It’s interesting how the city almost slumbers during the colder months, and then suddenly awakens with the first rays of sunshine,” says Toni Kostian, owner of Michelin-starred Grön, one of the stars of Helsinki’s culinary scene. Summer is coming, and his city is indeed wide awake. And most likely smiling: for the eighth consecutive year running, the UN World Happiness Report has ranked Finland as the happiest nation in the world.
In its capital, though, the root of happiness isn’t considered to lie in extravagance or materialism. Here, it’s about things that are both smaller and more profound. Among Finns, the general consensus is that happiness is intangible in everyday life; but whatever it is, it leans more toward contentment than it does pure bliss.
Before the war in Ukraine, Helsinki was a convenient and appealing stopover for travellers connecting from Asia and Europe. Today, it’s more of a stopover for travellers visiting Santa Claus in Lapland. But the compact capital is worth a longer and deeper focus. In 2024, it was deemed the world’s most sustainable travel destination by the Global Destination Sustainability Index, thanks in part to how many of its hotels – among them the Hotel Maria and the Hotel St George – are Green Key-certified. The city is accessible size-wise; it never overwhelms. Its downtown is walkable and generally easy to get around, thanks to an excellent and reliable public transport network.
“I often think how conveniently sized Helsinki is. It’s a human-sized city, small enough to be easily understood,” says Finnish designer Samu-Jussi Koski. It’s very clean, and the median quality of life is high, compared to other cities worldwide. The tap water is, stated as objectively as possible, delicious – among the best in the world.
There is a calmness not often associated with big capitals; it’s not far-fetched to describe Helsinki as a wholesome city. “Helsinki has quiet confidence,” says Koski. “People move and live with a sense of lightness. It’s calm but not boring, humble but not shy.” The culture’s innate informality – Finnish society embraces egalitarianism – plays its part, as does a sense of trust that exists both between individuals and in institutions. Privacy and personal space are respected (there is truth in the meme of Finns standing at a bus stop several metres apart from one another). But the sincerity and friendliness of its citizens is one of Helsinki’s greatest strengths.
One could argue that Helsinki is an artificial city, inasmuch as it didn’t form naturally around its location; instead, it was founded by King Gustav Vasa of Sweden in 1550 to serve as a commercial rival to Reval (now Tallinn, lying across the Gulf of Finland in Estonia). In 1809, Finland became part of Russia, and Helsinki the capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland. The location, between east and west, has always played a significant part in the city’s existence, and time has made it resilient. Today, Helsinki is international and bilingual, with Finnish and Swedish as official languages.
Despite the fact that many, many buildings were regrettably demolished in the 1960s, the city’s downtown remains a vivid ensemble of neoclassical architecture (especially notable is the Senate Square by Carl Ludvig Engel), art nouveau, modernist masterpieces by the likes of Eliel Saarinen and Alvar Aalto, and contemporary wooden buildings such as the Central Library Oodi and Solo Sokos Hotel Pier 4. Nature, meanwhile, is always close, whether in the form of Helsinki’s many parks or its 131km shoreline along the Baltic Sea, with its hundreds of islands (327, to be exact). Green spaces, managed by the city, occupy more than 30 per cent of the land area; parks and public forests are open to Helsinkians around the clock.
“Of course we also have different and growing inequality, like most other advanced societies,” says Kaarina Gould, who is leading the development of the new Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design, scheduled to open in 2030. “But every Helsinkian has the chance to enjoy the forest and the sea that are part of this city, enjoy affordable cultural services, and experience a true participation in the city’s decision-making.”
Between 2017 and 2021, the municipality’s strategy was to be “the most functional city in the world”, cultivating a hassle-free, convenience-rich environment for its citizens. This doesn’t mean it hasn’t faced challenges in defining itself but, civically, there is perpetual desire to progress. “Helsinki is constantly growing and evolving, and so is its restaurant and cultural scene,” says Grön’s Kostian.
Katja Hagelstam, founder of the contemporary art and design Lokal Gallery, traces the first meaningful shifts to 2011 and 2012. “It was [to do with] Helsinki being the World Design Capital,” she says, “and with the launch of events like Restaurant Day, during which anyone could sell any kind of food, and sell it from wherever – it could be a basket of food sent down from an apartment window”. Given such grassroots initiatives had traditionally been stymied by the city’s cumbersome bureaucracy and permit requirements, “it was a real turning point”.
As with its Nordic neighbours, Finland’s design is renowned for clean lines, functionality and lack of unnecessary embellishments. (The stunning new terminal at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, designed by ALA Architects, is a great first preview.) Helsinki is the best place to delve into its history – and score great finds. Beyond the flagship stores of the classics, such as Marimekko, Iittala and Artek, there is a thriving second-hand market, with rarer Finnish vintage objects available at specialist dealers, among the best of which are Artek 2nd Cycle and Kruuna. Lokal Gallery, as well as designer Samu-Jussi Koski’s project, Jeans & Towels, launched in 2023, offer a peek into the booming contemporary creative field. The pursuit of design, both making and learning, is actively encouraged: Gould’s ambitious museum is just one testament to it. “Our objective is to help each visitor understand how design and architecture are used to build better, more sustainable – and happier – communities and societies,” she says.
She also notes that one of the most satisfying evolutions in the city is its thriving restaurant scene, with new, ambitious food concepts that explore the intersections between design and food – something that will be showcased in her museum. Helsinki’s restaurants deserve more praise than they get for shaping contemporary Nordic cuisine. Kostian’s Grön stands for world-class fine dining, done locally. “We have our own garden in Sipoo [a suburb of the city], from which we get herbs, edible flowers and vegetables during the warmer months,” he says. In concept and execution, Finnish food is clean and healthy, with a focus on fish, berries, vegetables and mushrooms. “The Finnish kitchen is still rather young and developing,” adds Kostian. He reinterprets summer classics at Grön: a Finnish fish soup matches the season’s new potatoes with pikeperch and caviar, while cream-filled strawberries infused with cardamom and topped with wood sorrel are a tribute to classic strawberries and cream.
Last but far from least: it would unthinkable to write about Helsinki without mentioning the sauna. Today, Finnish sauna culture is Unesco-listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage, and with 3.3 million of them in regular use across the country, they play a significant role in home (and cottage, and city) life. Clean water and air, timeless design, a walk in nature, a well-heated sauna: ask any Finn, and they will likely say that happiness does not need to be complicated – it can be found in any combination of these things. All of them are ones that, happily, Helsinki does best.
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