INDEX: Design to Improve Life

The City of Helsinki has launched a partnership with the Danish organisation INDEX: to improve quality of life through design.

INDEX: is a non-profit organisation that seeks to promote and to apply design and design processes that have the capacity to improve people’s lives worldwide.  According to INDEX:, design is a tool used to make the world a better and safer place.

INDEX: emphasises 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 addressing the lack of fresh water.  The organisation’s main activities are large-scale public events, education, design labs, and communication.

In spring 2012, Helsinki will host the INDEX: Award Exhibition. This will be an open-air exhibition in a central site of the city, displaying the 2011 INDEX: Award finalists and their ideas of how design can substantially improve people’s lives. The previous INDEX: Award Exhibition from 2009 has been seen by nine million people. The 2011 exhibition in Helsinki will be designed by the American architect Greg Lynn.

During 2012, INDEX: will provide us with a Design to Improve Life educational programme, aimed towards teaching creative design thinking to high-school students. The initiative will include schools from all five WDC Helsinki 2012 cities.

We will also have an active role in the INDEX: Awards ceremony in Copenhagen in September 2011. Furthermore, the partnership will involve the INDEX: Design Lab Helsinki, which will focus on challenges put forth by cities, to be discussed by leading experts.

More information

INDEX: Design to Improve Life
Adam von Haffner Paulsen
News Director
Mob: +45 2613 2122
Tel: +45 3389 2005
ap@indexaward.dk