2012, A Year of Design in Lahti

26 June 2012

Helsinki was elected to be the World Design Capital 2012 by the Icsid Congress in Singapore. Lahti is also part of the WDC program and hosts some of the events. 

As Helsinki’s slogan is ”embedding design in life”, Lahti is participating WDC with a program to improve the citizens’ everyday life as well. Improving the general atmosphere of the city centre area, design education and industrial design are the focal points of the exhibition year. 

Muotohuoltamo, located right next to the City Hall, is a central meeting point during the WDC year and it is mainly to display local and international design. In Muotohuoltamo virtually anyone can get acquainted with the WDC 2012 events and participate in the design capital’s activities.

Designing activates citizens

- One of our essential targets is getting the citizens to participate in the developing of the city center area and in the improving of service networks in development, says Lahti Mayor Jyrki Myllyvirta.

The City of Lahti has launched a number of projects to answer the promises, e.g. project Meidän Aleksi to turn the city’s main street into a pedestrian street and project Urbaani Ratas to promote bicycling as a way of transport. Known as a green city, Lahti has also launched project GreenCity to be a realistic dream of an energy efficient and environmentally-oriented city where a regular citizen’s opinion matters. The green targets Lahti has set for itself are expected to be widely in display during the 2017 Nordic Ski World Championships.

Find out more at WDC website

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