Rivals by design: Helsinki vs. Eindhoven

World Design Capital 2012 to be decided on Wednesday

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By Rob Schoonen in Eindhoven and Hannu Pöppönen in Helsinki
     
      In August, two representatives of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) paid a visit to the Finnish capital in order to discuss the city’s prospects for becoming World Design Capital (WDC) in 2012.
      The City of Helsinki is now facing the Dutch city of Eindhoven in the race for the title of World Design Capital 2012.
     
The official announcement of the World Design Capital 2012 designated city will occur during the ICSID World Design Congress in Singapore on Wednesday November 25th.
     
Art Editor Rob Schoonen from the Dutch daily newspaper Eindhovens Dagblad and Design Editor Hannu Pöppönen from Helsingin Sanomat have both written a column, arguing why particularly their home city should be the correct choice for WDC 2012.
      The columns were published last Saturday both in Helsingin Sanomat and in Eindhovens Dagblad.
     

Why it must be Eindhoven
     
     
Rob Schoonen charges that there is no doubt about Eindhoven becoming designated for the WDC 2012. The city is overflowing with design, and basically, weel, he thinks it should be a no-brainer.
      Eindhoven is not applying for the title alone. If Eindhoven is granted the title, it will also cooperate with Amsterdam and Rotterdam, while the province of North Brabant and the government of the Netherlands are to contribute to the project.
      In other words, the World Design Capital 2012 would be the entire Netherlands.
     
The theme for Eindhoven’s jubilee year is ”Creating a Caring Society”.
      It is perfectly in line with the vision of the WDC project, stating that design is an increasingly fundamental tool in all levels of public and private development.
      It is also significant that thanks to Philips or TNO (the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Reseach), in Eindhoven design has grown into a very wide and creative industry, engaging a large number of companies.
     
The significant national institutions should also be mentioned, including Design Academy Eindhoven, the Industrial Design faculty of the Technical University Eindhoven, the renowned Van Abbe Museum, Designhuis, the top design studio Philips Design, and naturally the annual Dutch Design Week.
     
     
SCHOONEN'S COMMENTS ON HELSINKI:
     
      1. Eindhoven’s rival candidate Helsinki is the capital of Finland, with universities and civil service departments. The number of population is three times higher than that in Eindhoven.
      2. Design runs in the Finns’ blood. In any home you will find high-class furniture and objects. Helsinki has galleries, design shops, and antiquarian book shops all over the city. And many people seem to regard it as the most natural thing in the world.
      3. In its bidbook, Eindhoven presents an almost impossible budget of EUR 136 million, whereas Helsinki’s budget for 2012 is EUR 15 million. The city has earmarked for the project a total of EUR 6 million, which the City Council has accepted nearly unanimously. While Eindhoven wants to act jointly with Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Helsinki plans to cooperate with Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and London... Different cities, different partners.
      4. While we are proudly presenting the development of Strijp S The Creative City (and other areas), Finns have converted their former dockyards and old industrial areas in the Greater Helsinki fringe zone into creative centres. And the number of these areas is much much greater...
     
     
Why it has to be Helsinki
     
     
Hannu Pöppönen argues that design has long been part of the Finnish heritage.
      Nearly every home has furniture or objects designed by Alvar Aalto - or at least classic tableware designed by Kaj Franck as well as Marimekko’s printed fabrics and clothes.
     
The international reputation of Finnish design was long based on those classics. However, in addition to traditional design enterprises there are many newer and smaller businesses, groups, and cooperatives, as well as individual designers who are all first-rate designers.
      There are many contemporary designers in Finland who have managed to make an international break-through.
      Generally speaking, the standard is high, but the Finnish design teaching will develop further when the merger of the University of Art and Design, the Helsinki School of Economics, and the Helsinki University of Technology - into the new Aalto University - is launched next year.
     
Internationally speaking, the World Design Capital 2012 designation is a title that would help Helsinki or the entire country to reach the level that it today deserves even in the field of design.
      The Helsinki WDC 2012 project is not just about beautiful objects and surfaces and various design events, but the aim is to make the city more enjoyable for its residents and a better place to live in, down to the infrastructure.
     
In the coming years, Helsinki will need good architects, designers, as a number of former industrial areas will be released for residential use. In Helsinki, design is already a part of the city’s development strategies, but the status of WDC could give the projects a necessary boost.
     
     
PÖPPÖNEN'S COMMENTS ON EINDHOVEN:
     
      1. Trend analyst Li Edelkoort has been a great asset to Eindhoven, first as the chair of the Design Academy and since the beginning of 2009, as the art director of Designhuis, a place worth seeing. At its exhibitions design is approached from non-commercial angles, while defining the significance and trends of design far into the future.
      2. Eindhoven has a number of very good-quality schools. In addition to Design Academy Eindhoven, there is the Technical University Eindhoven, where for example students of industrial design collaborate with companies resulting in new feasible solutions to make life easier in the future.
      3. Dutch design creates constantly new interesting ideas and products. It is important that the rest of the world will also know about them. Many designers have studied in Eindhoven.
      4. Eindhoven has good transport connections with the big cities of central Europe.
     
     
May the best town win!
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 21.11.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  City of Helsinki wants to become World Design Capital 2012 (25.8.2009)
  Aalto University praised by Silicon Valley innovation expert (7.4.2009)

Links:
  World Design Capital Project

HANNU PÖPPÖNEN / Helsingin Sanomat
hannu.popponen@hs.fi