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