Design to create wellbeing

After just returning from a trip to Helsinki with the SSES White Label guys and meeting a host of energized entrepreneurs the city seems to be flagging itself up everywhere. First an old issue of Monocle listing Helsinki as 2011's most livable city, and then this post by John Thackara introducing the city as next year's World Design Capital

It'll be interesting to see what rolls out of this and what the cross over or emphasis on mental well-being is.

As Thackara says,

'If WDC 2012 marks the moment that we stop pretending that all design is marvelous, or even defensible, just because it is design, then great. If Aalto's designers and their city partners discover that wellbeing demands more creative innovation than they anticipated, and pens the way to a vast amount of new work, then better still.'

 http://observersroom.designobserver.com/johnthackara/post/world-capital-of-wellbeing/29988/