Pinboard (robertogreco) https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/public/ recent bookmarks from robertogreco My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth’ - The New York Times 2025-05-02T18:27:44+00:00 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/magazine/finland-happiest-country.html robertogreco finland happiness 2025 mollyyoung nordiccountries iceland sweden norway denmark helsinki afghanistan yemen congo haiti corruption poverty humanrights conflict us https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:3bdfaa6dbd2b/ Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need 2020-07-22T08:37:11+00:00 https://scoop.me/housing-first-finland-homelessness/ robertogreco finland housing homeless homelessness 2020 poverty culture policy helsinki https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:e88b5b4c8853/ How Helsinki Built ‘Book Heaven’ - CityLab 2019-11-07T21:27:54+00:00 https://www.citylab.com/design/2019/11/finland-public-library-photos-helsinki-books-nordic-culture/601192/ robertogreco helsinki finland libraries citizenship books architecture reading community communityspaces democracy openness diversity 2019 design oodi literacy progress history civics society lcproject openstudioproject learning howwelearn unschooling deschooling judgement freedom inclusion inclusivity purpose fear populism publicspace https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:7c6aca229d6e/ 'It’s a miracle': Helsinki's radical solution to homelessness | Cities | The Guardian 2019-06-04T01:49:04+00:00 https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle-helsinkis-radical-solution-to-homelessness robertogreco homelessness housing finland policy 2019 homeless helsinki poverty https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:079603fdad60/ Finland's important, misunderstood campaign to rethink how students learn - Vox 2015-03-25T21:15:11+00:00 http://www.vox.com/2015/3/25/8288495/finland-education-subjects robertogreco finland education interdisciplinary washingtonstate johndewey us policy creativity subjects departments schools teaching learning multidisciplinary helsinki pasisahlberg libbynelson curriculum integratedstudies https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:01e55d097cd4/ The future resident of Helsinki will not own a car 2014-07-10T11:16:42+00:00 http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/11062-the-future-resident-of-helsinki-will-not-own-a-car.html robertogreco cars helsinki transportationn transit mobility urban urbanism finland 2014 https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:18c814d7f7f9/ cityofsound: Essay: 'Designing Finnishness', for 'Out Of The Blue: The Essence and Ambition of Finnish Design' (Gestalten) 2014-05-12T05:39:28+00:00 http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2014/05/essay-designing-finnishness-for-out-of-the-blue-gestalten.html robertogreco"The press conference is over, and in comes Jari Litmanen, from behind the door. And I looked at his face and I looked at his eyes, and I recognised something in those eyes. And I thought, this is a man with a great willpower. Because he was not shy, not timid, but he was modest. He is not a man who will raise his voice, or bang with his fist on the table and say, ‘We do it this way.’ No, he was more of a diplomat, not wanting to be a leader, but being a leader." [Former AFC Ajax team manager David Endt, on legendary Finnish footballer Jari Litmanen] Finland has proven that it can take care of itself locally and globally. At home, its sheer existence is a tribute to fortitude, guile and determination, never mind the extent to which it has lately thrived. Globally, through Nokia, Kone, Rovio and others, through its diplomatic and political leadership, and through its design scene in general, it has punched well above its weight. Having been a reluctant leader, like Litmanen, will Finland once again step up to help define a new age, a post-industrial or re-industrial age? Unlike 1917, there are few obvious external drivers to force Finns to define Finnishness. So where will the desire for change come from? Finland, and Finnishness, is not immune to the problems facing other European countries; the Eurocrisis, domestic xenophobia, industrial strife. Challenging these is difficult for an engineering culture not yet used to working with uncertainty, and in collaboration. That requires this sense of openness to ambiguity, to non-planning, which is quite unlike the traditional mode of Finnishness. And yet there are also valuable cues in Finnishness, such as in the design—or undesign, as Leonard Koren would have it—of Finnish sauna culture.
"Making nature really means letting nature happen, since nature, the ultimate master of interactive complexity, is organized along principles too inscrutable for us to make from scratch. … Extraordinary baths … are created by natural geologic processes or by composers of sensory stimulation working in an intuitive, poetic, open-minded—undesign—manner." (Koren, ibid.)
Equally, the päiväkoti day-care system demonstrates a learning environment built with an agile structure that can follow where children wish to lead. The role of expertise—and every teacher in Finnish education is a highly-qualified expert—is not to control or enforce a national curriculum, but to react, shape, nurture and inspire. As such it could be a blueprint not only for education generally, but also for developing a culture comfortable with divergent learning, with exploration and experiment, with a broader social and emotional range, and with ambiguity. Chess grandmaster Savielly Tartakower once said “Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do, strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do.” Indeed, Finland's early development was driven by tactics—survival, consolidation and then growth in the face of a clear set of "things to do"; defeat the conditions, resist the neighbours, rebuild after war. With that, came success, comfort and then perhaps the inevitable lack of drive. The country is relatively well off and stable, and perhaps a little complacent given the recent accolades. Design in recent years has seen a shift towards the ephemeral and social—interaction design, service design, user experience design, strategic design and so on. Conversely, there has been a return to the physical, albeit altered and transformed by that new modernity, with that possibility of newly hybrid “things”: digital/physical hybrids possessing a familiar materiality yet allied with responsiveness, awareness, and character by virtue of having the internet embedded within. With its strong technical research sector, and expertise in both materials and software, Finland is well-placed. Connect the power of its nascent nanotech research sector—interestingly, derived from its expertise with wood—to a richer Finnish design culture capable of sketching social objects, social services and social spaces and its potential becomes tangible, just as with the 1930s modernism that fused the science and engineering of the day with design in order to produce Artek. Finnish design could be stretched to encompass these new directions, the aforementioned reversals towards openness, ambiguity, sociality, flexibility and softness. Given that unique DNA of Finnishness — both designed and undesigned, both old and young—Finland is at an interesting juncture. The next phase, then, is knowing what to do, despite the appearance of not having anything to do. Buckminster Fuller, a guest at Sitra's first design-led event at Helsinki’s Suomenlinna island fortress in 1968, once said “the best way to predict the future is to design it.” Finland has done this once before; it may be that now is exactly the right time to do it again."]]> finland 2014 design danhill cityofsound sitra buckminsterfuller education strategy culture exploration experimentation ambiguity emergentcurriculumeurope undesign leonardkoren nature complexity simplicity davidendt jarilitmanen unproduct efficiency inefficiency clarity purity small slow sisu solitude silence barnraising helsinki https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:7147498e00d9/ Martin Martonen 2013-11-27T19:30:01+00:00 http://www.martinmartonen.com/ robertogrecomartinmartonen graphicdesign finland helsinki design https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:657654df7fa4/ Smart citizens make smart cities | NEXT Berlin 2013-06-04T05:09:43+00:00 http://nextberlin.eu/2013/05/smart-citizens-make-smart-cities/ robertogreco cities danhill smartcities urban urbanism planning decisionmaking organizations institutions riots 2013 society government occupy ows occupywallstreet arabspring darkmatter facebook poverty twitter insitutionalcollapse sitra bryanboyer tahirsquare egypt change design web internet networked media italy organization helsinki nimbyism nimby pop-ups restaurantday bottom-up streetfood berlin emergentbehavior citizenship law legal persistence systems efficiency urbanplanning centralization janejacobs infrastructure culture commerce conviviality chile constitución hybridforums inefficiency sharedspace brucesterling engagement participation adamcurtis allwatchedoverbymachinesoflovinggrace scale crowdsourcing beppegrillo brickstarter nimbys italia https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:af12edbff455/ cityofsound: Journal: Fabrica 2012-11-16T21:47:55+00:00 http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2012/11/fabrica.html robertogreco 1994 australia uk finland venice helsinki london sydney domus josephgrima danielhirschmann bethanykoby technologywillsaveus tadaoando alessandrobenetton rca schoolofeverything strelkainstitute joiito medialab mitmedialab ciid paulthompson nontechnology crossdisciplinary multidisciplinary marcosteinberg jocelynebourgon culturalconsumption culturalproduction code darkmatter fabricafeatures livewindows colors andycameron richardbarbrook californianideology discourse sitra italy treviso helsinkidesignlab benetton culture culturaldiversity socialdiversity diversity decisionmaking sharedvalue economics obesity healthcare demographics climatechange research art design studios lcproject learning education 2012 antidisciplinary transdisciplinary cityofsound danhill italia https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:6f06ffe73d8c/ Data Cuisine | Exploring food as a form of data expression 2012-09-15T21:47:25+00:00 http://data-cuisine.net/ robertogreco opendata finland 2012 srg cooking gustatorization gustatory dataexpression helsinki datacuisine data food jenlowe https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f2c17847ea4d/ Low2No smart services workbook - Low2No 2012-07-03T06:37:08+00:00 http://www.low2no.org/blog/low2no-smart-services-workbook robertogreco customerjourney finland helsinki helsinkistreeteats smartservices howto activecitizens human-centered urbanism urban smartcities personalinformatics low2no deliverables methods methodology unbook 2010 2012 danhill sitra https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:72c675226a64/ Helsinki Beyond Dreams 2012-06-11T03:53:07+00:00 http://www.helsinkibeyonddreams.com/ robertogreco slow creativemisuse okdo bryanboyer worlddesigncapital 2012 design foodcarnivals food socialinnovation grassroots sustainability green activism urbanfarms urbanism urban participatoryplanning communityresponsibility community hellahernberg toread books helsinki cities https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d1aae598ed88/ Walking tour of Helsinki's architecture | Travel | The Observer 2012-06-10T17:34:37+00:00 http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2012/jun/10/walking-tour-helsinki-architecture?CMP=twt_gu robertogreco artek marimekko cheltenham bertramgoodhue secondglances stevenholl jugend walking cities worlddesigncapital alvaraalto architecture 2012 policy sitra design finland helsinki https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:510be06bb9ee/ COMPANY 2012-02-24T09:12:02+00:00 http://com-pa-ny.com/ robertogreco architecture clothing wearables glvo finland johanolin aamusong art helsinki fashion design wearable https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c65801420397/ Salakauppa (Secret Shop) 2012-02-24T09:06:19+00:00 http://www.salakauppa.fi/ robertogreco wearables clothing design belgium korea johanolin aamusong salakauppa finland helsinki wearable https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:cd5630d10e17/ Next month, as part of Helsinki’s status as Design... - Mrs Tsk * 2012-02-24T08:46:24+00:00 http://mrstsk.tumblr.com/post/17709443285 robertogreco nenetsuboi history marimekkosaunasystem aarnoruusuvuori helsinki design utopia 1985 1966 juhanipallasmaa marimekko jennasutela momus imomus finland armiratia 1962 https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:c42b94a80a7b/ Museum of the Near Future 1 - Anni Puolakka, Jenna Sutela, Anna Mikkola (Eds.) - ourpress 2012-02-24T08:17:14+00:00 http://www.mottodistribution.com/shop/museum-of-the-near-future-1.html robertogreco annamikkola annipuolakka jennasutela pop-upmuseums pop-upgalleries situationist urbanism urban lcproject glvo social pop-ups temporary participatory installations parasiticinstallations installation 2012 mottodistribution helsinki berlin finland books okdo museumofthenearfuture museums https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:2542ee36ee9f/ Laboratory — Art Space for Now 2012-02-12T07:31:05+00:00 http://www.laboratory.fi/ robertogreco pop-upgalleries viewmasters photography artspace openstudioproject lcproject glvo art helsinki finland https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:b0f29f75f07f/ INSPIRE / NEWS & ARTICLES | Design Indaba 2012-01-16T07:49:13+00:00 http://www.designindaba.com/article/pop-supping robertogreco 2012 trends temporary pop-uprestaurants pop-upcafes restaurants food international finland helsinki popup pop-ups https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:eff03fc2d943/ cityofsound: Essay: Happy Feelings at the Awakening of Finnish Spring*, Summer, Autumn / Helsinki, Spirit Level Cities, and Opaque Cities 2011-09-29T05:28:19+00:00 http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2011/09/happy-feelings-at-the-awakening-of-finnish-spring.html robertogreco helsinki finland cityofsound danhill cities urban urbanism 2011 https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:93d2e79f8de9/ Grey Area 2011-07-15T21:10:11+00:00 http://www.greyarealabs.com/ robertogreco games gaming greyarea location situationist helsinki urban urbanism play iphone ios finland shadowcities psychogeography https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:04a4b0689452/ Most liveable city: Helsinki [Monocle] 2011-06-19T18:51:49+00:00 http://www.monocle.com/sections/affairs/Web-Articles/Most-liveable-city-Helsinki/ robertogreco helsinki cities monocle 2011 finland urban urbanplanning urbanism small local scale design glvo parks art business collectives simplicity slowness appropriation life food development livability transformation https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:53a54499eba1/ Suomi-kuvaa / Basso 2011-06-19T18:34:17+00:00 http://www.basso.fi/suomi-kuvaa/ robertogrecohelsinki photography finland https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:80e50dc873b2/ Education Studio (HDL) - Helsinki Design Lab 2011-06-04T22:44:30+00:00 http://helsinkidesignlab.org/dossiers/education robertogreco finland sitra helsinki helsinkidesignlab education deschooling unschooling casestudies collaboration networks vocational designthinking lcproject tcsnmy holistic holisticapproach socialwelfare hierarchy access equality institutions empowerment agency personalagency change gamechanging civics innovation life lifeskills discourse transparency open openschools networkedlearning relevance oivallus https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:df47a27f06b4/ Mika Savela: One Day Restaurants 2011-05-25T05:49:13+00:00 http://mikasavela.tumblr.com/post/5797410209/one-day-restaurants robertogreco food helsinki via:javierarbona restaurants popuprestaurants restaurantday https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:fba46f01d4a2/ cityofsound: Snowfall, Helsinki 2011-02-13T17:06:51+00:00 http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2011/02/snowfall-helsinki.html robertogreco
Outside of the centre this is sometimes done with amateurs, which sounds unbelievably dangerous. I like the Helsingen Sanomat's pithy note of caution:

"It is dangerous enough when the snow comes down unexpectedly on people's heads - please do not add to the danger by coming down with it."

As a kind of impromptu urban performance, it's strangely compelling to watch. It's a great sound too—the clatter-and-scrape of hammers and shovels loosening the ice & snow, and the gentle whump as the snowfall hits the street below some seconds later. But again, it wasn't a day for hanging around."]]> helsinki finland snowdropping snowdroppers urban cityofsound danhill snow winter cities customs https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f088f2d4026b/ Sitra - Programme operations, funding and innovations 2010-08-11T05:05:58+00:00 http://www.sitra.fi/en/ robertogreco
Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund is an independent public fund which under the supervision of the Finnish Parliament promotes the welfare of Finnish society. Sitra’s responsibilities have been stipulated in law.

Since its establishment, Sitra’s duty has been to promote stable and balanced development in Finland, the qualitative and quantitative growth of its economy and its international competitiveness and co-operation. Our operations are governed by a vision of a successful and skilled Finland. We have always approached our operations with strong belief in the future and in the ability of the latest technology to generate well-being.

Promoting systemic changes as a visionary and an enabler"]]> finland design architecture innovation urbanism strategy government helsinki organizations future futures sustainability well-being wellbeing https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f2c2f3086c42/ OK Do 2010-08-11T03:44:14+00:00 http://www.ok-do.eu/ robertogreco finland thinktank helsinki okdo architecture art collaboration design future wabi-sabi unfinished imperfection tcsnmy lcproject https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:0ea116730207/ Clues to Open Helsinki ["Hello from Helsinki 2012"] 2010-08-11T03:38:25+00:00 http://cluestoopenhelsinki.fi/ robertogreco helsinki finland urbanplanning adamgreenfield publicspace design space futures public happiness open tcsnmy local designthinking gamechanging lcproject https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f0367681bbde/ jnd: An emergent vocabulary of form for urban screens « Adam Greenfield's Speedbird 2010-07-29T02:58:11+00:00 http://speedbird.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/jnd-an-emergent-vocabulary-of-form-for-urban-screens/ robertogreco helsinki ubicomp trends screens publicspace digitalmedia design photography advertising marketing displays urbanscreens adamgreenfield subtlety slow perception intriquing https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ec0085b9b4fd/ Helsinki, May-June 2010 - a set on Flickr 2010-07-05T22:49:23+00:00 http://www.flickr.com/photos/cityofsound/sets/72157624086186807/ robertogrecohelsinki finland danhill photography 2010 cityofsound https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:d0858055aec2/ cityofsound: Method designing 2010-07-05T21:18:01+00:00 http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2010/07/method-designing.html robertogreco mise-en-scène structureoffeeling danhill cityofsound design methoddesigning methodacting immersion cities helsinki literature understanding howwework howwelearn experience culture process tcsnmy classideas writing curating media strategy data synthesis context toshare topost https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:aa17b3d29d69/ cityofsound: Sunday May 16th, Helsinki and London 2010-07-05T20:37:55+00:00 http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2010/07/sunday-may-16th-helsinki-and-london.html robertogreco greatrecession london uk danhill finland helsinki airports cityofsound globalfinancialcrisis https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:dd49127c0832/ Portland and “elite cities”: The new model | The Economist 2010-04-19T05:20:41+00:00 http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15911324 robertogreco portland oregon cities us northamerica helsinki amsterdam stockholm vancouver bikes biking transportation publictransit https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:5338122d0b2b/ Hvitträsk | Museovirasto 2010-04-12T01:49:52+00:00 http://www.nba.fi/en/hvittrask_en robertogreco hvitträsk finland elielsaarinen eerosaarinen livework glvo homes design architecture lcproject coworking hermangesellius armaslindgren helsinki https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:52e1b3967907/ Charting the minutes of night in Helsinki - Core77 2010-01-17T21:11:53+00:00 http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/charting_the_minutes_of_night_in_helsinki_15725.asp robertogreco infographics visualization time light helsinki finland charts graphs daylight https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:cdd54348576b/ Art Meets Energy Consumption Visualization (in Helsinki) - information aesthetics 2010-01-17T21:05:34+00:00 http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/01/art_meets_energy_consumption_visualization.html robertogreco helsinki energy visualization electricity design art green installation finland consumption power https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f8ed9657e905/ Pablo 2009-11-30T06:52:28+00:00 http://www.pablo.fi/ robertogrecodesign video helsinki film sports finland https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:cdd624157de7/ Letter from Finland: Wired to care - meeting and exceeding customer expectations - Core77 2009-07-06T06:35:44+00:00 http://www.core77.com/blog/business/letter_from_finland_wired_to_care_meeting_and_exceeding_customer_expectations_13926.asp robertogreco finland helsinki government bureaucracy experience customerservice https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:ef274b46bc51/ Doors of Perception weblog: Aalto University 2009-06-09T00:21:27+00:00 http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/2009/05/post_43.php robertogreco aaltouniversity education helsinki finland missionstatements mission highereducation universities sustainability design resilience colleges problemsolving tcsnmy technology art society greatergood life well-being noblesseoblige wellbeing https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:47472c11a5fa/ Nuage Vert [see also: http://hehe.org.free.fr/hehe/pollstream/index.html] 2008-04-20T03:22:16+00:00 http://www.pixelache.ac/nuage-blog/ robertogreco activism sustainability technology helsinki design energy monitoring environment art visualization finland installation https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:6ce97a42db54/ cityofsound: Transport informatics 2008-04-16T14:03:40+00:00 http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2008/04/transport-infor.html robertogreco cities transportation bikes cars rail trains helsinki data information public visualization cityofsound mapping maps design carsharing zipcar walking buses transport transit urban urbanism urbancomputing railways railroads https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:6e7c23cd8fe9/ Younghee Jung » Blog Archive » surveillance techniques 2008-03-31T19:07:12+00:00 http://younghee.com/2008/03/27/surveillance-techniques/ robertogreco design signage signs surveillance technology ubicomp youngheejung everyware helsinki london tokyo https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:f6fbf1d0245b/ "Nuage Vert" - Artists Are Growing a Green Cloud in Helsinki 2008-01-31T20:28:51+00:00 http://www.core77.com/blog/events/nuage_vert_artists_are_growing_a_green_cloud_in_helsinki_8828.asp robertogreco datavisualization energy finland lasers activism art design environment behavior green information data visualization sustainability electricity helsinki installation https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:4c357c0e7068/ The end of the bus timetable | MetaFilter 2008-01-27T17:37:28+00:00 http://www.metafilter.com/68545/The-end-of-the-bus-timetable robertogreco everyware helsinki public transit urbancomputing locative mobile phones linux maps mapping transportation buses technology via:adamgreenfield https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:defa569ca8fd/ Helsinki Warming 2007-03-06T22:32:29+00:00 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2007/march/helsinki.php robertogreco cities finland helsinki technology design development urban urbanism https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:47f997737d73/ Global Fast Cities. 2007-02-09T17:48:11+00:00 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/100/open_global-fast-cities.html robertogreco business cities globalization innovation migration montreal helsinki dublin sydney vancouver world international creative english language technology diversity us tolerance https://pinboard.in/u:robertogreco/b:059ff19b8b70/