Designs for a Cooler Planet 2023 – Events programme
Welcome and participate in Designs for a Cooler Planet 2023 through a variety of different events, from live talk shows to webinars, workshops and guided exhibition tours.
Every year Designs for a Cooler Planet celebrates change, creativity and multidisciplinarity and highlights their importance through every exhibition, proving that sustainable choice might as well be the most attractive one.
Get to know themes and projects from previous years below to get a glimpse from the better, wiser and more sustainable future.
Like an iceberg, we only see a fraction of reality at first glance, and we often operate with limited knowledge. But what if we could see below the surface? Would we make different choices?
In 2023, Designs for a Cooler Planet projects aimed to shed light on the hidden and noteworthy. Fascinating prototypes, experiments, and perspectives that on display have the potential to transform the way we see, think and act.
Visitors had the opportunity to explore the Invisible through over twenty creative and experimental research-based projects that encourage us to look beyond the surface and consider what lies beneath.
Welcome and participate in Designs for a Cooler Planet 2023 through a variety of different events, from live talk shows to webinars, workshops and guided exhibition tours.
See the future in a whole new way at the Designs for a Cooler Planet festival this September. The theme, "Invisible," encourages us to look beyond the surface and consider what lies beneath.
The Radical Ceramic Research Group is pioneering potentially transformative alternatives to traditional concrete, the world’s second largest source of emissions.
Common neurological disorders like depression and chronic pain can be challenging to treat with conventional methods. An automated version of a long-used brain stimulation technique holds real promise as a reliable and effective drug-free alternative.
A hyperspectral snapshot captures all the light in a scene, not just colours or infrared light. The extra information is useful in many applications, from agriculture and conservation to forensics and food safety.
New construction should be put on hold until we figure out a sustainable solution, says Kuittinen
Imagine a life where everything we use is recycled, upcycled and wisely produced and global warming is capped at 1.5 degrees. A gentler life – for you, for future generations and for the planet.
Designs for a Cooler Planet 2022 highlighted that each tree, building, garment or even a portion of food has a life of its own, an own individual footprint and a life story. We should relearn to respect our belongings and surroundings. We should treat resources with care, not as disposables.
Life 1.5 refers to the 1.5-degree lifestyle – a science-based approach to recommend concrete actions to meet the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement. Every year, we use 1.7 times more ecological resources than our planet provides. We have to take action to reduce further global warming and decrease the threat to biodiversity.
Designs for a Cooler Planet is a five-week-long festival celebrating experiments in planet-friendly materials, fashion, and food.
The three subthemes celebrate experiments in planet-friendly materials, fashion and food that could take us towards Life 1.5.
Explore the virtual exhibition to get a taste of Life 1.5 and see the 2022 exhibition's highlights.
Planet-friendly alternatives for materials, mindsets and architecture.
Better alternatives for food, food systems and packaging.
Slow and more sustainable textiles, clothing and fashion systems.
Get a taste of what Designs for a Cooler Planet 2022 is all about.
Open until 12 October 2022, Designs for a Cooler Planet is an annual exhibit showcasing bold designs that approach sustainability from avenues including fashion, food and materials.
The exhibition themes this year are life without a trace, sustainable style and a healthier food chain.
Save the date/planet: Welcome to our fourth Designs for a Cooler Planet festival, 7.9–12.10.2022 in Otaniemi, Espoo.
The climate crisis and biodiversity loss call for radical new ideas. How does your work contribute to wiser consumption, climate solutions or a more sustainable working life? Designs for a Cooler Planet 2022 will present Aalto's most interesting projects to support sustainability – apply now!
What is wise to design for future generations in a world of plenty?
Designs for a Cooler Planet 2021 showcased radical ideas and creative prototypes contributing to a resource-wise future. It offered glimpses to that future with thirty of Aalto's research-based projects under three subthemes: Better to Wear, Infinite Materials and Loving Environments.
Resource wisdom means using raw materials, energy, products, time, and facilities with care. Wise design respects our common future. It advances wellbeing and carefully considers the impacts of our choices on future generations, society and biodiversity.
Designs for a Cooler Planet 2021 was a success, engaging over 2,000 people. It was also covered by both domestic and global media (e.g., Dezeen, Kauppalehti and Tekniikka&Talous).
Radical ideas and prototypes contributing to a resource-wise future. The exhibitions and online lectures are open to everyone, and they belong to the official Helsinki Design Week programme.
Look for more information of each subtheme and get to know some of the exhibited projects on event pages. If you would like to dig deeper, virtual tours are also still accessible.
We get dressed each and every day: clothes protect us and help us express ourselves. We can dress better when we re-design the whole textile process from manufacturing to use to recycling.
Construction gobbles up half of the world’s natural resources. Collaboration between scientists, designers, architects, the public sector and companies generates ideas that can make living environments and the construction industry more sustainable.
We need to radically cut our consumption of materials and energy by creating materials that are not just renewable but forever reusable.
We make fashion sustainable.
More sustainable and liveable living environments.
Fascinating biomaterial experiments.
We are in a race for a cooler planet.
The clock is counting down. Current issues concerning energy production, single-use products and packaging, aggressive urbanisation and unsustainable consumption are alarming and require radical change.
Achieving our goal of a sustainable transition requires focused, novel approaches from all areas of society. Designs for a Cooler Planet 2020 showcased over 30 Aalto-based projects that show how collaboration between designers, researchers and stakeholders can lead to better solutions for people and the environment to help us reach the Sustainable Development Goals.
It’s our future, so there’s everything to play for. The four teams racing for the future in 2020 were: Farewell to fossil fuels, Close the loops, Hack our habitat and Consume consciously.
Helsinki Design Week at Otaniemi showcases inspiring future designs related to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Brave teams in 2020 and their important goals.
Look for more information of each subtheme and get to know some of the exhibited projects on event pages.
More than half of our energy still comes from fossil fuels. No single technology can replace our reliance on them.
Making things and manufacturing processes produce pollution and environmental degradation, draining natural resources.
Aggressive urbanisation is straining our ecosystem. Rising construction volume causes massive demand for energy-intensive construction materials, and construction already accounts for 39 per cent of the global CO2 emissions.
Household consumption accounts for more than 60 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and 50–80 per cent of total land, material and water use.
Collaboration between designers, researchers and stakeholders can lead to better solutions for society and the environment.
The first Designs for a Cooler Planet was organised on 2019. In eleven exhibitions it introduced over fourty projects providing solutions for more sustainable lifestyles, from future homeware and ecological luxury textiles to a carbon-free city district. It highlighted the fact that sustainability requires substantial changes within the next ten years in how we move, where we live, what we wear and what we eat. But those changes might as well be the most attractive ones.
The core idea has remained the same ever since. Designs for a Cooler Planet showcases interesting and cross-cutting development projects often done in multidisciplinary teams. Whereas research does not automatically create visual outputs, multidisciplinary collaboration often produces concrete prototypes and models, which are highlighted in the exhibitions.
During September 2019, Aalto University's exhibition programme for Helsinki Design Week, titled 'Designs for a Cooler Planet' will introduce solutions for more sustainable lifestyles in Otaniemi
One of Helsinki Design Week's main events, Designs for a Cooler Planet, will showcase Aalto University's cross-cutting future prototypes, such as a nanocellulose bicycle, microbial headphones and Ioncell clothes
Aalto's main event in New European Bauhaus concentrates on radically bold questions.
We all have the possibility to contribute to the EU’s Green Deal pilots and agenda during Spring 2021.
The EU initiative imagines future ways of living by combining design, culture, social inclusion, science and technology.