365 Days of Wellbeing – 365 Wellbeing

The Aalto University project 365 Wellbeing is part of the World Design Capital 2012 programme. 365 Wellbeing is one of Aalto University's spearhead projects related to the design capital year.

365 Wellbeing will highlight new work methods in design, such as service design and the opportunities it provides for municipal decision-makers, the general public and students. The project will build better wellbeing services and better health care in addition to finding ways of encouraging people to adopt healthier lifestyles and planning pleasant and healthy environments.

The 365 Wellbeing project will shape wellbeing in 12 projects that will be implemented in multicultural groups spanning different scientific fields. The groups will see Master-level students, researchers and experts from Aalto University’s Department of Design working together with the cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Lahti. Also involved will be a large group of collaborating bodies, including the Institute of Design at Lahti University of Applied Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology and the National Institute for Health and Welfare.

Students address real life cases

The 12 projects of 365 Wellbeing are actual services or processes in the cities involved, and they include planning the Villa Breda service home for the elderly in Kauniainen to include cultural services, development of the treatment environments and practices in psychiatric care units located in Helsinki, a project to promote electronic transactions in health care, and a project aimed at creating smoke-free public environments.

Each project has a team of approximately 15 students and a dynamic duo of design, in other words, 2 postgraduate doctoral students.  Blogs provide a way for people to keep up with and comment on the projects. These blogs will open later on the Aalto University website.

365 Wellbeing is doing its part to renew design practices in the Design Capital

Among other things, the project will focus on applying aspects of service design and critical design. The project aims at presenting design as a socially proactive and responsible activity.

The project teams will work in a cross-disciplinary manner and approach problems from many different design angles. 365 Wellbeing will challenge international design teams and serve as a platform for utilising various design concepts.

The project work and results will be presented to the public in open workshops, while dialogue between wellbeing and design will be carried out in online forums, in the public eye and in academic journals.

Design Capital highlights the opportunities of design

The Design Capital year offers experiences and encounters with design in Finland and internationally. The goal is to present ways of using design to develop our environment and create opportunities for new business and innovations. This is how we can make our city a better place to live.

The Design Capital year comprises more than 200 independent projects, open public events and meetings with international design professionals.