WDC Helsinki Open Doors Weekend: Saturday 4 February

Five cities. Three days. 180 events. Here are 8 tips for the WDC Helsinki Open Doors Weekend on Saturday.

Wonderwater Frozen Lights – Ice lanterns are lit (Helsinki)

On Saturday, the Finnish ice lantern tradition gets redesigned on the Senate Square. At the same time, discussion is raised about people's daily water consumption and the significance of the water foot print on the entire globe. The lanterns will be lit no later than 4:30 pm. A jury chaired by Vuokko Nurmesniemi, Designer, will award the best lanterns between 5 pm and 6 pm. The event will begin at 9 am. Welcome.

Design District Helsinki + Restaurant Day

One of the central WDC Helsinki Open Doors Weekend locations is Design District Helsinki. In the area consisting of over 200 shops, galleries, museums, and restaurants, one can admire display window performances, watch the production process of jewels or picture frames, learn to be a sushi champion, or take part in an audition for an art project.

Enjoy also the excellent offerings of the Restaurant Day, organised in connection with the Open Doors Weekend.  The Restaurant Day is also organised in Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen, and Lahti.

Invisible City  (Helsinki)

Open knowledge, visual design, and a new kind of city culture meet at the Invisible City event in Culture Factory Korjaamo. The programme includes, for example interdisciplinary workshops, top level seminars, the Cut & Paste competition, and partying. The event will start at 2 pm and continue until the following day.

Tackle the winter – design rousette skating at the Icepark (Helsinki)

Weather allowing, Saturday is a great day for rousette skating. In the Icepark next to the Helsinki railway station, you can participate in rousette skating, wearing a self-made rousette, starting at 6 pm. There are materials available at the Icepark for making the rousettes.

Aalto Design Factory (Espoo)

A free, guided tour of everyone interested in the Aalto University Design Factory operation in Otaniemi at Betonimiehenkuja 5, Espoo. Tours on Saturday at 1 pm and 3 pm.

Let’s make a better Hakunila (Vantaa)

Come and look for the essence of Vantaa with the help of service design, walk and talk meetings, or social media in the Hakunila youth centre at Laukkarinne 4. The project HakuVerkko behind the event develops the residents' opportunities to participate and influence.  The event will be organised on Saturday 10 am - 3 pm.

Design is near – the door is open (Kauniainen)

Award-winning Fashion Designer Mai Niemi will introduce her Finnish Fairytale concept in her own studio in Eteläinen Heikelintie 12 K 20 from 10 am to 4 pm.

Our Aleksi (Lahti)

How to improve the pedestrian street and market square area in the centre of Lahti will be ideated at the Our Aleksi event in the Piano pavilion (Borupinraitti 6) on Saturday from 2 pm to 5 pm. Our Aleksi challenges the Lahti residents and entrepreneurs of the Lahti centre area to ideate about the market square surroundings. The purpose is to create a vigorous environment which takes into account different types of use. At the same time, the aim is to create a model with which different urban development projects can be implemented by user centric methods.