku 8 D, free admission
Artek’s first store on Fabianinkatu in Helsinki, 1936. Photo: Artek
Artek 2nd Cycle: The Making of Modern Living
The Making of Modern Living exhibition at the Artek 2nd Cycle store takes visitors back to the atmosphere of Artek’s very first shop, opened on Helsinki’s Fabianinkatu in 1936. Artek’s store was never just a place to buy furniture, but it was also a cultural space that showcased the ideals of Alvar and Aino Aalto, Maire Gullichsen and Nils-Gustav Hahl: merging art and technology while advancing a modern culture of living.
August 25 to September 4, 2026, Pieni Roobertinkatu 4 to 6, free admission
SäläSalonki can be found in the former staff restaurant at Hanasaari power plant. Photo: SäläSalonki
SäläSalonki exhibition
Showing over the last weekend of August, the SäläSalonki exhibition brings together the worlds of design publication Sälä and Salonki gallery, doubling as the launch event for Sälä’s third issue. Together, they build a three-dimensional story staged inside the Hanasaari power plant.
The third issue’s theme, Nourishment, expands into a spatial experience within the exhibition. Through contemporary design, the theme reflects on the concrete and abstract ways we nourish the mind, body, and environment. The magazine’s content is brought physically into the space too, as pieces by designers in the magazine sit alongside works curated by Salonki.
True to the Salonki concept, the ever-changing exhibition venue adds its own layer to the experience. This time, the setting is Hanasaari power plant, a site on what was once a closed-off industrial area. The magazine brings the theme, and the space forms the second foundation of the curation, shaping how the content is structured, in what order it’s encountered, and how its relationships take shape. The space sets the rhythm of the experience, frames the views, and guides interpretation.
August 27 to 30, 2026, Parrukatu 1 to 3, Hanasaari, free admission
Works by Japanese SOMETARO are on display at the Helsinki Playground showroom.
SOMETARO Exhibition and Pop-Up Shop
SOMETARO is an up-and-coming artist from Tokyo, Japan. Using traditional Japanese printing techniques, he presents contemporary imagery and products through his bold, playful style.
The exhibition at Helsinki Playground showroom will feature over 50 handmade textiles and tatami homeware goods, including special pieces referencing traditional Finnish countryside iconography. All items are for sale.
The artist will travel from Tokyo to Helsinki for the occasion. This is his first show and product launch outside of Japan making it quite special.
September 3 to 5, 2026, Saariniemenkatu 1, free admission
Schedule changes possible.
Published on 25 Aug, 2026
