Dezeen Magazine

This week's VDF highlights include Vitra, Neri&Hu and Gaetano Pesce

This week's VDF highlights include Vitra, Neri&Hu, Lee Broom, Gaetano Pesce and Es Devlin

Week ten of Virtual Design Festival featured live interviews with Mariam Kamara and Lee Broom, a panel discussion with Stellar Works featuring Space Copenhagen and Neri&Hu, plus the launch of our collaboration with Swiss furniture brand Vitra.

Virtual Design Festival, the world's first online design festival, runs until 10 July. For the full schedule of upcoming events, visit dezeen.com/vdf/schedule.


This week's VDF highlights include Vitra, Neri&Hu, Lee Broom, Gaetano Pesce and Es Devlin

Monday 15 June

Screentime with Micha Weidmann: As part of our ongoing live interview series, Micha Weidmann, the man behind the Dezeen logo, looked back on some of his most important projects and spoke about what it takes to create the branding for institutions such as iconic British tea brand Twinings.

VDF x Rado: A panel discussion by Swiss watchmaker Rado examined the enduring legacy of Le Corbusier and his Architectural Polychromy colour theory, which sees colours arranged like notes on a piano that can be combined to create different harmonies and effects.


Lee Broom is a British product designer who produces furniture, accessories and lighting under the Lee Broom brand

Tuesday 16 June

VDF x Stellar Works: In a panel talk organised by Shanghai furniture brand Stellar Works, local designers Neri&Hu and Danish studio Space Copenhagen discussed how Eastern and Western design traditions can complement and play off each other.

VDF x The Mindcraft Project: Ten explorative and experimental Danish designers were profiled in a series of videos, presented by The Mindcraft Project in lieu of the platform's physical Milan design week showcase.

Screentime with Lee Broom: British designer Lee Broom spoke to Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs in a live interview about his past life as a child actor and how his design career was jumpstarted by Vivienne Westwood.


This week's VDF highlights include Vitra, Neri&Hu, Lee Broom, Gaetano Pesce and Es Devlin

Wednesday 17 June

VDF x Friedman Benda: The latest instalment of our ongoing Design in Dialogue series with New York gallery Friedman Benda saw Gaetano Pesce discuss why design should be considered a form of art, which derives its power from being deeply embedded in people's everyday lives.

Screentime with Winy Maas: In a video interview, MVDRV's chief architect Winy Maas looked back at his nearly three-decades-long career and discussed the importance of integrating nature into our cities and buildings.

VDF x Therme Art: Es Devlin, Zoé Whitely and Marc Spiegler featured in a discussion hosted by Therme Art about the social and cultural significance of large-scale gatherings like festivals and exhibitions and what shape they could take in a post-pandemic future.

VDF x Devon&Devon: A live talk saw Gensler's product design director Daniel Stromborg speak about the design story behind a new range of bathtubs he created in collaboration with Italian brand Devon&Devon, which are made up of four modular components.


Thursday 18 June

VDF x Vitra: To kickstart our collaboration with Vitra, architect Stephan Hürlemann discussed the Dancing Office concept he developed for the brand, which allows for a workspace to be quickly and easily adapted for different purposes thanks to moveable partitions.

LFA video featuring Ibiye Camp: Artist and architect Ibiye Camp discussed how in a post-lockdown world, buildings could be designed digitally, in the first of three videos to be presented at VDF as part of the annual Manifestos collaboration between the Design Museum and the London Festival of Architecture.

Screentime with Mariam Kamara: In an interview with Dezeen's Marcus Fairs, Atelier Masomi founder Mariam Kamara discussed her socially-conscious approach to architecture, which hopes to empower communities through the buildings they inhabit.


This week's VDF highlights include Vitra, Neri&Hu, Lee Broom, Gaetano Pesce and Es Devlin

Friday 19 June

VDF x What Design Can Do: Over the course of three live, virtual events, Amsterdam platform What Design Can Do (WDCD) explored issues of social justice in design, from racial and gender equality to the role of the media.

First, journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin spoke to WDCD's Richard van der Laken about contemporary forms of activism and fostering better representation in the media both in front of and behind the camera.

Next, Kenyan fashion and product designer Sunny Dolat joined graphic designer Anoushka Khandwala to discuss how colonialism has shaped design and how its enduring influence can be eradicated.

Finally, a group discussion between curators Jimena Acosta and Saskia van Stein as well as artist Larissa Ribeiro to discuss how design can play a part in fostering greater, intersectional gender equality in Latin America.

Screentime with Xandra van der Eijk: In our final Screentime interview of the week, Dutch designer Xandra van der Eijk discussed foregrounding issues of ecology in her work and what it means to create design as activism.


Previous weeks

Did you miss week nine? Read our summary of the highlights, including interviews Barnaba Fornasetti and Ini Archibong as well as a celebration of World Oceans Day and the 2020 AHEAD Americas awards.

Did you miss week eight? Read our summary of the highlights, including interviews with Ilse Crawford and Farshid Moussavi, plus a full-day takeover by Stockholm's ArkDes museum.

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 10 July 2020 and is sponsored by bathroom and kitchen manufacturer Grohe. For more information about VDF or to join the mailing list, email [email protected].