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Hanna Harris is to become Helsinki’s new Chief Design Officer

The city of Helsinki has made a bold that step other cities would be wise to follow. It has appointed its very own chief design officer. In 2016 Helsinki became the first city in the world to create this position, with a view to keeping ahead of the international competition as a design metropolis. This move is also intended to give a continuous, central voice to the city’s design-related issues and to the people who live there, so that they can truly have an impact. The first person to assume this role, Finnish design expert Anne Stenros, ensured that design had a strong voice right from the start. Hanna Harris will take over from Stenros in March 2020. Harris brings to the new role her in-depth experience in communicating and advocating for design and architecture. She was formerly Programme Director of the internationally renowned Helsinki Design Week for many years, and she most recently held the post of Director of Archinfo Finland, an organisation that promotes Finnish architecture both locally and internationally. In her first interview on the Helsinki Design Week website, Hanna Harris explains her vision for the job ahead.