The 18th full-length edition of the Łódź Design Festival has launched, with its theme focusing on comfort and how contemporary design responds to the changing needs of society. What interesting things will you find in this year's program?
We are currently living in a constant search for satisfaction and well-being, and accelerating changes are posing new challenges — emphasizes Michal Piernikowski, director of the Łódź Design Festival. — [...] we will discover how comfort penetrates far beyond traditional physical comforts, encompassing subtle elements such as harmony, peace of mind and individual user needs. We will show that a properly designed environment not only promotes well-being, but also reflects our unique identity and desired lifestyle — he adds.
The slogan "comfort" accommodates various meanings and aspects, so the festival program will not lack examples of the impact of nature on our health, or ways of shaping the space of modern cities. A total of 60 different proposals await the participants of the event — there is plenty to choose from!
Specialists from the Wroclaw University of Economics will talk about designing innovative solutions using the design thinking method during the workshop "Design of public spaces for social comfort". A similar theme — sustainable and inclusive spaces— will be the subject of a day-long event organized in cooperation with the Polish Green Building Association PLGBC. Experts will discuss, among other topics, regenative architectural spaces, adaptation and mitigation of cities to climate change, principles of accessible design according to Ronald Mace, and how Big data and AI can influence the design process for accessible solutions.
An important highlight of the program as every year is ARCHIBLOK. Filip Springer, Agata Szydłowska, Natalia Olszewska, Paweł Grobelny, Kasper Jakubowski and Jan Mencwel will discuss comfort in the city.
At this year's ARCHIBLOK we will make an assault on sanctity. For here we are taking on a concept that is crucial to our European, Western identity and to the design thinking that follows from it. That notion is comfort. It has the unusual characteristic that it becomes invisible to us rather quickly. It appears, sometimes suddenly, and sometimes long-awaited, we enjoy it for a while, and then we get used to it — Filip Springer announces the event.
The lectures, debates, workshops and walks around comfort are accompanied by film screenings, exhibitions and podcasts — about blinds, patchworks and exotic accessories, residential comfort and what was fashionable in the 90s. and 00s, based on interior design magazines of the time and Anna Cymer 's latest book "The Long 90s." — Mateusz Witkowski and Bartek Przybyszewski, creators of Podcastex, will take you on a nostalgic journey, while Marta Sękulska-Wrońska talks about comfort in space to Karolina Kaim.
In addition to the traditional exhibitions accompanying the ŁDF, namely "make me!", presenting the works of young designers from all over the world, and "must have", which will present the best examples of domestic design, you will be able to see the expositions "As long as the trunks grow", addressing the topic of greenery in the city, or "On the tables", about the cultural and social senses of eating.
This year's edition of Łodz Design Festival will also see the inauguration of the NeuroDiver — Comfort Space LAB project, under the patronage of A&B. It questions the primacy of "majority" in the context of design, focusing on neurodiversity. Its goal is to set new directions in the design of public spaces that are accessible and safe for neuroatypical people, as well as to build public awareness, develop empathy and sensitivity to diversity. The manifesto of the initiative's activities will be an experimental and educational space that will guide the audience through a several-stage process of achieving inclusivity in shaping the environment. The project is implemented by an interdisciplinary team consisting of: Dominika Zawojska-Kuriata (originator and curator of the experimental-educational space), Zuzanna Bogucka, Aleksandra Rodzewicz, Katarzyna Sentycz, Anna Petersburska and Irek Kuriata.
The coming week in Łódź will be full of interesting events, also in the urban space. You can find a detailed program on the event website. For those who will not be able to go to ŁDF we have good news — we will prepare a report for you, and in the festival's "multimedia" tab there are materials to listen to online, at any time and in comfort.
