This year’s theme of Berlin Design Week / BNDNWK 2021 / is “New Traditions”. New crises call for new, fast strategies for their containment. Resolute, clear-cut sustainable design has the potential to start a new, better normal. The exhibition The Future of Living at BNDNWK 2021 demonstrates the innovative ways in which Slovenian design responds to future challenges with products that combine local materials with traditional craftsmanship. Companies, researchers, and decision-makers need the creative power of design, fresh ideas, new strategies, and concepts for social change and vice-versa.
The exhibition opens at Potsdamer Str. 81-83 in Berlin, in a standalone venue. The prime location and a 20m-long shop window open out onto one of the busiest streets in Berlin, ensuring good visibility for Slovenian design. The exhibition is a standalone venue and was developed in cooperation with the Centre for Creativity/MAO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Berlin and SKICA – Slovenian Cultural Centre in Berlin.
The exhibition in Berlin is the first exhibition as part of major promotional events organised in the framework of the Slovenian presidency to the Council of the European Union. The exhibition The Future of Living launched in Vienna, and after a stop in Berlin will continue its journey through Zagreb, Budapest, Paris, London, Denmark, Finland, Egypt, Israel, United States of America and other destinations. We will showcase our designs in 25 locations and events celebrating design and the creative economy, the central theme marking this year in Slovenia.
The products showcased by the exhibition forecast the future of living, in which raw materials are no longer available in abundance, production methods and human resources need to be rationalised, and products are adapted to a new generation of users who want customised solutions. These come with innovative, technologically advanced production processes that producers and designers combine with their love of life and nature. The products and services presented here combine creativity with a business vision. They spotlight the stories of fresh brands that express functionality, passion, innovative applications of materials (especially wood), and new production techniques that build on regional craftsmanship and advanced techniques of sustainable production.
The exhibition features 43 of the 90 selected products that have received the “Made in Slovenia” mark of design excellence in the last two years. In many respects, the collection represents the efforts of the Centre for Creativity – which operates under the wing of the Museum of Architecture and Design – to connect, promote, support, and develop the cultural and creative sector in Slovenia, to facilitate collaboration with the business, science and education sectors.
Many designers featured in the exhibition employ traditional crafts in innovative ways. Darja Malešič turned to traditional Slovenian wicker craft to protect the bottles in her wicker water bottle series with materials such as willow, corn husk, and rye straw. Vulgaris Woodcut wine studiolo combines excellence in furniture making with an original woodcut in an astounding object for wine lovers. Belabela’s home accessories engage users in the production cycle, inviting them to use their hands to complete the laser-cut coasters with their embroideries. The modular wine rack Helga was designed by Sadar+Vuga and made from a glazed ceramic block manufactured locally by a small pottery workshop using a technique employed in the manufacture of traditional ceramic stoves. Two young architects working under the name Studio Moste explore crafts and their interaction with design, so they hand make every piece they design. This time they bring their deconstructed drawer unit No. 2 and cutting boards made of scrap wood.
Another group of designers upcycled waste materials and transformed them into valuable, high-quality products. Cup by Aklih studio is a handy lamp, 3D-printed using a mixture of biodegradable plastic and wood. The jewellery cum decoration Gift of the Future is made of recycled silver obtained from electronic waste, which fits with the Floios studio philosophy that they are not designers, but “foragers and seekers.” On the other hand, the Donar company seeks to save the world from plastic waste with chairs like Nicoless and Collodi. All their chairs answer the human need to reduce our carbon footprint on the planet and use waste as an industrial material of the future. The redesign is part of the new philosophy of socially responsible and sustainable design.
The exhibition The Future of Living is a promotional event organised in the framework of the Slovenian presidency to the Council of the European Union.
The Centre for Creativity is co-funded by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund and the Republic of Slovenia.
