At Barcelona Design Week, design becomes a driver of awareness and social change

The 2025 Barcelona Design Week (BDW) once again stands as a vital platform for promoting creative innovation and a conscious design culture — one capable of addressing the major challenges of our time.
“Barcelona has been, and continues to be, a laboratory where design is not just about aesthetics, but about real impact. This week is more than a festival: it’s an open conversation between disciplines, generations, and cultures”, said Enric Jové, President of the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation (BCDF).


© Barcelona Design Week

During the opening press conference for this 20th edition, held at the Design Hub Barcelona, the role of design as a driver of social transformation was underlined. The event also presented a rich program celebrating two decades of creativity, talent, and innovation. Speakers included Enric Jové, President of BCDF; Alessandro Manetti, BDW Commissioner; and Isabel Roig, Executive Director of BCDF and BDW.
Jové noted that “since 2006, BDW has evolved from a dream into a global benchmark, establishing Barcelona as a creative capital. Design is no longer just about beautifying — it’s about understanding and transforming the world, with an ethical and social dimension that pushes us to design with awareness, purpose, and hope”. He added: “In the face of AI, climate change, and social tensions, creative resilience doesn’t mean resisting — it means reconfiguring and transforming uncertainty into opportunity. Design with purpose is the key to moving forward".


© Barcelona Design Week

For his part, Alessandro Manetti proposed an evolution of the classic “3 Ps” of sustainable development — People, Planet, Productivity — by suggesting new values such as Progress, Prosperity, and Peace. He emphasized that social values are shifting, and design must evolve accordingly. Manetti also stressed the need to maintain human control over AI and to keep the design process guided by ethical principles and human creativity.
Finally, Isabel Roig defined BDW through three key words: inspiration, community, and future. She noted that “BDW is one of the most established Design Weeks in Europe. Its main goal is to create connections between creativity and the economic sectors, fostering meaningful conversations and inspiring experiences”.


© Barcelona Design Week

A program of 130 events with an inspiring, diverse, and transformative approach. Among the most notable highlights:

• Inspired in Barcelona: Luce – A renewed version of the exhibition first presented at Milan Design Week, showcasing local talent in lighting design and self-produced projects.

• Opening BDW25 – Held at Roca Barcelona Gallery, featuring a conversation between Andrés Reisinger and Juncosa Serra on creative resilience.

• Industrial Design Day – A day dedicated to exploring new horizons in industrial design.

• Beyond the Map – An international conference focused on the future of service design and creative process management.

• Design in Diagonal – A public circuit connecting stores, showrooms, and partner spaces along Avinguda Diagonal.

• Underground BDW – A collective fair and exhibition in an underground gallery, featuring 26 local and international exhibitors — companies, creators, and design schools — with a fresh, disruptive, and eclectic approach.

• Next Gen Design – A traveling exhibition across five European design festivals, spotlighting emerging designers, presented within Underground BDW.

• OFF BDW – A selection of 57 parallel activities organized by independent actors across the city.

The program also extends to 14 partner venues including Roca Barcelona Gallery, La Casa de la Luz by Simon, and NTT Data Sea Towers, among others — reaffirming the city’s vibrant and interconnected design ecosystem.