From the group show on Ageing to the Passionswege with the Swedish Girls
From September 26 to October 5, 2025, Vienna takes center stage in the international design scene with the 19th edition of the Vienna Design Week, now established as one of Europe’s most innovative festivals. Over 200 events across more than 50 venues will transform the city into a widespread laboratory where design intersects with history, art, politics, and everyday life. New this year is the introduction of thematic “zones,” guiding visitors from the city center to the new Festival Headquarters at Wiedner Hauptstraße 52, offering fresh ways to explore Vienna through creative routes. “Despite its complexity, the future remains our field of action for design,” says director Gabriel Roland, summing up the spirit of the 2025 edition, which sees design as a tool to critically interpret the present and imagine new scenarios.
Among the most anticipated highlights is the group exhibition FOKUS, which this year takes on the theme of Ageing. Curated by Estonian researcher Sandra Nuut, it brings together emerging and international designers exploring the passage of time, fragility, and the beauty of ageing through unique pieces, limited editions, and experimental works that turn a universal theme into poetic and visionary research. Also returning is Passionswege, the format that connects international designers with Viennese craft workshops. The 2025 edition features the irreverent duo Swedish Girls, known for mixing irony, pop culture, and craft, collaborating with Cucina Alchimia, while German designer Kai Linke teams up with the traditional woodcarving workshop Schnitzstube Stadlhofer to create an installation that explores the dialogue between memory and experimentation. Another key format is Stadtarbeit, dedicated to social design. Under the 2025 title Archives for the future, three selected projects will invite visitors to capture the soul of Vienna through urban materials, sounds, and marks, culminating in the awarding of the Erste Bank Social Design Prize.
The program also features major talks: London-based architect Sam Jacob, founder of FAT, will reflect on design as a critical reading of reality; Isabelle Angèle of Dreamspaces and Nina Sieverding of The Thing Magazine will discuss new digital languages alongside meme account b0ysfirm; and art duo honey & bunny will conclude a democratic project that transformed Vienna’s markets into arenas of public debate.
Emerging talents also play a central role: Berlin-based collective SHIFT presents sustainable projects; Endless Flat Studio creates sculptural lighting objects; Inantdesign showcases eco-friendly 3D printed works; and Georg Adam reimagines industrial bricks as ceramics that oscillate between seating and sculpture. Designers such as Flora Lechner, Leo Mühlfeld, and Steven Dahlinger, winners of the Falstaff LIVING Design Awards, represent the new wave of creativity, while IKEA, together with Atelier Karasinski, surprises with an installation that reinvents everyday products in unexpected experiential ways. Completing the journey is Design Everyday, which brings together Austria’s best product designs for daily life, in dialogue with the more experimental outlook of FOKUS.
With its hybrid and daring identity, Vienna Design Week 2025 confirms itself as a festival that doesn’t just showcase design but questions it, bridging experimental visions with functional projects and turning the entire city into a stage where design becomes a living, accessible culture.
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