Habitare’s themed exhibition
Designed by Studio Plenty, to highlight the joy of doing things together and to offer surprises and uplifting experiences.
Habitare will introduce a new exhibition at the autumn show, in keeping with the event’s 2023 theme of Together. The exhibition will be designed by Anna Pirkola and Kirsikka Simberg of Studio Plenty, who are also behind the Habitare theme. Visitors will be treated to joy, beauty, surprises and uplifting experiences to appeal to all the senses. The exhibition includes a section that changes daily, in which objects that brighten up everyday life but often go unnoticed are foregrounded and change hands.
The exhibition brings monumentality and the small details of everyday life into the dialogue
The exhibition reflects the Habitare 2023 theme of Together, which explores the contrasts of our time and emphasises the power and importance of doing things together in challenging times. Like the theme, the exhibition highlights the changing world and the fact that we must together consider and create new perspectives on consumption and living.
“To counterbalance the political theme, which also includes some heavy topics, we want to create something that is light and joyful, to bring people joy and inspiration, and to excite them. The idea is that there could be visually dissimilar spaces inside the exhibition space so that you cannot see everything at once, but the whole appears surprising and interesting. At its best, the exhibition evokes ideas: for some, it can be a refuge, while for others, it can be a source of inspiration or a place where they can discover new materials and ways of using them”, say Pirkola and Simberg, describing the starting points of the design.
Imagine an exhibition space and an even smaller space inside where you go to sit with a stranger. How does that make you feel? “You can engage with something new and unknown, and notice that it’s not so terrible to encounter something new or to be close to someone you don’t know”, says Anna Pirkola of Studio Plenty.
Studio Plenty’s designers Anna and Kirsikka, who are behind the themed exhibition, embody Habitare’s 2023 theme in the exhibition Yhdessä / Together
The monumental space offers experiences for the various senses
“With the abundant fair offering, visitors might enjoy the exhibition as a balancing and calming element. We want to create our own, softer approach, including a matching soundscape, with the exhibition space dampening the sounds of the surrounding fair”, say Pirkola and Simberg.
“Instead of an aesthetic extravaganza, we wanted to keep the whole simple and provide room for thought. The exhibition gives visitors breathing space, as it reflects on the many different possible definitions of being together”, says Pirkola.
The monumental space invites you in and offers experiences for the various senses. The colour scheme uses light tones combined with a bold and even provocative red, the colour of activism. The soundscape provides a counterbalance to life outside the exhibition. There are also a few surprising elements in store.
“These include attaching high value to small and humble everyday things. Not everything surprising has to be big and spectacular to start with, but small everyday things can be surprising. These are often the things that brighten up everyday life. The exhibition brings the big lines and the small everyday details into the dialogue.”
The theme of the circular economy comes up in the changing section of the exhibition
The design of the exhibition began with a peek into the ideas folders of Pirkola and Simberg. These featured beautiful fabrics and architectural elements, which provided a basis for the exhibition. Consideration is also given to how the materials used in the exhibition will continue their lives after Habitare and how they will ultimately be disposed of.
The theme of the circular economy comes up in the changing section of the exhibition, which can feature, for example, old starched kitchen towels on one day and twenty different watering cans on another. Visitors to the fair can mark an object that they want to reserve with a sticker, in the same way as in art galleries.
