Arctic Design Week is the world’s most northern design week bringing people together from all different backgrounds, industries and countries.
Each February design experts and enthusiasts gather to Rovaniemi, the Official Hometown of Santa Claus on the Arctic Circle. A range of events from seminars to brunches and open-air shows to design competitions cater for every visitor, all under the unifying theme of “Arcticness.” Arctic Design Week seeks to give design a fresh platform and highlights the vital role design plays in our lives.
Experience Arctic culture and design right at its frosty source
The Arctic climate offers enormous possibilities but also poses some intriguing challenges for design from the viewpoints of housing, construction, infrastructure, travel, well-being and tourism. With the temperature well below zero, the landscape covered with pure white snow, day light hours minimal, and night skies lit with aurora borealis in the winter, or quite the opposite, with 24 hours of sunlight in the summertime, Rovaniemi is precisely the right platform for Arctic design.
The Arctic design perspective combines the demands of Arctic conditions, top research and training in the field, expertise of creative industries and northern culture. The city of Rovaniemi, the enterprises in the region as well as the Arctic Centre and Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland are experts on the field and committed to develop through Arctic design.
Rovaniemi is recognized as one of the design centers in the National Design Program, and Arctic design is included in the National Arctic Strategy. The city of Rovaniemi has gathered considerable experience in urban design, planning and architecture, snow maintenance, winter technology and transportation and urban culture in Arctic conditions. Rovaniemi is a functional lively city throughout the year.