Vienna Design Week report

Sophie Lovell

It seems that every week is a Design Week somewhere or other these days. It is the latest cultural craze to hit capital cities and to be quite honest there is often little to distinguish between them as many of the same old faces (and objects) pop up again and again. Globalisation has a lot to answer for in the bland department.

See Sophie's highlights

The curators of the October Vienna design week Tulga Beyerle, Thomas Geisler and Lilli Hollein (calling themselves ‘Neigungsgruppe Design’) have got the right idea in that they have concentrated on their city’s regional strengths – picked what defines Vienna in terms of what is local and traditional in terms of manufacturing, handcrafts and skills and then experimented with interesting mixes – matching producers with young international designers.

The result was to be seen in the Passionswege (Paths of Passion) a collection of walkable routes through the city with stops at little shops and studios, some of which have been in existence for a couple of centuries, to discover some interesting surprises.

14 October 2009 | Design