The UN World Happiness Report is launched yearly in March, and Finland is one thing of a fixture on the prime of the desk. The Scandinavian nation has been designated the happiest on the earth for the final eight years, main us to marvel: what system has it perfected that makes its inhabitants so content material?
To collate the World Happiness Report the Wellbeing Analysis Centre on the College of Oxford asks a pattern group from 140 international locations to price how good their life is, from one to 10. Fins averaged a rating of seven.736. The examine credit issues like entry to nature and robust social assist as contributing components to the rating, whereas Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, says his nation’s happiness rests on the three pillars of nature, belief and schooling. However Fins additionally profit from a superb outlook, dwelling their lives (as lore has it) by the philosophy of ‘sisu’, which interprets as ‘grit’, ‘dedication’ or ‘resilience’.
From the place we’re standing, Finland has so much to shout about, dwelling to an ever-growing cohort of design-led motels (and their idyllic spas), distinctive eating places and pioneering cultural establishments. Right here, we shine a light-weight on the place to remain, eat and go when visiting this Nordic nation to your greatest probability of imbibing some Finnish cheer.
The lodge: Solo Sokos Pier 4
(Picture credit score: Solo Sokos Pier 4)
Helsinki’s new arrival, designed by native studio Anttinen Oiva Architects, is constructed utterly from timber. The ‘sustainable area’, which is located throughout the metropolis’s harbour’s Katajanokan Laituri, boasts proximity to nature, makes use of home uncooked supplies, and shares a constructing with the headquarters of Finnish forestry firm Stora Enso. Wallpaper* not too long ago spent the night time at 164-room Solo Sokos Pier 4, reporting a soothing atmosphere permeated by the scent of pine and enhanced by the great thing about the Finnish seascape.
sokoshotels.fi
The restaurant: Finlandia Bistro
(Picture credit score: Fyra)
Finlandia Corridor, constructed by Finnish modernist icon Alvar Aalto in 1971, has turn out to be a nationwide landmark. The live performance and congress venue, positioned in Helsinki’s Töölö Bay, has not too long ago undergone a refresh, together with the opening of Finlandia Corridor Bistro, which permits diners to eat in environment that nod to Aalto’s heritage. Moody, cocooning interiors by Fyra are dressed with modernist items in addition to up to date objects by the Finnish Design Store. The meals can be a tribute to Finnish craftsmanship, this time of the gastronomic selection, platforming native components and flavours.
finlandiatalo.fi
The bar: Jackie
(Picture credit score: Jackie)
Set within the coronary heart of Punavuori, Helsinki, moving into Jackie is like stepping again in time. The area is steeped within the design language of the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies; designer Joanna Laajisto was apparently given a playlist of Italian lounge and French disco music to encourage her. Come right here for pizza till 11pm and drinks till 3am on weekends, when DJs play vintage-inspired hits within the subtle setting, all leather-based upholstery and walnut furnishings.
jackie.fi
The spa: Panorama Panorama Resort and Forest Spa
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Rintala Eggertsson Architects)
A few issues spring to thoughts when one thinks about Finland, and one in every of them is rolling round within the snow (after heating your self to boiling level in a sauna, in fact). A very good place to do that is the Lähde Forest Spa on the Panorama Panorama Resort, dwelling to a few saunas and 5 cold and warm swimming pools fed by a pure spring with views over Lake Syväri. The lodge’s hanging suites are designed by Finnish architect Sami Rintala, and mix into the bewitching panorama of Tahko in japanese Finland.
panoramahotel.fi
The museum: Sara Hildén Artwork Museum
Set up view, Jean-Michel Othoniel, ‘Beneath an Limitless Mild’ at Sara Hildén Artwork Museum, Tampere, Finland, 2024
(Picture credit score: © Jean-Michel Othoniel / ADAGP, Paris,2024.)
This gallery is a fixture within the Finnish metropolis of Tampere. It hosts a revolving door of exhibitions (equivalent to Jean-Michel Othoniel’s solo present in 2024 and, exhibiting till 18 Might 2025, a retrospective of Finnish painter Heikki Marila) with a concentrate on worldwide fashionable and up to date artwork, in addition to the everlasting assortment of the Sara Hildén Basis, which comprises greater than 5,000 works together with these by Joan Miró, Francis Bacon, Paul Klee and Alberto Giacometti. The constructing is an attraction in itself, designed by Pekka Ilveskoski Architects in 1979 on the gorgeous shores of Lake Näsijärvi.
sarahildenintaidemuseo.fi
Supply: Wallpaper
