9 days of festival emotions are behind us. What did the 17th edition of Gdynia Design Days look like? What topics were discussed? What aroused the most emotions? Time for a short summary.
Exhibitions
All exhibitions gathered impressive audience. The show spaces were already full of visitors on the opening weekend. This is proof that the topics discussed are incredibly current. As every year, the exhibitions are several attempts at designing solutions to global and local challenges – both those that we can already see now and those that may yet come.
The topics included completely new threads, but also those that have accompanied the festival for years – all of them responding in their own way to the slogan Gdynia-Zdrój (pl. Zdrój means a health resort with springs of healing waters; it also functions as an lexical element added to the name of the place having these properties).
Many of the exhibitions were showing the issues related to sustainable design, which is a pillar of Gdynia Design Days. In addition, they featured projects on the use of natural resources, issues related to artificial intelligence, or searching for an answer to the question of how many objects we need to live a satisfying life. Detailed descriptions of all exhibitions are available on the Gdynia Design Days website!
Among 23 exhibitions interesting one was ~ enough, curated by Paulina Rogalska and Kamila Szatanowska. It was focusing on sustainable building, emphasizing the need for conscious use of environmentally friendly materials and technologies. It is a look at the future of construction, based on the idea of a circular economy. The traditional approach to assessing the carbon footprint is evolving through building’s life-cycle analysis, which covers all stages – from the production of materials, through construction, usage and at the end of its life, the so-called from cradle to grave. In contrast, the concept of from cradle to cradle implies that the materials and products used in construction should be selected so that they can be reused or decompose naturally at the end of a building's life. What’s important, Gdynia Design Days is going to continue this topic and currently is preparing the event for architects that will take place this autumn.
In recent years, an inseparable element of the festival has also been an exhibition showing diploma projects from design schools in Poland - The New Generation, curated by Agata Kiedrowicz. Young designers bring a fresh perspective on the world, questioning existing patterns and formulating responses to contemporary challenges. The New Generation exhibition is a selection of the most interesting student projects that inspire dialogue and reflection on the future. Young people’s designs reflect the contemporary world with all its tensions and contrasts, but never lose sight of its harmony and beauty. On the search for the new, designers question old truths and redefine concepts and standards to offer answers to present-day challenges in an original, autonomous language.
Can repairing objects strengthen the bond with them? Agata Nowak talked about how relationships with things affect conscious consumption and choosing products through her exhibition - Things – Closeness. This exhibition focused on finding a balance between possessions and needs, as well as alternatives to excessive consumerism. As much as 84 percent Poles admit that their homes are filled with unnecessary objects. This is also the problem with the youngest. According to British researchers, a typical 10-year-old child has an average of 238 toys, but plays best when having only eight of them. But things may be different. We were wondering what makes a thing really close to us and whether repairing objects can strengthen this bond. We also showed how to consciously consume and choose the products we really need. We did bring up the topic of things that have a chance to stand the test of time and discuss alternatives there are to owning. All this so that we can try to heal our relationships with objects.
Lectures, discussions and workshops
The inseparable part of the festival are also lectures, discussions and workshops. This is where the most current topics from the field of design resonate, but as it turned out this year - not only design. The variety of topics and experts is proof that the foundation of contemporary design must be interdisciplinarity.
The workshops were extremely popular among our guests. One of them was Therapeutic Design Tools – a creative workshop in the area of therapeutic design, led by Olga Kiedrowicz Świtalska and Tomasz Świtalski. Therapeutic Design Tools (TDT) is an original tool supporting the creative process in the area of therapeutic design. Therapeutic design focuses on creating solutions, products or interactions that support the health, well-being and/or therapy of a given group of recipients. The workshop, developed for the needs of the festival, will familiarize participants with the tool in its physical version and will also lead them through a comprehensive process related to its practical use.
That’s not all – many of our workshops were focused on manual work and repair skills. Good example is workshop Stool for the workshop! Type 270-25 as part of the CREATIVE CIRCULAR CITIES project implemented with funds from the Interreg Baltic Sea Region 2021-2027 program, carried out by Oliwia Michalska. During two days, participants worked on the Patyczak stool, produced in the 1960s at the Lower Silesian Furniture Factory in Świebodzice. They restored the wood and textile part themselves, after which they could take it home and give it a new life. During the workshops, participants learned the basics of the renovation process.
A space of rest and inclusiveness
We know that there is a lot going on at the festival, and the number of events and exhibitions can overwhelm and overstimulate the audience. That is why we created a special space for relaxation. Mobile Spa was a multi-sensory arrangement of space, created by Monika Dołbniak, where visitors could find rest after the intense experience of the festival. The installation aims to show how deepened contact on the body-material-space plane allows for a better understanding of our sensorium. Naps, meditation, listening to music, reading books and anything that made them feel comfortable were allowed. The space consisted of several textile objects that were inspirations for a more conscious experience. Using worksheets, participants could engage in embodied experiences that, like forest bathing, have the potential to expand our sensory perception. The space was designed with neurodiversity and people particularly vulnerable to overstimulation. Its arrangement stays with the festival and will be used at other events.
We planted a forest!
The festival also featured numerous accompanying events, including a unique one, the planting of ParkLas - the first MicroForest in Gdynia using the Miyawaki’s method. These are small ecosystems created in cooperation with the community. The method, developed over 50 years ago in Japan, is based on drawing inspiration from nature and accelerating natural processes. MicroForests are 18 times more biodiverse and grow twice as fast as traditional plantings. ParkLAS was created in cooperation with Dr. Kasper Jakubowski and Forest Maker.
As every year, Gdynia Design Days tried to take further steps towards being a more sustainable festival. It will probably never be possible to produce nothing at all, but this year the made some significant steps. The list could go on for a long time, but here are just a few examples. Firstly, at many exhibitions, the organizers have been using an exhibition system that has already been produced for years. In turn, the elements that need to be produced are always analysed, as the festival team asks the curators to provide the exhibition's life path. This is a document that tells us what materials the individual elements are made of and what will happen to them later.
One would like to say, see you next year. But the Gdynia Design Days team will certainly surprise us with more activities in the coming months.
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