Habitare Design Competition 2024
The theme of the competition was Comfort Zone
The Habitare Design Competition, organised by Messukeskus and Aalto University, puts the spotlight on up-and-coming design and architecture students.
The theme of year’s 2025 Habitare Design Competition was Comfort Zone.
The brief was to design and build a comfort zone for one or more people. Competition entries were to reflect the 2024 Habitare theme of Layers in their concept or use of materials. The idea behind the theme was to explore how homes or spaces come into being: how the present is shaped by the past, individual styles, things we do not perceive, dialogues, and the collision of things.
The jury members of the first stage of the competition were Habitare’s Creative Lead and Aalto University lecturer Päivi Helander; the architect and Aalto University professor Pentti Kareoja; and the designer and Aalto University professor Tomek Rygalik.
The head judge of the competition, Studio Tolvanen, selected the winner, which was announced on the Habitare main stage on Wednesday 11 September 2024 at 10:00. The competition has a €5,000 grand prize, donated by the Finnish Fair Foundation.
The winners of the Habitare Design Competition 2024
The winners of the 2024 Habitare Design Competition are Ella Nikulainen, Henry Lång, and Jenni Suur-Inkeroinen.
Loom Room by Henry Lång and Ella Nikulainen is a communal, joyful, and connecting, inspiring space, with a fresh use for a traditional Finnish craft technique that playfully merges with modern shared living and doing. Hali by Jenni Suur-Inkeroinen took a very different approach to comfort, creating a personal space that doubles as an object you can wear. It reflects as a private sanctuary, where one is allowed to be at peace, hidden, and alone. The winners were all students from Aalto University.
“These two works stood out from the rest and complemented each other in terms of the theme and the task. Both were equally strong concepts, so we decided to split the prize between two entries”, Julie and Mika Tolvanen of Studio Tolvanen explain.
The competition’s head judge, Studio Tolvanen, chose the winning entry from a shortlist of five finalists. The winner will receive a €5,000 grant donated by the Finnish Fair Foundation. The finalist designs will be displayed at Habitare from 11 to 15 September 2024.
Meet the finalists
The finalists of the Habitare Design Competition challenge the forms of comfort and relaxation of our time.
“There was a thematic emphasis among the competition entries towards a soft, protective space, a kind of refuge, created using design. This could be a reflection of the uncertainty of the world in which we live, but at the same time, it is a beautiful message about how important it is for us to pause and be close to each other”, says Päivi Helander, Creative Lead at Habitare.
Aini Alastalo and Eemeli Sahima:
HURDLES OF COMFORT
The design challenges us by evoking a metaphorical image of how people compete culturally in the ways that relaxing and being comfortable look and feel, both at home and beyond. We wanted to use our design to create a scenario or a stopped moment in which this competition has ended and everyone is just encouraged to relax in a way that suits them best.
The design is directly and referentially linked to the theme of the competition. This shows in both the themes and the starting points of the design, as well as in the material choices. We addressed the theme of the competition by creating a design focused on the theme, and in the end, we produced a questioning, installation-type work with an encouraging message.
Photo: David_Jacob
Anna-Karoliina Boele, Laura Johansson and Ella Kankaanpää:
PIRTA (“REED”) – LAYERS OF COMFORT
The theme of the competition raised questions about comfort and relaxation – do we need external stimuli to feel comfortable? In our opinion, comfort and genuine presence are not things that we can execute or force, but we must give them time, and this requires patience. We wanted to challenge today’s conventional ways of relaxing by creating a platform for comfort through minimalist means.
In the spirit of the Habitare theme of Layers, our design discusses the layers of time, materials, and body and mind. With our concept, we aim to offer people a comfort zone that would remind the body and the mind of the feeling of lying on a jetty or sitting on a cliff, taking in nature.
Henry Lång and Ella Nikulainen: LOOM ROOM
The experiences of comfort and cosiness are built over time, involving layers of different memories. A personal and comfortable space requires courage to choose things that you like and that feel good to you. We feel most comfortable in spaces on which we have left our mark and that we have made our own. The layers of personal memories, experiences, objects and furniture together form the unique tapestry of who we are.
Loom Room is a spatial design that relies on the relationship between layeredness and comfort. It consists of three wall elements that can be moved around and repositioned at the user’s will. Exhibition visitors are welcome to participate in the creation of a common tapestry and to strengthen their personal experience of their own place. Through fabrics of many colours, lengths, materials and thicknesses, an interesting and layered tapestry is formed on the walls of the space.
Jenni Suur-Inkeroinen: HALI
Hali is a cuddle blanket inspired by the need for closeness. The starting point of the design is to bring the user a sense of safety through the enveloping hug, with the user hugging the blanket back. I interpreted the comfort zone to be a space that feels safe. A hug is a natural way of comforting and being comforted, which is why I consider it the safest space.
Tiia Tietäväinen: HARMONIA
Through the Harmonia mobile, my aim is to evoke feelings of balance and safety, as well as to create visual joy through tranquil movement. The swaying of the mobile does not unbalance the whole, but it keeps moving smoothly until the movement stabilises. This symbolises the safe space created by the comfort zone, which supports and helps an individual to recover from challenging situations. A mobile is also a practical tool that reminds the viewer to stop and enjoy the moment and to find safety and inspiration from their comfort zone.
In a performance-oriented society, we often emphasise leaving the comfort zone, but the Harmonia mobile reminds us how important it is to return to the comfort zone, too, in order to preserve our reserves of strength. We can also experience feelings of success in the comfort zone. The mobile also embodies the Habitare theme of Layers, as it is built from layers of parts, and the comfort zone from the layered character of experiences.
Habitare Design Competition 2024
The design brief
The brief is to design and build a comfort zone for one or more people, in keeping with the spirit of the Habitare 2024 theme of Layers. Competition entries should reflect the theme of Layers in their concept or use of materials.
Through its theme, Habitare wants to explore how homes or spaces come into being: how the present is shaped by the past, individual styles, things we do not perceive, dialogues, and the collision of things.
“The notion of a comfort zone adds a human dimension to the Habitare theme of Layers. What are the spaces, places, states, or shapes that enable us to feel comfortable? What do we need around us to create an individual layer of comfort in the spaces we inhabit?” asks Creative Lead at Habitare, Päivi Helander.
Who can participate?
The competition is open to entries from people studying design and architecture in Finland, as well as University of the Arts Helsinki students or teams of students. Team size is not restricted. The competition organisers encourage contestants to assemble multi-disciplinary teams that can approach the brief with an open mind. The contestants, including all team members, must be enrolled at the institutions mentioned above at the time of the competition launch, on 7 March 2024.
The Competition Schedule
The deadline for submitting entries for the first stage of the two-stage competition is 3 May 2024 at 16:00. In the first stage, the jury members are Habitare’s Creative Lead and Aalto University lecturer Päivi Helander; the architect and Aalto University professor Pentti Kareoja and the designer and Aalto University professor Tomek Rygalik.
The jury will select the finalists, whose competition entries will be displayed at Habitare from 11 to 15 September 2024. The winner of the competition will be chosen by the head judge, who will be announced later. The winner will be announced at Habitare on its opening day, 11 September 2024.
The Habitare Design Competition 2024 has a grand prize of €5,000, donated by the Finnish Fair Foundation.
Evaluation Criteria
The Jury will evaluate the competition entries based on their artistic and design quality. The entries will also be assessed based on their functional, material and structural characteristics.
