Makers of Helsinki : Brand New Helsinki

Online service to prevent moonlighting

“How can it be this difficult to pay wages?” This is a question that used to frustrate Janne Isosävi. He wanted to hire a part-time nanny for his children, but he could not get to grips with calculating statutory pension contributions, pay-as-you-earn income tax, social insurance contributions and unemployment insurance contributions. Even after spending a…

Children can learn several foreign languages before they even start school

“What if languages could be studied by dancing, singing and having fun with friends? Without having to put in any effort? That is exactly how Linguajoy works”, says the founder of the language school, Henrietta Kvist. “In our school, children between the ages of two and nine learn new languages by playing, reciting rhymes, doing…

Helsinki is like a big family

The Iranian Pouyan Mohseninia is a storyteller who has lived on three different continents. In Tehran, Sofia, New York, Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur, he observed the environment and people around him and told stories about them. Then, a couple of years ago, he moved to Helsinki. In modern terms, Pouyan is a media expert….

In Helsinki, you learn to share

Pensioners sit with lapdogs in the Market Square café. Cruise passengers who have celebrated a little too enthusiastically disembark. Fishmongers present their catch of pike. Friends ready for a picnic crowd onto the Suomenlinna ferry. With its seafood aromas, seagulls on the lookout to steal meat pasties and crowds of tourists, the Helsinki Market Square…

Sauna culture on the rise in Helsinki

Risto Elomaa, chairman of the International Sauna Society, has sat on sauna platforms for thousands of hours over the course of his life. Risto, who has pursued a career in foreign trade, has thrown water on hot sauna stones in locations ranging from Dar es Salaam and Soul to Siberia. The saunas this native-born resident…

Helsinki is luxurious even by Hollywood standards

“We are so privileged in Helsinki!” This is what actor Jasper Pääkkönen has often realised when he has shown his home city to foreign friends and watched their delighted reactions. “Every one of my guests in film and TV is amazed by Helsinki´s unique atmosphere. One Hollywood agent who has travelled here and there as…

Finland to set an example in everyday mathematics

Teaching maths rarely makes the headlines, but in recent weeks, things have been different. In the Finnish media, more and more stories have been told of pupils measuring floor space with shoes and building cubes out of sticks. Behind all the media attention is Maarit Rossi, maths teacher and CEO of the Paths to Math…

Diversity is Helsinki’s asset

”The fact that Helsinki has such diverse population generates the biggest challenges but also opportunities for the city. In a worst-case scenario, this can lead to segregation and increase general inequality. However, we must tap into the community-oriented spirit of Helsinki in order to bring together different people. A lonely, elderly person may live in…

When a city planner and a city dweller meet

Maija Mattila has worked as an interaction designer for the Helsinki City Planning Department since 2001. She admires how interested the people of Helsinki are in their own city, and how much the locals know about different thing related to the city and city planning. Information and good ideas. The Helsinki City Planning Department has…

Open, wide open, the Helsinki of the Future

Janne Kareinen, the developer of Arabianranta’s regional model of collaboration, didn’t want to interact with his neighbours when he was young. The birth of his first child took him to a new district, and during his paternity leave he found similar people at the edge of a sandpit. They had similar values and the ability…