No prizes for guessing the topic of this festival: the Vienna Design Week does what it says on the label, with an eclectic array of events across the city.
- Annual international festival of design held throughout Vienna
- Features both regular themes and one-off tracks
- 10 days or so of events for both professionals and the curious layperson
- 2020 dates: Sept 25 – Oct 4
- See also: Fesch’Markt Wien | Blickfang Design Fair
What’s the DESIGN WEEK all about?
The festival showcases design projects, innovations, processes, and approaches through a wide range of exhibitions, workshops, lectures, tours, and more throughout the city. In doing so, it presents design as an interdisciplinary endeavour, where aesthetics, sociopolitics, and practical application all meet. (Phew.)
A strong international flavour always runs through the programme.
Regular tracks include, for example:
- A guest country: this year, Switzerland takes up residence in Vienna
- A guest Viennese district: Meidling carries the baton in 2020. Like most of the traditional city districts, Vienna’s 12th district offers a classic mix of old and new, commercial and residential, historic and modern
- The Path of Passion: a track that brings together design and (small) industry
- Urban Food & Design: a track exploring new concepts in the realm of local food production, distribution, and consumption
The main location changes each year: the 2019 HQ, for example, was the Althan quarter, specifically the building above Franz Josephs Bahnhof railway station and site of an ambitious and ongoing urban development project.
In 2020, the official district government buildings complex hosts the festival. The Amtshaus sits close to the Theresienbad public baths (whose origins date back to the mid-18th century). This year also sees an expanded virtual festival HQ accompany proceedings.
Events typically take place throughout the city, with numerous programme partners contributing everything from exhibitions to one-off talks.
For full details of the festival and the myriad of associated events, visit the official website.
2020 dates
Vienna Design Week takes place from September 25th to October 4th, 2020.
How to get to the design week
As mentioned, events take place across the city. Here’s how best to reach the 2020 HQ, though: simply jump on the U4 to the Meidling Hauptstraße station, which practically adjoins the Amtshaus.
Address: Amtshaus Meidling, Theresienbadgasse, 1120 Vienna