Habitare invites you to touch

One of the Nordic region’s leading furniture, interior, and design events, Habitare, returns to the Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre from 10–14 September 2025. This year’s theme, Touch, explores our human need to experience, feel, and physically engage with objects and spaces. It encourages a multi-sensory approach to environments, invites genuine curiosity, and reveals emotion through surfaces — offering a tactile counterpoint to our increasingly digital world.

Wood so soft you can’t stop stroking it. A scent that moves you because it reminds you of grandma. A surface you want to tap to see if it’s hollow or solid. A piece of material whose knock echoes childhood memories of playing Dominoes. Fingertips, palms, noses, ears, soles of the feet — they all sense alongside us as we experience spaces and objects. This year at Habitare, we dive deep into the world of touch. “In a world that is increasingly technical and distant, we long for things around us that feel like something,” summarizes Habitare’s Creative Advisor, Päivi Helander. 

The Habitare event spans three halls, each offering a variety of themed areas, exhibitions, stages, and exhibitors from the same product category all in one place. Visitors can look forward to multisensory experiences and in-depth discussions that explore the significance of touch and space in line with the event’s theme. Speakers on the main stage include Ellen Jokikunnas, who renovated a home in Italy, Hakola’s Creative Director Annaleena Hakola, the creative director of the iconic Moomins James Zambra, and Swedish designer Matti Klenell.

Habitare’s new design-focused area, The Block, showcases emerging designers, fresh product ideas, and the companies that bring these products to life. In the Habitare Talents exhibition, visitors can explore the work of four early-career designers who already have a distinct personal style and proven expertise. Designers Lennart Engels, Reeta Laine, Anton Mikkonen, and Santeri Mortti present inventive solutions, including an innovation that repurposes used sauna stones from Helsinki’s public saunas as a building material.

Similarly, Habitare Protos, located within The Block area, presents fresh product ideas from 11 emerging designers. The exhibition combines traditional craftsmanship with experimental materials, such as bacterial cellulose. While the prototypes draw inspiration from history, reinterpretations result in bold and distinctive creations. Participating designers include Estelle Bourdet & Mari Koppanen, Eevi Hautanen & Emilia Lonka, Kirsikka Heiskari, Jade Huculak, Ossi Karvonen, Josh Krute, Janne Pärssinen, Annika Tuovinen, and Rita Vaali. Both exhibitions are curated and produced by Imu Design.

“We see recognizable materials in new applications as well as aesthetically intriguing approaches,” says curator Saara Renvall from Imu Design.

This year, the Habitare Choice area, featured for the third time at Habitare, showcases trends and solutions that make responsible choices easier and more meaningful. Curated by interior stylist Susanna Vento, the area presents products from over 20 companies with a significance beyond the objects themselves. For example, the Piilo box by Sari Niemi and Pentagon Design encourages mindful phone use and focus on what truly matters, while Saara Renvall’s ecological and timeless Uurna collection explores the aesthetics of the final object without gendered or religious symbolism. Habitare Choice also offers a variety of hands-on workshops, where participants can practice yoga, create ceramics, floral arrangements, meadow seed mixes, and fragrances.

At The Block area, visitors will also encounter the acclaimed Habitare Materials & Objects section, first showcased at Milan Design Week to great success. Curated by NEMO architects, this interactive materials library invites exploration of a wide range of materials and their potential applications. The displays are designed to be both visually engaging and practical: each sample is accompanied by product information that can be easily photographed and taken along for future use. The strong reception in Milan demonstrated that this is far more than an exhibition – it is a unique concept with significant international appeal and a genuine impact on the field of design.

Explore the full Habitare program here.
Register as a professional visitor here.

Photo: Habitare Theme, Aleksi Tikkala