Virtual Design Festival

This week's VDF highlights include Ilse Crawford and two virtual exhibitions

This week's VDF highlights include Ilse Crawford, Farshid Moussavi and virtual exhibitions by ArkDes and Alcova

Week eight of Virtual Design Festival featured a programme curated by Milan design platform Alcova and interviews with Ilse Crawford and Farshid Moussavi, plus a full-day takeover by Stockholm's ArkDes museum.

Virtual Design Festival, the world's first online design festival, runs until 30 June. For the full schedule of upcoming events, visit dezeen.com/vdf/schedule.


This week's VDF highlights include Ilse Crawford and two virtual exhibitions

Monday 1 June

VDF x ArkDes: A day's worth of content from Sweden's national centre for architecture and design gave viewers an exclusive look at the museum's current programming.

This included a virtual 360° tour of the new Kiruna Forever exhibition, which deals with the relocation of the Swedish town of Kiruna, a day before it officially opened its doors. Curator Mínguez Carrasco also shared a behind-the-scenes look at the project, which is among the largest urban transformation projects in recent history.

A second virtual, guided tour took visitors through the first-ever exhibition about ASMR, titled Weird Sensation Feels Good, which features examples of videos by Björk and Bob Ross that can generate a euphoric Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.

In a video interview, artist Linda Tegg discussed the idea behind her rewilding of the ArkDes car park, which temporarily turned it into a biodiverse meadow.

Meanwhile, the ArkDes director Kieran Long spoke live to Dezeen's editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs about what it means to run a museum during a global pandemic.

Screentime with Theodora Alfredsdottir: As part of our ongoing series of live video interviews, Icelandic designer Theodora Alfredsdottir took stock of some of her most career-defining projects including a dining set made with feldspar and stackable ceramic side tables created using a single mould.


This week's VDF highlights include Ilse Crawford and two virtual exhibitions

Tuesday 2 June

VDF x Grohe: A Virtual Design Festival takeover by the bathroom and kitchen brand Grohe, which is also VDF's headline sponsor, featured a live interview and video featuring some of the company's leading design figures.

Paul Flowers, the chief design officer of Grohe's parent company Lixil, spoke to Dezeen's Marcus Fairs about how toilets could analyse users' dietary deficiencies and suggest healthier eating habits in future.

In a video talk broadcast later that day, the company's EMEA vice president of design and consumer experience Patrick Speck introduced Grohe's latest touchless collection and explored how this kind of functionality will become increasingly important to consumers in light of the pandemic.


This week's VDF highlights include Ilse Crawford and two virtual exhibitions

Wednesday 3 June

VDF x Braun: In the first of two talks created in collaboration with Braun, industrial designer Benjamin Wilson and curator Dr Peter Kapos discussed the brand's history of championing modernist German design and how this can be carried into the future.

The second talk featured designer Ilse Crawford, discuss the online video masterclass in design which she is working on with Braun.

We also published a competition giving readers a chance to win a Braun LEo3 speaker and B0265 watch.


Alcova shares 8 conversations with independent designers as part of VDF

Thursday 4 June

VDF x Alcova: Milanese design platform Alcova shared interviews with eight, independent design studios, whose work was originally meant to be presented at this year's Salone del Mobile.

The series of in-depth conversations included interviews with Kalon Studios, Trame, Qwstion, Spread, Sammlung Walter, Lukas Wegwerth, From Lighting and Studio Plastique.


Austrian Fashion presents work from 15 local studios at VDF products fair

Friday 5 June

VDF x Austrianfashion.net: At the VDF products fair, the advocacy platform Austrianfashion.net presented work from 15 Austrian designers who are choosing to produce both locally and sustainably.

Among the clothing and accessories showcased was a faux leather top made from pig's blood and a dress decorated with the female urination device Shewee.

Screentime with Farshid Moussavi: In this live interview, architect and Dezeen Awards judge Farshid Moussavi spoke about micropolitics in architecture and how housing can make our cities more egalitarian.


Previous weeks

Did you miss week seven? Read our summary of the highlights, including an exclusive product launch and live interview with Tom Dixon as well as an all-star architects roundtable including Junya Ishigami and Counterspace.

Did you miss week five? Read our summary of the highlights, including interviews with Standard Architecture and Sauerbruch Hutton and the launch of an exclusive Archigram video series.

Did you miss week four? Read our summary of the highlights, including exclusive interviews with Carlo Ratti and Iris van Herpen, as well as a cocktail masterclass from the owner of Milan's Bar Basso.

Did you miss week three? Read our summary of the highlights, including a video message from Ben van Berkel and an exclusive screening of Gary Hustwit's Dieter Rams documentary.

Did you miss week two? Read the summary of the highlights from the second week, including Ron Arad, SO-IL, Kunlé Adeyemi, Nelly Ben Hayoun, Beatie Wolfe and Studio Drift.

Did you miss week one? Read the summary of the first week's highlights include live interviews with Li Edelkoort and Klein Dytham Architecture plus the now-legendary VDF launch movie.

Virtual Design Festival, the world's first digital design festival, runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020 and is sponsored by bathroom and kitchen manufacturer Grohe. For more information about VDF or to join the mailing list, email [email protected].