During Vienna Design Week from September 27-October 6, 2013 the whole of the Austrian capital will be given over to design. The event showcases a broad range of Austrian and international products, furniture and industrial design creations, as well as experimental projects.
Vienna Design Week will draw all the leading lights on the international design scene to the Austrian capital. As the nation’s largest design festival, Vienna Design Week works closely with the city’s museums, and manufacturers and designers from all over the world to shed light on different approaches to the subject of design in more than 100 events, exhibitions and localized installations. In 2013 the event will shine the spotlight on Vienna’s fourth district, Wieden. The festival headquarters complete with infopoint, pop-up café and laboratory will be housed in a former school building at Argentinierstrasse 11. In a continuation of last year’s themes, the 2013 event will look at aspects ofsocial design and future urban mobility. One highlight is the high-caliber international Social Design – Public Action conference, which will take place at the University of Applied Art Vienna on September 26-27, 2013.
The Passionswege design paths are a permanent fixture on the Vienna Design Week schedule. This year they will bring together a group of ten Austrian and international designers with leading Viennese companies on a range of different projects. The 2013 line-up includes German designer Sebastian Herkner and luxury bed clothing and home textile store Zur schwäbischen Jungfrau, Bertille & Mathieu (France/Switzerland) and renowned glassmaker and chandelier manufacturer J. & L. Lobmeyr, as well as chmara.rosinke (Poland/Austria) and Viennese shirtmakers Wäscheflott. Under its Stadtarbeit (city work) focus, this year’s Vienna Design Week invites designers to present their ideas for social design projects before turning them into reality at the festival. The Debüt format gives up-and-coming talents a forum for sharing their vision.
Vienna’s role as a city of design is also the subject matter at the Vienna Design Fall, which gets under way at the same time as Vienna Design Week on September 26, 2013. The Blickfang (Oct 18-20, 2013,www.blickfang.com) and Wohndesign Pure (Nov 14-17, 2013, www.wohndesign-vienna.at) design fairs complete the picture. Vienna Design Fall even has its very own magazine and micro website with information on the participants, designers and various commercial enterprises involved.
