Samstag afternoon on Mariahilfer Strasse. Densely packed, people stroll along Vienna’s largest shopping street. H&M, TK Maxx, Pull & Bear, Zara or C&A: Many clothing chains have a branch here. In the midst of the consumption-intoxicated waves, three young women are standing at a table. They talk to passers-by, hand out flyers and work on pullovers with a lint razor. Above them flies a flag, black like that of the pirates. But instead of the skull, it shows a sock pierced by a sewing needle and thread.
Because the designers Alexandra Fruhstorfer, Giulia Fabro and Nina Sandino have made the more conscious use of textile resources their priority. They propagate care, repair, exchange. “Dare to Wear and Share, Mariahüf!” is the name of their project, with which they are taking part in this year’s edition of the “Vienna Design Week” festival. They converted a cargo bike into a mobile exchange and repair station, including a clothes rail and changing room. They use it to head for shopping locations – and get into conversation with people where fast fashion is sold.
“Dare to Wear and Share, Mariahüf!” is typical of many of the projects that can be seen in Vienna during the Vienna Design Week. While other events in the annual design calendar celebrate consumerism with product innovations and lavish staging, the Vienna Week, together with the “Dutch Design Week” in Eindhoven, is one of the dates at which critical, experimental and unconventional design projects can also be seen. Against the backdrop of the magnificent K.-und-K.
Designers from different cultural backgrounds
But participation and communities are also recurring themes. The exhibition “Liquid House” addresses the fact that migrant communities continue to be marginalized in design. Workshops by designers with different cultural backgrounds are intended to open up what is often an elitist discipline. The group “The Department” in turn declared the 6th district of Vienna to be a world exhibition and explored the existing shops, institutions and service companies for their “Expo” project. During the festival, they distributed a map on the streets of the district listing everything on offer, from restaurants to taxi ranks to senior citizens’ clubs.
As expected, sustainable management is omnipresent.
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Bild: Vienna Design Week
It sounds banal at first, but even long-term residents are often unaware of the potential of their neighborhood. And “Expo” shows, just like “Dare to Wear and Share”, that design doesn’t just have to mean creating products. Services can also be designed.
Of course, a lot of conventional everyday objects and furniture can also be seen during the Vienna Design Week. But alternative production or consumption models are often behind them. Students at the Vienna University of Applied Arts, for example, have built umbrellas from solar modules to generate electricity – with photovoltaic panels that have already been used.
Alternative production or consumption models
Architecture students from Ferrara, on the other hand, have developed simple outdoor furniture and made the construction plans available for replication in line with the open-source idea. Designer Jutta Goessl has designed a recyclable packaging system together with a delivery service for vegetable boxes. Instead of cardboard boxes, the groceries should be delivered in foldable, reusable plastic crates. Tailor-made covers and sleeves made from reused tarpaulins protect the goods during transport.
The amusing, cheerful and bizarre always have their place at the Vienna Design Week.
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Bild: Vienna Design Week
And on behalf of the Vienna Design Week, the design duo Ante Up examined a Viennese place that was as urban as it was inhospitable, the intersection of Ottakringer Strasse and Wattgasse. To give this corner more quality of life, Ante Up designed small parasitic pieces of furniture that can be strapped to the posts of lanterns or signs, such as a seat, a shelf or a holder for plant pots. Design serving society, but with a charming twist.
Because the amusing, cheerful and bizarre always has its place at the Vienna Design Week. With designers exploring the diverse properties of instant noodles. Or turn discarded vases into candlesticks and toothbrush holders with new attachments. It would be boring if design was always deadly serious and improving the world.