Romanian Design Week, the multidisciplinary festival dedicated to creative industries, organised by The Institute and presented by UniCredit Bank, announces the complete agenda of this year's edition, which will take place between May 24 and June 2.
With the theme "Unlock the City," the 2024 edition of Romanian Design Week aims to explore the methods through which creativity and innovation can shape the cities of the future and contribute to the exploration of Bucharest and the discovery of its potential, its creative spaces, and the cultural projects or organisations that animate and define them.
"This year's edition aims to facilitate a reconnection of residents with urban environments and local communities, highlighting the important role of creative industries in revitalising and reimagining the city. Romanian Design Week 2024 is a call to explore the creative potential of Bucharest and discover the unexplored layers of the creative-cultural organisations that inhabit it. Through the extensive programme of events on the festival's agenda, we aim to encourage walking tours of neighbourhoods and meetings with the organisations, businesses, studios, designers, and architects that animate and define it, contributing together to the development of a dynamic and optimistic urban environment." - Raluca Mirel, Project Director of Romanian Design Week.
In 2024, Romanian Design Week introduced eight unique formats to encourage Bucharest residents to explore the creative identity of specific areas of the city. This initiative aims to establish spaces for dialogue and actively involve the community in the co-creation of a more welcoming city, as follows:
RDW Design GO! redraws the city map alongside dozens of independent businesses and creatives, creating new routes and objectives and proposing themes for reflection. With a diverse programme, this format becomes a platform for multidisciplinary dialogue and exchange, addressing the general public, consumers of design, and professionals, highlighting the concentrated energy of the city and its creative richness.
RDW Exhibition promotes professionals in local creative industries by presenting the best architecture and design projects carried out in the past year. The exhibition features over 200 projects in six categories: Architecture, Interior Design, Graphic Design, Product Design, Fashion Design, and Illustration. The projects are carefully selected from a large range of entries and validated by the RDW Community, before being chosen by teams of local and international curators. The exhibition aims to connect specialists with the current architecture and design scene in Romania and to raise the standards of local projects collectively.
RDW Design Flags returns to the festival programme, bringing before the public a series of exhibitions, projects, and relevant creatives in their fields, at an international level. This format serves as a bridge between local architecture and design and the international community. It offers a range of themes, approaches, and representations of architecture and design. The event is developed in conjunction with cultural institutes, embassies, and local cultural-creative organisations, and it highlights the valuable contributions of designers and architects from around the world.
RDW Young Design presents the public this year with a series of young designers and architects who have distinguished themselves at the DIPLOMA Show festival. This exhibition aims to showcase the perspectives and ideas of the new generation of creative minds. It also encourages conversations between industry experts and the future professionals of the design world. The event celebrates graduates' accomplishments and highlights their innovative projects, contributing to the development and promotion of young talent from Romania.
RDW Concept Store is a space dedicated to the consumption of Romanian design, presenting a selection of local designers and brands. Here, the public can explore and purchase unique products, thus encouraging the commercial relevance of local design. Apart from showcasing products, RDW Concept Store hosts a series of curated events, including designer meetups, product tastings, presentations, and informal meetings between brands and consumers.
RDW Social fosters a vibrant, creative community by organising events and facilitating dialogue and collaboration for local designers. This format offers a relaxed environment for meeting new partners and collaborators, discovering initiatives to support and encourage, and developing projects to raise the standards of local creative industries.
RDW Talks promotes the most creative minds in Romania in dialogue with international professionals, addressing current themes of the global architecture and design scene. This format aims to offer the public new perspectives on the evolution of creative industries, to outline the relationship and interaction with the city, and to stimulate discussions and exchanges of constructive ideas.
Noaptea Studiourilor de Arhitectură proposes a special evening where architects open their offices and workspaces to present the latest projects to the general public and to organise social events. This format offers the public a unique opportunity to meet the people behind the projects that are changing the city and to explore the diversity of local architecture through a circuit visiting several neighbourhoods of Bucharest.
The formats thus offer Bucharest residents the opportunity to explore and experience the creative diversity of the city. Through them, Romanian Design Week aims to create a more dynamic urban environment full of opportunities for exploration and interaction.
For further information, please visit the Romanian Design Week website, Facebook page, and Instagram account.
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Romanian Design Week is a project by The Institute.
Presented by: UniCredit Bank
Strategic media partners: PRO TV, Kiss FM, Euromedia, YOOH
Media partners: Radio România Cultural, Igloo, Haute Culture, Revista BIZ, Revista Zeppelin, Molecule F, Designist, Modernism, B365.ro, feeder.ro, munteanurecomandă.ro, Propagarta, Revista Atelierul, IQAds, RADOR, Agerpres, Zile și Nopți, Spotmedia, PRwave, Glamour, The Woman, Happening, Inspirationist, Arthood, Metropolis, ALIST Magazine, Dreamingof.net, Daily Magazine, Nine O’Clock
Creative team: Radu Manelici, Claudia Draghia, Sebastian Pren & Policromic
Monitoring partner: MediaTrust