The affordable housing conference the International Social Housing Festival (ISHF) starts June 14. The event brings together housing professionals, experts, researchers, developers, architects and designers from all around the world in Helsinki for four days.
More than 800 participants from 54 countries have already enrolled for the event.
The festival program comprises a total of approximately 80 seminars, site visits, workshops, exhibitions and networking events. The festival highlights interaction and learning from one another.
As part of the programme, the City of Helsinki is also organising walking tours of the Jätkäsaari and Mellunmäki areas. With the help of the tour maps, anyone can take the tour at their own leisure.
Jätkäsaari walking tour map (PDF)
Mellunmäki walking tour map (PDF)
The festival’s key idea is that throughout life, comfortable housing lays the foundation for good living for everyone: families, singles, youths, the elderly and the disabled.
During the festival, the event info desk will provide general guidance for visitors at the Helsinki City Hall Event Square in the main lobby from 8 am to 6 pm. The Event Square is also the venue for many festival seminars which will be openly webcast on the Helsinki-kanava site(Link leads to external service).
Helsinki invests in versatile housing production
In Helsinki, approximately one in five apartments are part of state-subsidised social housing production, and city-owned apartments have for a long time played an important role in housing provision. Reducing homelessness through the Housing First principle is also a Finnish success story that will be discussed in the festival.
In these times marked by climate change, future housing is a vital theme: how to combine affordability and sustainable development in housing. The topic is discussed in several seminars and workshops.
The main organiser of the ISHF festival in Helsinki is the Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland (ARA), and the main partners are the City of Helsinki and Housing Europe.
The ISHF festival is organised under the Housing Europe concept. The first festival took place in Amsterdam in 2017 and the next one in Lyon in 2019. After Helsinki, the festival will be organised in Barcelona.
International Social Housing Festival (ISHF), Helsinki 14–17 June 2022
More information and festival programme: https://socialhousingfestival.eu/(Link leads to external service)
Photo: The Generations' Block in Jätkäsaari, Kuvatoimisto Kuvio Oy / Anders Portman