Habitare Talents 2024 to present a group of young designers whose works open a view into the future of design, materials and technologies
Habitare Talents 2024 will highlight four young designers whose works reflect the future worlds of design, materials and technologies. The insightful works by Tatu Laakso, Lotta Maija, Riikka Peltola and Eemeli Sahimaa are a fresh breeze of new design, and we will certainly hear more about them in the future. The exhibition by the four designers will be on display at Habitare at the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre from 11 to 15 September 2024.
Habitare will present the Habitare Talents exhibition, featuring Tatu Laakso, Lotta Maija, Riikka Peltola and Eemeli Sahimaa, whose works display a new Finnish design idiom. Each designer has established their own, recognisable style and inventive way of using design to tap into today’s world and the various ways of life present in our time.
“The Habitare Talents designers comprehensively represent the field of design: each one has their own strength and specific material expertise. They share a spirit of dynamic creativity, as well as a reflective and profound approach to their own work processes”, say Elina Aalto and Saara Renvall from Imu Design.
Imu Design is responsible for curating and producing the Habitare Talents exhibition. The exhibition jury also includes Habitare’s creative lead Päivi Helander and a non-permanent member, the designer Rasmus Palmgren, who was featured in Habitare’s Talentshop exhibition in 2019.
Habitare Talents 2024 designers
Tatu Laakso
Tatu Laakso is a designer and interior architect, with degrees from the Lahti Institute of Design and Aalto University. In his work, he focuses on furniture design, especially serially produced furniture and its environmental sustainability. Tatu favours natural materials and strives to find a balance between a distinctive design idiom, usability and durability. An appreciation of nature is an inbuilt value for him and something that he applies to his work. Tatu’s design is driven by a hands-on approach, through which he strives for a thorough understanding of materials, forms, and manufacturing methods. With his characteristic insightful use of materials and an elegant design idiom, he creates comfort and harmony, striving for deep and regenerative connections between the user, materials and objects.
Lotta Maija
Lotta Maija is a Helsinki-based illustrator and visual designer whose work focuses on the world of colours and shapes. You can see her cheerful style glowing in her colourful floral and fruit illustrations and patterns, which have found their way into the ranges of companies in both Finland and abroad. After a period of working and studying in Tokyo, Lotta has been influenced by Japanese aesthetics, solidifying her own personal style. Lotta begins her work process by making sketches using markers or gouache paints, and she finishes her works digitally. She is fascinated by the one-dimensional representation of three-dimensional shapes and by playing with colours. Lotta Maija graduated as a Master of Arts from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in 2017. She currently works as a textile designer at Marimekko.
Riikka Peltola
Riikka Peltola is a fashion designer who graduated from Aalto University in 2020 and who works by knitting and crocheting. Her relationship with textile fibres has emerged through the use of both industrial machines and her own hands. Riikka’s background as a fashion designer becomes evident as she creates spaces and shapes using yarn. The layers of time and memory are visible in the materials she uses. Riikka is interested in how the lives of materials and individuals are linked to history, and how the past and the present intertwine in objects. Her work centres around how materials adapt to the environment and how they are linked to the earth.
riikkapeltola.com I @riikkapelt
Eemeli Sahimaa
Eemeli Sahimaa is an independent designer and carpenter who approaches design through various themes. Reflection and questioning feature prominently in his emotion-driven but hands-on approach to his work. Key themes include understanding the essence of design, craft and artistic practice, and finding meanings. His work is driven and given structure by the need to explore and experiment. Eemeli’s characteristic curiosity has pushed him to experiment with a variety of materials and techniques. He is just as enthusiastic about technical details as he is about carving wooden figurines. According to him, playful tinkering ultimately produces the most interesting results.
eemelisahimaa.fi I @eemeliaapeli
More information and interview requests:
Pia Sievinen, communication & brand, Habitare, tel. +358 40 559 9155, pia.sievinen@messukeskus.com
Images of Habitare Talents can be downloaded here.
Habitare, Finland’s leading furniture, design and interior decoration event, will be held at the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre (Messukeskus) from 11 to 15 September 2024. | habitare.fi | @habitarefair | #habitare2024
