VIENNA DESIGN WEEK NEWS 1/2025 — Vienna Design Week

I'm sure you've all already noted it in your diary:
The 19th VIENNA DESIGN WEEK will take place from 26 September to 5 October 2025.

What's new? A fresh new look, the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region as GUEST and ageing as the theme for FOKUS. Successful projects such as the Vienna Business Agency's Biofabrique Vienna and our social design format Stadtarbeit supported by Erste Bank's sponsorship programme - Vermehrt Schönes!

Three open calls are currently open for applications. Details can be found below. But we are also working hard on the Passionswege, Design Everyday and Re:Form - more on these in the near future.

And there's already a lot going on here: in parallel to the preparations for the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, we are presenting young motion design every month in the RADO Boutique.

OPEN CALLS 2025

DESIGN IT YOURSELF! TAKE PART YOURSELF!
We are not only looking forward to your visit, but also to you becoming an active part of the festival. There are currently three OPEN CALLS for participation in VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2025, covering different topics and target groups. And as different as the conditions of participation are, they are all an invitation to become part of this diverse design festival.

Stadtarbeit
ARCHIVES FOR THE FUTURE
Call for social design projects
apply until 4.5.2025

AGEING
Call for objects
apply until 31.5.2025

PLATFORM
BECOME A PARTNER
Call for exhibitors
apply until 1.6.2025

VIENNA DESIGN OFFICE ON THE ROAD

Not only do we work all year on preparing for the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK in autumn, we also network nationally and internationally. This is good for the festival, but also for the local design scene.

Would you like to meet us? Please get in touch with Laura Winkler.

The VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2025 team, photographed by Yasmina Haddad, from left to right: Alma Fiala, Christoph Wimmer, Gabriel Roland (Director), Laura Winkler, Alexandra Brückner, Alix Rauschgold, Julia Harbarda

PLATFORM 2025

We are particularly pleased to present the first high-calibre PLATFORM partners who have already confirmed their participation in VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2025: Bo:IA - Bund Österreichischer Innenarchitektur, Christine König Galerie, Collegicum Hungaricum Wien with Budapest Metropolitan University, CTRL-D, Design in Gesellschaft, designaustria, design. mikimartinek, feinedinge*, FILOSOFI, RAFT Collective, Hotel MOTTO, IKEA, JOYH Design, Korea Cultural Centre Vienna, LAUFEN, LOBMEYR, MAK - Museum of Applied Arts, magdas HOTEL, Möbelmuseum Wien, New Design University, The Social Hub Vienna, University of Applied Arts Vienna and Vöslauer.

Would you also like to be part of the festival? Contact us and we will discuss individual possibilities. You can find all the information here.

FOKUS: Ageing

Sandra Nuut, guest curator

‘Design has a complex relationship with age. Designers create objects that are not only themselves marked by time, but whose wear and tear also reveals a lot about ourselves.’ - Sandra Nuut

For the new edition of the group exhibition FOKUS, VIENNA DESIGN WEEK invites Estonian curator Sandra Nuut as guest curator. Her chosen theme: Ageing.

Sandra Nuut teaches, writes and curates projects. Before her appointment at the Estonian Museum of Applied Arts and Design in 2022, she worked at the Estonian Academy of Fine Arts and at the New York gallery Chamber.

GAST 2025

World Design Capital 2026 Frankfurt RheinMain
Former host country, now GUEST! As of late, not only countries can be GUESTS at the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, but also cross-border regions, districts or cities. However, the core of this central festival section remains the same: a detailed insight into the creative work of a GUEST. They have the opportunity to present themselves with an extensive programme based on a central exhibition on current design positions. The VIENNA DESIGN WEEK is increasingly inviting designers from the guest's environment across all formats.

MOVING MATERIALS

We're getting things moving!

In collaboration with the Swiss watch manufacturer Rado, the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK will be showing new works by six motion designers over the coming months. As part of the ‘Rado Moving Materials’ competition, they will have the unique opportunity to make an impression on the Rado Boutique's video wall with installations created especially for the location.

From March to August, a new animation will be shown one week per month. During the festival, all the works will then be shown again - and it will be announced which of the six projects has won the Rado Moving Materials Prize.

The six participants: Jakob Jakubowski (AT), Alexandra Dzhiganskaya (UA/AT), Gabrielle Schauerhuber (BRA), Vincent Wagner (AT), Celine Hurka (NL), Verena Repar (AT)

viennadesignweek.at/moving-materials/

MANY THANKS
to all partners of the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK!

Would you also like to get involved as a sponsor with your company? We look forward to hearing from you.