Helsinki Design Lab - powered by Sitra
 

HDL is now closed. For more info, click here.

HDL Living Archive

Helsinki Design Lab's roots stretch back to 1968. In 2008 Sitra resurrected the initiative and operated it for five years. We are now closing this chapter of the project's life, and in doing so creating a living archive. Our intention is to open up the work of HDL as a useful platform for others who carry forward the mission of institutional redesign.

The full website will remain in place until at least the beginning of 2015. You are free to copy, remix, and extend the content here using a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license. Below we've curated a shortlist of useful posts from this site's history.

  • Basics
  • What does "lab" mean to HDL?
  • Defining our mission
  • How did HDL choose projects?
  • Marco explains strategic design
  • The 'bus schedule' story
  • Booting-up
  • Recruiting rules of thumb
  • Qualities to recruit for
  • Creating this website
  • Establishing a visual language
  • Operations
  • Projects as probes
  • The pivot
  • Going beyond 'open'
  • Cultures of decision-making
  • On Post-it Notes and Powerpoint
  • Examples of our work
  • A typical week at HDL
  • Sketching in the middle of a project
  • Small events
  • And of course the projects...
  • ... and publications
  • Other resources
  • UNICEF's guide to Innovation Labs
  • Labs: Designing the future
  • Dark Matter and Trojan Horses
  • HDL
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • About
  • Team
HDL Global A quick briefing with our Thursday moderators

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Posted by Bryan Boyer
September 1st, 2010
liveblog 
Creative Collaborations. Available now for free download. FREE BOOK Offering 19 rules of thumb to help individuals make the most of creative collaborations.

What is HDL?

Helsinki Design Lab uses strategic design to uncover the "architecture" of large-scale challenges and develop more holistic, complete solutions for improvement. We strive to advance knowledge, capability, and achievement in this discipline, regardless of geography or nationality. HDL most recently operated 2009-2013 and is now closed.

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Categories

  • Announcements
  • Competencies
  • Elsewhere at Sitra
  • Field Reports
  • HDL Global
  • HDL Studios
  • Weeknotes

Authors

  • Bryan Boyer (195)
  • Dan Hill (21)
  • Justin W. Cook (1)
  • Kalle Freese (2)
  • Maija Oksanen (1)
  • Marco Steinberg (14)
  • Seungho Lee (2)

Memory lane (5 random posts)

  • Once They See, They Will Believe
    We had a great time in London getting to know the brilliant people from the Helen Hamlyn Centre. Marco already introduced you to the ideas they...
  • Weeks 127-128
    INDEX Awards party. Catching up, catching up. As predicted, Autumn is here and the pace is picking up. Several of us are just back...
  • Week 133
    It's happening again. The timeline between the end of week and our weeknote going live is slipping. This is mostly due to the fact that we're at a...
  • That's a wrap
  • Space as a capability
    Announcing a new approach to space exploration yesterday, President Obama shifted the focus from getting somewhere to building...
  • Elsewhere
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Vimeo (videos)
    Flickr (photos)
  • Contact
    Sitra
    Itämerentori 2
    00181 Helsinki
    Finland
  • All content under a
    Creative Commons
    Attribution ShareAlike

    license. Remix, re-use,
    re-assemble!
  • Thanks to every-
    one who helped
    make HDL great.
  • Terms of Service