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
- 2023 dates: Sept 22 – Oct 1
- See also:
What’s the DESIGN WEEK all about?
(Urban Food track 2022; press photo © Herd Open Kitchen – Vienna Design Week)
Design Week showcases design projects, innovations, processes, and approaches through a wide range of exhibitions, workshops, lectures, tours, and more throughout the city.
In doing so, the festival 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 Viennese district: Brigittenau carried the baton in 2021, for example, and 2022 saw the honour pass to the 6th district (Mariahilf)
- 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 2022 HQ, for example, was split across three locations:
- The “Gasse” at Esterházygasse 22
- The “Gewölbe” at Rahlgasse 8
- The “Gstätten” at Mollardgasse 50
The 2021 HQ set up store in industrial and office premises on Sachsenplatz square (named for the participation of troops from Saxony on the Austrian side at the 1866 Battle of Königgrätz).
And, in 2020, the official Meidling district government buildings complex hosted the festival. The Amtshaus sits close to the Theresienbad public baths (whose origins date back to the mid-18th century). That event also saw an expanded virtual festival HQ accompany proceedings.
Design Week events typically take place throughout the city, however, with numerous programme partners contributing everything from exhibitions to one-off talks.
For full details of the festival and the myriad of associated activities, visit the official website.
2023 dates
The 2023 festival runs from September 22nd to October 1st.