The Block: Protoshop & Talentshop
The Block Habitare presents young creators, prototypes and recent startups in the field. The selected designers and product ideas can be seen at Habitare from 13 to 17 September 2023.
Protoshop
Habitare’s Protoshop exhibition presents 10-12 new prototypes and product ideas. The exhibition, which reflects new design trends, opens up a view into our future world of objects. Product ideas include new interpretations of classic types of furniture, insightful small products, and solutions for home furnishing challenges.
The Protoshop exhibition in Habitare’s The Block area is a platform for new design, produced as a joint effort between Habitare and Imu Design, which enables a young generation of designers to test the appeal of their product ideas with potential manufacturers and future buyers. The aim of Protoshop is to find and present great product ideas and to help young designers and manufacturers connect with each other.
The 2023 edition of Protoshop will feature new interpretations of classic products and topical solutions for home furnishing problems, as well as insightful small products. The methods bring together modern techniques and manual skills. All Protoshop products also demonstrate an insightful way of solving structural and functional issues.
“We were especially delighted with the layeredness and multidimensionality of this year’s exhibition. It is also interesting how many of the designers said that their working process or method is as important as the end result. The unconventional methods have produced bold, distinctive, and original objects, which offer us a view into our future world of objects”, say the curators of the exhibition, Elina Aalto and Saara Renvall of Imu Design.
Get to know the Protoshop 2023 designers and prototypes
Talentshop
Here they are, the four emerging designers of Habitare’s Talentshop exhibition in 2023: Laura Meriluoto, Didi NG Wing Yin, Melissa Sammalvaara and Antti Tuomi. These designers of a new generation show the way forward for Finnish design in the coming years.
Talentshop is searching for young designers living and working in Finland. To be held for the seventh time, Habitare’s Talentshop highlights designers who are in the early stages of their career, but who have found their own personal style and designer identity to differentiate themselves from others. Since the beginning, Talentshop is curated by Elina Aalto, Krista Kosonen and Saara Renvall from Imu Design and desinger Hanna Anonen.
“The four selected emerging talents represent a wide range of fields in design: traditional product design, the design and manufacture of unique art objects, productisation management, conceptual thinking, and insightful use of craft techniques. They provided a high-quality demonstration of their skills and a strong, personal style.”
– ElinaAalto and SaaraRenvall
Get to know the Talentshop 2023 designers