The Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture sit on parallel streets, facing in opposite directions. The space between them is filled with a little courtyard, and at the moment, that courtyard is filled with a little garden. “Rakennetaan puutarha” or “Let’s build a garden” is a pop-up urban farm and a collaboration between the two museums and the Children and Young People’s Gardening Association, designed to engage children with sustainable food production. A series of workshops are running throughout the summer, and people are invited to use the space for their own ideas. It’s a project that calls to mind the Hackney City Farm, and somehow seems less necessary in a city like Helsinki, flooded as it was when I was there with natural, seasonal produce like berries and peas. That said, it’s always good to see initiatives that connect children more closely with nature and help them to understand where their food comes from – and I very much enjoyed exploring it too!
I love the series of incredibly simple films that have been made showing some of the produce as it grows… (you can see all of them on my YouTube channel.)
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- out and about :: helsinki
- out and about :: helsinki design district
- out and about :: helsinki archiecture
