The Institute opens the 11th edition of Romanian Design Week, a project powered by UniCredit Bank, on Friday, May 12th. The epicentre of the festival will be Amzei Square, where over 160 architectural and design projects will be exhibited, while another 100 events will take place throughout Bucharest during the festival.
Under the theme “Connections”, RDW 2023 investigates and proposes the design as a valuable tool for addressing and solving concerns about how we can connect with each other and how we can create common spaces for dialogue, in a constantly changing world.
This year, the festival focuses on creating connections between local creative industries, cultural operators, and creative communities, but also on connecting the public with the latest and most innovative local architecture and design projects.
Amzei Square – reintegrated into the urban circuit, for a complete experience of local design
RDW Exhibition will take place in Amzei Square, being a project carried out by the District 1 City Hall, together with The Institute. 162 works from 6 different specializations, from architecture to interior design, graphic design, product design, illustration, and fashion, will be presented to the public, who will have free access to the exhibition.
The projects presented at RDW Exhibition were selected by both renowned Romanian curators and international specialists, out of a total of over 400 works submitted in the initial call for projects.
During the exhibition, which this year occupies two floors, visitors will be able to get inspired for their own designs in the interior design category, but also to see objects with a spectacular design, including 3D-printed shoes, objects made from recycled materials or clothing items made with a lot of concern for sustainability.
„Amzei Square is one of the key spaces in the centre of Bucharest, with an important history in the memory of the city, which we all want to be reintegrated into the urban circuit. This year's edition aims to be an exercise of revitalization of the square and a case study to demonstrate the great potential of this space for the city and its inhabitants alike. Keeping its function as agri-food market, supported by a unique cultural content, we want to prove that the market can become a meeting place for representatives of creative industries, but especially for the public, who will rediscover on this occasion a very valuable public space, where they can spend their spare time”, explained Andrei Bortun, CEO of The Institute.
For the first time this year, apart from the projects presented in the exhibition of Amzei Square, a series of works were selected that will be presented as best practices – exclusively online, on the Romanian Design Week website, here.
The experience in Amzei Square is also complemented by other important formats of #RDW2023:
Young Design powered by Diploma proposes the perspective of the new generation of Romanian artists, architects, and designers in a multidisciplinary exhibition. Within this new format within the festival, the public will explore the concerns of young creatives, admiring over 30 exhibitors, recent graduates of faculties with a creative profile from all over the country, who exhibit projects of architecture, product design, fashion, illustration, and graphic design. The exhibition has several partners such as: Globalworth, Bucharest City Hall through Expo Arte, District 1 City Hall.
RDW Social is the socialising program within the festival, and it is powered by IQOS. This year, RDW Social proposes a series of parties and networking contexts, which create opportunities for meetings, discussions and socialization between creatives and the public. RDW Social partners with Kozel and Jidvei.
RDW Market is the design gallery in Amzei Square, where Romanian design can be discovered and purchased by visitors. In a space that encourages local design consumption, RDW Market includes a series of capsule shops with special items that the public can discover, admire, and take home. RDW Market partners are: Urban Monkey, Fru-fru, Jidvei.
Creative Corner consists of the Circular Catalysts exhibition, the result of collaboration between designers, artists and craftsmen from Romania and Great Britain. The exhibition displays photographs, texts and objects that illustrate the power of interdisciplinary design and dialogue. Circular Catalysts is developed by British Council Romania, in partnership with the Romanian Cultural Institute.
Also, the adult audience will have the opportunity to discover, also in Amzei Square, the installation “Echoes of Presence”. It aims to provide an experience through which the presence of visitors influences the environment and the perception of others, through a series of sensors that trigger spectacular effects in three different spaces. The installation was chosen by the community, following a RDW x IQOS competition, and was developed by Alina Rizescu, Bogdan Ștefănescu, Alin Tatu and Denis Flueraru, with the support of IQOS.
The most extensive satellite events program to date: over 100 events to explore during the festival
Between May 12 and 28, more than 100 events take place in the capital city as part of the RDW Design GO! program. They are organized around 4 Design Districts in Bucharest: Cotroceni, Dorobanți-Floreasca, Ioanid-Icoanei and the Creative Quarter.
Romanian Design Week thus proposes the most extensive program of satellite events of all editions so far, developed around some important neighbourhoods and historical areas of Bucharest. RDW Design GO! includes a diverse program of discussions, exhibitions, workshops, and open studios aimed at both the design consumer public and the professionals. The festival map can be consulted here.
The Night of Architecture Studios, an original Romanian Design Week format, will take place on Thursday, May 25. For one evening, 16 architecture studios in Bucharest will open their offices and workspaces for colleagues, friends and the public, in an initiative to present the latest projects, but also to organize social meetings. The partners of this RDW format are: Cemacon, Kozel, Urban Monkey, Fru-Fru, Jidvei, Igloo, Zeppelin.
For the second year in a row, Romanian Design Week gives the floor to creative professionals through RDW Talks, a project developed in partnership with Black Rhino Radio and presented by UniCredit Bank & The Institute. The most creative minds in Romania and beyond - names like Eliza Yokina, Corvin Cristian, Lucian Broscățean, Radu Manelici, Dragoș Motică, Nils Bader, Diego Calderon, Dario Franchini and others – are part of a series of podcasts powered by the Romanian Cultural Institute and the British Council.
An unusual approach for this edition is also UniCredit LAB, a strategic initiative of UniCredit Bank, in collaboration with The Institute, which proposes an intense program of education through presentations and mentoring sessions presented by a series of well-known local entrepreneurs from the creative industries and taking place over three days, for 10 companies concerned with the sustainable development of their business.
„It is the 11th year as the main partner of Romanian Design Week and for us it is a great joy to see the beautiful evolution that this project had, becoming a true landmark of the industry. We have, here, a space dedicated to creativity in architecture, interior design, graphic design, product design, illustration, and fashion, to which the public will have access – a cultural and creative manifestation that contributes both to the growth of the sector itself and to the consumption of such manifestations through an approach of public education. This direction responds to UniCredit's assumed mission of supporting communities to grow - a community that, in this case, consists of industries with a huge potential to contribute to the level of education and culture of a society”, said Anca Ungureanu, Identity and Communication Manager at UniCredit Bank.
Free access to the biggest edition of Romanian Design Week so far
Romanian Design Week can be visited from Monday to Friday between 12:00-22:00, and on weekends between 10:00-22:00. On May 12, at the RDW Exhibition opening in Amzei Square, the entry is from 18:00 and the exhibition can be visited until 23:00.
RDW is part of the official Museum Night circuit on May 13, when the exhibition in Amzei Square can be visited during the extended hours, until midnight.
Access is free and is based on a prior reservation here or directly at the entrance.
The full programme of the festival can be accessed here. More details can be found on the communication channels of Romanian Design Week: website, Facebook, Instagram and on the event's Facebook page.
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A project of The Institute
Powered by UniCredit Bank
Partners: IQOS, Cemacon, Kozel, Electrolux, Globalworth, Urban Monkey, Fru-Fru, Jidvei
Cultural project funded by the Ministry of Culture
With the support of: Bucharest City Hall, ARCUB - Cultural Centre of Bucharest City
Cultural partners: District 1 City Hall, Romanian Cultural Institute, British Council
Strategic media partners: Pro TV, Euromedia, Rock FM, Hotnews, YOOH
Media partners: Radio România Cultural, Igloo, Zeppelin Magazine, Arhitext, Designist, Molecule F, Modernism, Lovedeco, B365.ro, aiciastat.ro, feeder.ro, munteanurecomandă.ro, Atelierul Magazine, IQads, Zile și Nopți, Glamour, The Woman, Inspirationist, Contemporary Lynx, World Architecture Community
Communication partner Black Rhino Radio
Creative team: Radu Manelici, Claudia Draghia, Sebastian Pren
Monitoring partner MediaTrust