The announcement of the World Design Capital 2018 shortlisted cities presents an opportunity to look back at other WDC cities and how they have used the programme to create a lasting, positive change. Icsid spoke to Pekka Timonen and Tiina-Kaisa Laakso-Liukkonen, respectively Chairman and Secretary General of the International Design Foundation, to find out more about the legacy of WDC Helsinki 2012.

In part one of this two-part interview, we hear about the motivations for the WDC bid and about the Design Driven City programme, which is changing the way city employees perceive design.


Q: What would you say was the initial motivation for wanting to be designated World Design Capital?

Pekka Timonen (PT): The main motivation was to move forward, and in Helsinki we came to the conclusion that WDC would be a perfect programme to help us do that.

Finland has a very important design tradition, but we understood that it had to be renewed. We did not want to rest on our laurels and just think about the great history of Finnish industrial design; something needed to be done to move forward.

The second motivation was that Helsinki is one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions in Europe and it faces new kinds of challenges from the point of view not only of infrastructure, but also of societal challenges. We felt the need for design more than ever before in order to make sure the change was positive. We felt that WDC, once again, would help us move forward with this goal.

Thirdly, as the title of our WDC bid suggests, we wanted to ’embed design in life’, meaning we wanted to try and expand the design agenda in our society. We wanted to move from traditional industrial design to a larger agenda, encouraging individuals to take design and figure out what it has to do with them. We especially wanted to target the public sector, small and medium sized enterprises, even citizen involvement in society, and get them to ask themselves “What can design do?” Becoming a World Design Capital gave us the credibility to engage people in that dialogue.

Tiina-Kaisa Laakso-Liukkonen (TL): The fourth reason that motivated us to bid is somehow connected to that need to encourage; it is a very psychological reason. You need an excuse for change! I don’t know if it’s the Finnish nature, or if it’s a worldwide phenomenon, but when you have an event like the WDC take place, then you can make the change very objective and very neutral.

PT: And then finally, we also understood from the very beginning that WDC would be a very good way to raise the profile of Helsinki and give us the opportunity to interact and collaborate internationally. So, of course, it also has the effect of raising the profile of the Helsinki region and the knowledge and skills of the people we have here.

testimonial

Given our very limited resources, the next question was where to put our focus. What was the most valuable thing we could do after WDC? We concentrated on how a city as an organisation, and as a community, could efficiently use design to move forward, how they could take design and embed it more deeply into their processes.

Q: At the close of WDC Helsinki 2012, it was mentioned that Finland needed to see design not just as art, but also as a way to address social issues. How did this help shape what came next?

PT: Once WDC was over, we had two options. One, to close everything and say “That was it, and now please nurture the good things that came out of this experience.” Or, option two, we could remain as a small organisation, a small project group that made sure that some of the most important findings and developments to come out of WDC would continue. So we chose option two. We decided to work together further and ensure a legacy.

Given our very limited resources, the next question was where to put our focus. What was the most valuable thing we could do after WDC? We concentrated on how a city as an organisation, and as a community, could efficiently use design to move forward, how they could take design and embed it more deeply into their processes. So the organisation that managed WDC Helsinki 2012, the International Design Foundation, continued as a task force called Design Driven City. It’s an independent foundation but with a very close relationship with the cities and the central government.


Q: Can you tell us more about the Design Driven City task force and what it hopes to achieve?

TL: Firstly we hired three ‘City Designers’ for a two-year project to increase the use of prototyping, and to test the ways design can be used in different parts of city organisations in the project planning phases and beyond.

The project has been changing work models, with employees learning all the time what works and what doesn’t, and it has changed our approach. The task force has been sharing the results and the information gathered with design organisations, companies, city organisations… so we are really open. And we share as we are going through the process – not just final results but also preliminary results – so that people can participate in the learning process.

PT: These City Designers participate in concrete projects with the city organisations, projects that vary from infrastructure projects to healthcare, from very small-scale projects to huge ones. So they’re really putting their hours into specific projects, joining working groups and project groups and being there for the city employees.

The second initiative to come out of Design Driven City was a helpline. Within the city organisations we promoted the idea that if design comes to your mind – because after WDC this was a good thing, people were touched by, or at least, there was an interest in design – then call us. We can help you get started.

So we promised anyone who called the helpline the services of a professional designer for one day at no charge. Just to help them figure out how to get started.


Q: So is the helpline a success?

PT: It’s very successful. Let’s imagine there’s a city department thinking about some traffic services and they say “Oh, well you know, we have never worked with designers” and they see it as a potential risk. Well they can call us and we send them a designer for one day who can discuss their experience with the project team. This designer could explain to them how they might get started with incorporating design and design thinking into the project, what the costs would be, give them an idea of the process and essentially help them figure out what it would involve and whether this is something they want to jump into or not. Usually they become more positive when they see that they can understand the process, that it’s economical, and that it’s something they should be doing.

The third initiative to come out of Design Driven City is the establishment of a network of design agents inside the city government. There are now 600 employees whose superiors have given them permission to be a design agent within their own various organisations or departments. They are figuring out what design can do for them in their role and for their respective organisations. It’s being there in a meeting, and then raising their hand and asking “Well, what about this? Can we do this? Should we do this?” and then providing the ‘how’.

TL: They are very active and they work independently, sharing information amongst themselves. We don’t keep track of what they are doing exactly; our task was just to start the process.

And one very simple advantage of that group, when you think there are 40 000 people working in the City of Helsinki, is that they can meet in a place where they don’t have an official role; there are employees from different parts of the hierarchy so it’s a very neutral place to meet. That allows them to really share information. They can find out “Oh, you are doing the same thing that we have been doing. We did that half a year ago – we are halfway through but we didn’t know!” And that’s because the official information channels in an organisation don’t always pass along the information you need. That’s why these unofficial channels are so useful.

PT: We believe that this network is a permanent legacy, that it can now function on its own. But we also have ensured that the city governments of the metropolitan region will support it and allow it to function. They see it’s an important network. It’s a horizontal network, so it breaks down organisational structures in a way that is usually very difficult to achieve inside big organisations like cities.

At the beginning of the WDC process, we believed we could create something of a design driven city. So it’s still on its way. We don’t know what it is – what kind of animal it will be in the end – but in contrast to when we were applying for WDC, all the stakeholders are now much more convinced that this is an experiment that we must undertake. Their commitment to the idea of a design driven city is far stronger today than it was during the time of the bid.

The announcement of the World Design Capital 2018 shortlisted cities presents an opportunity to look back at other WDC cities and how they have used the programme to create a lasting, positive change. Icsid spoke to Pekka Timonen and Tiina-Kaisa Laakso-Liukkonen, respectively Chairman and Secretary General of the International Design Foundation, to find out more about the legacy of WDC Helsinki 2012.

In part two of this two-part interview, we find out more about what’s next for the City of Helsinki, and for Finland, as they move forward with design as a catalyst for growth and development.

testimonial

So we promised anyone who called the helpline the services of a professional designer for one day at no charge. Just to help them figure out how to get started.

WDC2012_Pavilion

Q: The Design Driven City task force is scheduled to conclude at the end of 2015. Are you hoping that city employees will have adopted design thinking in their processes by then?

TL: The actual project will end in December 2015, but the three cities that are participating in this two-year project – Lahti, Espoo and Helsinki – have really understood that this ability of design is needed in the development and planning processes at all levels in the cities, and they will continue this work. Internally there will be coordination and resources for design in these three cities, there just won’t be any joint organisation administering these processes.

PT: So now let’s see how it flies. We hope it flies. But understand that our hope for success doesn’t rely on just these two years. WDC was already the framework for that change, so this will have been the result of more than five years of hard work. We used WDC to push the design agenda, and then followed that up with the creation of the task force.

Sooner or later the next phase will have to happen. We will have to move into the phase where it becomes an integrated part of different organisations, and especially in our case the public sector and the city metropolitan region. Because you cannot forever push it from the outside – it has to be integrated and understood. And of course that means it’s not an even picture. Some individuals, some departments are very good and they don’t need any help. They will do it anyway. But in other cases it’s only just started, so we are hoping that there is a critical mass that will allow the change to continue. That’s the key.

When WDC was over, what happened? Helsinki created a new strategy where design is seen as an important element and is part of the agenda in all key strategic areas of the city. This happened after the WDC. The role of design is strengthened. The WDC also did something for Helsinki’s international profile – we are now UNESCO City of Design. That happened after the WDC. It’s a process. It’s still ongoing.


Q: Would you say then that WDC was a contributing factor to Helsinki becoming UNESCO City of Design?

PT: Most definitely, of course. WDC also helped us clarify how Helsinki fits into the bigger picture. Do we have a role in the global design community? Is it important for us to have global visibility and a role in design? The answer to these questions is ‘yes’.

Q: International Design Foundation made a huge effort to involve corporations as well as governments, educational institutions and individual citizens. Now that more time has passed since the close of the programming, what has the feedback been from corporations who decided to get involved?

PT: Corporations are a difficult question. Finland’s had to deal with the aftermath of the financial crisis. And then in Europe we have the Euro crisis, so the economy has been suffering… is still suffering. That means there have been lots of changes in the corporate world. But we see now that some of the corporations that weren’t involved in WDC or who have not promoted design before are actually moving in.

Quite a few of the corporations involved in WDC contacted us and asked if they could participate in the two-year programme, but because the focus was going to be on city organisations and the public sector, we said to them, unfortunately not this time, but stay tuned.

Last year we received a Place Marketing Award for city branding. Our WDC project was awarded one of the best city branding projects in 2012, globally. When we got the award, we invited all the stakeholders together as a further networking opportunity. We were really surprised that the corporations were the most eager to come. Over a glass of wine, they talked about what has happened inside their corporations since WDC, and it’s clear that it had an impact. Design is still on their agenda.

Corporations are now the big question mark here in Finland. There is very little economic growth in Europe, and Finland especially is an almost zero growth environment. So now the role of design in improving economic performance for them was a big issue. We are very interested to see how much that will come up in the agenda of the industries and the central government as they try to support economic growth.

Q:  What was the biggest success to come out of WDC 2012?

PT: For me the best is when we meet people from different walks of life who ask us if we were the ones in charge of WDC. We say “Yes…” – wondering what they will say next, because with WDC there were critical discussions, very heated discussions – and then they say “That was a good thing to do. I didn’t understand it all when it was happening, but I think it was a really good exercise for us to do that.”

So people’s feedback now is overwhelmingly positive. That makes us very happy, because WDC is a controversial project. What I mean by WDC is controversial project is that it’s about design. Design is a difficult thing. Go to the man on the street and say “We are celebrating design and talking about how design makes our lives better.” He will probably wonder what that has to do with him, from a taxpayer’s view. But now people have an understanding that it was worth it for the Helsinki region to jump into it. And all the resources and time and money that we spent on the project were worth it.

TL: People started to understand what design means in practice and why the city and design are linked together, and how the city really does have a role in design. So in a very practical way, people started to understand what the designer’s role is in the city environment.

For me another one of the success stories is that this project joined together so many different participants – educational partners, governments, companies – and they started to work together. For instance Helsinki University and Aalto University started a totally new project called, Urban Academy, which will concentrate on questions related to urban development, WDC formed connections between different participating organisations in interesting ways.

PT: What is really nice now is that people often say “Isn’t that something we started during WDC?” They are usually referring to new urban movements that started indirectly under the umbrella of the WDC. Projects started during the time of the WDC where local involvement and user dialogues were used for the first time. Now that these processes are becoming the norm, people say “Yeah, we started to do that during the WDC. That was the first time that we actually had a dialogue with different people about how this should be done.”

What we were actually trying to do was plant the thought of design into people’s minds, into their way of thinking. In some ways we have been successful. Not everywhere! But this little implant, this ‘D’ letter… somehow people have started to think about it. They’ve started to see that it is not something that is out of their world, or their profession… that it might even have something to do with the things they do every day.


Q: The Design Driven City task force is scheduled to conclude at the end of 2015. Are you hoping that city employees will have adopted design thinking in their processes by then?

TL: The actual project will end in December 2015, but the three cities that are participating in this two-year project – Lahti, Espoo and Helsinki – have really understood that this ability of design is needed in the development and planning processes at all levels in the cities, and they will continue this work. Internally there will be coordination and resources for design in these three cities, there just won’t be any joint organisation administering these processes.

PT: So now let’s see how it flies. We hope it flies. But understand that our hope for success doesn’t rely on just these two years. WDC was already the framework for that change, so this will have been the result of more than five years of hard work. We used WDC to push the design agenda, and then followed that up with the creation of the task force.

Sooner or later the next phase will have to happen. We will have to move into the phase where it becomes an integrated part of different organisations, and especially in our case the public sector and the city metropolitan region. Because you cannot forever push it from the outside – it has to be integrated and understood. And of course that means it’s not an even picture. Some individuals, some departments are very good and they don’t need any help. They will do it anyway. But in other cases it’s only just started, so we are hoping that there is a critical mass that will allow the change to continue. That’s the key.

When WDC was over, what happened? Helsinki created a new strategy where design is seen as an important element and is part of the agenda in all key strategic areas of the city. This happened after the WDC. The role of design is strengthened. The WDC also did something for Helsinki’s international profile – we are now UNESCO City of Design. That happened after the WDC. It’s a process. It’s still ongoing.

testimonial

The actual project will end in December 2015, but the three cities that are participating in this two-year project – Lahti, Espoo and Helsinki – have really understood that this ability of design is needed in the development and planning processes at all levels in the cities, and they will continue this work.

Q: Would you say then that WDC was a contributing factor to Helsinki becoming UNESCO City of Design?

PT: Most definitely, of course. WDC also helped us clarify how Helsinki fits into the bigger picture. Do we have a role in the global design community? Is it important for us to have global visibility and a role in design? The answer to these questions is ‘yes’.


Q: International Design Foundation made a huge effort to involve corporations as well as governments, educational institutions and individual citizens. Now that more time has passed since the close of the programming, what has the feedback been from corporations who decided to get involved?

PT: Corporations are a difficult question. Finland’s had to deal with the aftermath of the financial crisis. And then in Europe we have the Euro crisis, so the economy has been suffering… is still suffering. That means there have been lots of changes in the corporate world. But we see now that some of the corporations that weren’t involved in WDC or who have not promoted design before are actually moving in.

Quite a few of the corporations involved in WDC contacted us and asked if they could participate in the two-year programme, but because the focus was going to be on city organisations and the public sector, we said to them, unfortunately not this time, but stay tuned.

Last year we received a Place Marketing Award for city branding. Our WDC project was awarded one of the best city branding projects in 2012, globally. When we got the award, we invited all the stakeholders together as a further networking opportunity. We were really surprised that the corporations were the most eager to come. Over a glass of wine, they talked about what has happened inside their corporations since WDC, and it’s clear that it had an impact. Design is still on their agenda.

Corporations are now the big question mark here in Finland. There is very little economic growth in Europe, and Finland especially is an almost zero growth environment. So now the role of design in improving economic performance for them was a big issue. We are very interested to see how much that will come up in the agenda of the industries and the central government as they try to support economic growth.

testimonial

Design is a difficult thing. Go to the man on the street and say "We are celebrating design and talking about how design makes our lives better." He will probably wonder what that has to do with him, from a taxpayer's view. But now people have an understanding that it was worth it for the Helsinki region to jump into it. And all the resources and time and money that we spent on the project were worth it.

Q: What was the biggest success to come out of WDC 2012?

PT: For me the best is when we meet people from different walks of life who ask us if we were the ones in charge of WDC. We say “Yes…” – wondering what they will say next, because with WDC there were critical discussions, very heated discussions – and then they say “That was a good thing to do. I didn’t understand it all when it was happening, but I think it was a really good exercise for us to do that.”

So people’s feedback now is overwhelmingly positive. That makes us very happy, because WDC is a controversial project. What I mean by WDC is controversial project is that it’s about design. Design is a difficult thing. Go to the man on the street and say “We are celebrating design and talking about how design makes our lives better.” He will probably wonder what that has to do with him, from a taxpayer’s view. But now people have an understanding that it was worth it for the Helsinki region to jump into it. And all the resources and time and money that we spent on the project were worth it.

TL: People started to understand what design means in practice and why the city and design are linked together, and how the city really does have a role in design. So in a very practical way, people started to understand what the designer’s role is in the city environment.

For me another one of the success stories is that this project joined together so many different participants – educational partners, governments, companies – and they started to work together. For instance Helsinki University and Aalto University started a totally new project called, Urban Academy, which will concentrate on questions related to urban development, WDC formed connections between different participating organisations in interesting ways.

PT: What is really nice now is that people often say “Isn’t that something we started during WDC?” They are usually referring to new urban movements that started indirectly under the umbrella of the WDC. Projects started during the time of the WDC where local involvement and user dialogues were used for the first time. Now that these processes are becoming the norm, people say “Yeah, we started to do that during the WDC. That was the first time that we actually had a dialogue with different people about how this should be done.”

What we were actually trying to do was plant the thought of design into people’s minds, into their way of thinking. In some ways we have been successful. Not everywhere! But this little implant, this ‘D’ letter… somehow people have started to think about it. They’ve started to see that it is not something that is out of their world, or their profession…that it might even have something to do with the things they do every day.

pekka_headshot

About Pekka Timonen

Pekka Timonen is General Secretary for the Centenary of Finland’s Independence. Launched by the Prime Minister’s Office, this project aims to mark the centenary year in 2017 by planning and executing engaging activities that build a shared understanding of Finland’s development as a nation and its future challenges and new direction. He previously was Head of Cultural Affairs and Cultural Office in the City of Helsinki before leading the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project as its Executive Director. He remains Chairman of the International Design Foundation Helsinki, an organisation that now works to strengthen the impact of World Design Capital Helsinki 2012.

tiina_headshot

About Tiina-Kaisa Laakso-Liukkonen

Tiina-Kaisa Laakso-Liukkonen is Secretary General of the International Design Foundation Helsinki, and is responsible for directing the Design Driven City programme. From 2010 to 2013, she was Controller for the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012, managing all financial and administrative aspects of the project. She holds a Master of Science, Industrial Engineering and Management, from Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland).

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