Since its inception, VIENNA DESIGN WEEK has been bringing together international and Austrian designers with Viennese craft businesses as part of its Passionswege (Paths of Passion) format. For this year's edition, the sought-after design duo Swedish Girls and designer Kai Linke, who lives and works in this year's GAST region, the World Design Capital 2026 Frankfurt RheinMain, have been recruited. In tandem with Cucina Alchimia (Swedish Girls) and Schnitzstube Stadlhofer (Linke), the designers are creating installations that will be presented in their respective workshops from 25 September to 5 October 2025 and celebrated at a cocktail event on Friday, 26 September 2025, from 4 to 10 p.m.

Passionswege – Dialogue between design and craftsmanship

Passionswege is the oldest format of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK and one of its international flagships. Since 2024, it has been under the patronage of the Wientourismus. In 2025, Passionswege will once again bring together international designers and Viennese craftspeople. Free from commercial constraints, VIENNA DESIGN WEEK fosters creative dialogue that opens up new perspectives on both disciplines. The projects are shown directly in the workshops – where the collaboration takes place. This makes the traditional businesses that are so important to Vienna visible and demonstrates the vitality of craftsmanship. The Passionswege invite visitors to discover design as part of the city: experimental, open, approachable – and with a lot of personality.

Swedish Girls with Cucina Alchimia

The internationally acclaimed design duo Swedish Girls – Mira Bergh and Josefin Zachrisson – will meet Cucina Alchimia at Passionswegen 2025. The group consists of Sendi Gbinia, Jakob Bretterbauer and Michael Moser and works at the intersection of gastronomy, performance and craftsmanship. As designers who rethink everyday life and question it with humour in their projects, Swedish Girls encounter Cucina Alchimia, which works in an equally conceptual, interactive and material-conscious way. Their dialogue promises a poetic and experimental intervention that is as sensual as it is sensitive, in which taste, design and social issues converge.

Mira Bergh and Josefin Zachrisson live in Milan and Stockholm and work with objects and installations, pursuing a conceptual and experimental approach. With their interest in interaction and materiality, Swedish Girls move between art, design and architecture. The works of the duo, which has been in existence since 2019, have been presented in institutions and on platforms such as ArkDes in Stockholm, the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg, the Kunsthal Aarhus, at the Mayrit Biennial in Madrid and several times at Alcova in Milan. 

Cucina Alchimia designs rituals, objects, experiences and installations. The restaurant and studio are located in Vienna's 13th district and are considered one of the most exciting food culture venues in the city.

Designer Kai Linke, who lives and works in the heart of the GAST region, encounters a piece of Alpine tradition that has taken root in Vienna at Passionswege 2025: Schnitzstube Stadlhofer. No stranger to craftsmanship himself, Linke immerses himself in the world of carving, flat carving and relief carving together with passionate carvers and course instructors Franz and Andrea Stadlhofer. Linke, known for his conceptually strong furniture design, encounters a craft rooted in rural tradition, whose fascination the Stadlhofers have brought into the present day. The creative exchange has resulted in objects in which sensitive design becomes a link between ancient knowledge, personal expertise and storytelling.

Studio Kai Linke was founded in 2009. The internationally acclaimed design studio's award-winning projects have been featured in numerous publications, exhibitions and permanent collections, including those of the Norwegian National Museum in Oslo, Galila's P.O.C. in Brussels and the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt. In 2021, Kai Linke conceived and designed the German pavilion ‘Spoon Archaeology’ at the London Design Biennale. Since 2022, he has been teaching in the Product Design Department at the Brüder Grimm Berufsakademie Hanau, where he has held a professorship since 2025.

The Stadlhofer carving workshop, founded in 1995 on Lake Weissensee in Carinthia, specialises in techniques ranging from notch and flat carving to relief carving. Everyday objects are carved – from vases, candlesticks and clocks to furniture and furnishings. In addition to individual commissions, the Stadlhofers offer carving courses and an extensive range of tools and raw lime wood. The Vienna location has been in existence since 2010.