Design Partnership to Improve Life

World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 and INDEX: of Denmark have launched a partnership. In addition to Helsinki, the new alliance includes the cities of Copenhagen and Singapore.

INDEX: seeks to improve lives with design. The INDEX: Partner City Network works to fulfill this mission. “We very much admire the design development in these cities,” says Kigge Hvid, CEO of INDEX:, about the three new partner cities. “The collaboration will be of mutual benefit.”

Both World Design Capital (WDC) Helsinki 2012 and INDEX: see design as a way to find solutions to challenges. “Our partnership is a natural extension of our views of design,” says Pekka Timonen, Director of WDC Helsinki 2012. “We highly appreciate the efforts of INDEX:. WDC Helsinki 2012 will provide a good platform for sharing our views.”

The collaboration with INDEX: will extend to all five cities participating in the WDC Helsinki 2012 project. “The whole Helsinki metropolitan area is committed to design-led development as a source of wellbeing and competitiveness,” comments Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen. “The INDEX: Partner City Network is an excellent platform for sharing and learning from other cities and individuals.”

INDEX: Design to Improve Life

INDEX: is a non-profit organization seeking to promote and to apply design and design processes that have the capacity to improve people’s lives worldwide. The organization’s mission is Design to Improve Life. Design is a tool used to make the world a better and safer place to all people.

INDEX: emphasizes the multifaceted nature of design and seeks to demonstrate how design can be used to find solutions to diverse challenges ranging from curbing carbon dioxide emissions to lack of freshwater in many parts of the world. The organization’s main activities are large-scale public events, education and informative programmes, design labs, and communication.

The organization presents the world’s biggest design awards, the INDEX: Awards. These biennial awards, presented in five categories, total approximately €500,000. The next awards will be presented in September 2011. The 2009 award winners included a device used to monitor the heart beat of a fetus which operates without electricity and so can be used in remote areas, as well as a stove increasing the safety of cooking meant especially for developing countries.

INDEX: and WDC Helsinki 2012

Helsinki will host the INDEX: Award Exhibition in spring 2012. This will be an open-air exhibition in a central site of the city, displaying the 2011 INDEX: Award finalists. Through the solutions presented by the finalists, the exhibition demonstrates how design can substantially improve people’s lives. The previous INDEX: Award Exhibition has been seen by nine million people. The 2011 exhibition will be designed by American architect Greg Lynn.

During 2012, INDEX: will provide the WDC Helsinki cities with a Design to Improve Life educational programme, to be used in high schools to teach students creative design thinking. The participating schools will include some from all five WDC Helsinki 2012 cities.

WDC Helsinki 2012 will have an active role in the INDEX: Awards ceremony in Copenhagen in September 2011. Helsinki will have one seat in INDEX:’s International Investment Committee, which provides expertise to selected designs.

The partnership with INDEX: involves INDEX: Design Lab Helsinki, which will focus on challenges put forth by WDC Helsinki 2012 and discussed by leading experts. WDC Helsinki 2012 will also partner in the planning of the 2012 INDEX: Student Challenge programme. The INDEX: Award jury will be invited to Helsinki to be acquainted with local projects, organizations and individuals.

The partnership with INDEX: will give WDC Helsinki 2012 visibility in all INDEX: Awards Exhibition projects and various events organized by INDEX:.