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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
Education Studio (2010) Dossier Population At A Glance

The population of Finland is 5.3 million

  • 59,530 births in 2008
  • 21.8% of population is under the age 19
  • 10.3% of the population is between the ages 7-16 [Primary Education]
  • 3.8% of the population is between the ages 17-19 [secondary Education]

Finland is getting older

  • In twenty years (2030), the population of Finland is projected to increase 8.8%
  • The younger population under the age fifteen will increase 6.3%
  • The elderly population above the age sixty-five will increase 61.6%

Finland is becoming more diverse

  • Since the year 2000...
  • Foreign nationals living in Finland increased 55% to 143,000 foreigners
  • Immigration increased 72% to 29,000 new immigrants
  • Naturalized citizenship increased 124% to 6,700 new citizens

In the early 1990's, only 1% of the population in Finland was a foreigner. Today, that number is closer to 3%.


Finland's student population reflects this increasing diversity


Finland is becoming more educated

  • In 2008, 65.5% of the population had a degree or educational qualifications 1.25 million students are enrolled in education leading to a qualification or degree
  • 22% population is currently a student


Latest from the Education Studio (2010) dossier

Part pin up board, link list, white paper, and notepad, the HDL Dossiers are a tool to capture information and knowledge related to our Studio focus areas as they continue to evolve on an ongoing basis.

More from this dossier

  • Education Studio Summary
    Through conversations with students, teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders, the studio discovered a number of embedded assumptions about...
  • Health
    Similar to other developed nations, the Finnish population is becoming a more sedentary and physically less active one with notable health...
  • Families
    The family is still the dominant social unit in Finland; however, contemporary family life has changed from the traditional nuclear family...
  • Opportunity Space
    This is an excerpt from the HDL Challenge Briefing on Education Finland must transform its education system for the twenty-first century....
  • The Challenge
    This is an excerpt from the HDL Challenge Briefing on Education With the rise of the global economy comes a constant flow of money, goods and...

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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