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Join us for the public unveiling of the 2022 Seattle Design Festival August 4, 5-8pm @ the Center, and learn more about what’s to come. Festival staff and organizers will provide an overview of this year’s festival—expanding on the key themes explored by our program partners. We will have t-shirts for your festival team screenprinting...
The 2022 Seattle Design Festival will be all about CONNECTION. When thinking about design, there is something very tangible and physical in how things ‘connect’ – but there is also something very emotional that ‘CONNECTION’ taps into as well. CONNECTION is a core human need. Our brains are wired to connect. We look and long...
In the Beat Roulette arena, your body movements double as instruments! Dance, have fun, and interact with others in the space to create new sounds and music! Beat Roulette highlights one of the most important ways in which we create connections, by enabling the immersive power of collaboration. Mimicking the shape of how sound waves...
The Seattle Design Festival kicks off with a Block Party at Lake Union Park! The Seattle Design Festival Block Party is a two-day street fair celebrating the powerful ways design affects our lives. This fun outdoor event is an opportunity for the design community and the public to come together and interact through large-scale design...
Admire, pose with, read stories, even add your ideas, stories, or responses to this sculpture which will bridge people from all over the city! The members of Coyote's Youth Advisory Board created their Teen Resilience Project as a way for teens like them to begin healing from the pandemic, and give their community a chance...
Our HOTHOUSE debuts neon glass as you've never seen it before! Come check out our freestanding sculpture featuring house and plant motifs! HOTHOUSE is a 6ft tall by 5ft wide by 6ft long neon glass tubing representation of a greenhouse filled with a life-size green neon monstera plant. The HOTHOUSE is made out of white...
Visitors will see large painted textiles that are based on many indigenous cultures around the world. They are touchable, with rich mixed media inclusions. The artist will also tell stories about world events associated with their creation. Deer Creek Studio installation artists, Doe Stahr and Michael Clyburn, present a small collection of large textiles that...
Follow the Burma Shave inspired road signs around the park until you reach the final destination: the Seattle Fireboat Duwamish, where you can take a free tour of the fireboat! The first set of signs will begin on one side of the design installation entitled "Seattle Fireboat Duwamish - Through the eyes of the past"...
View a diorama of the 1909 Seattle Fireboat Duwamish, then proceed across the park to see the real Seattle Fireboat Duwamish at the Historic Ships Wharf! Visitors will encounter an antique trunk sitting on a table in the park. There is a small porthole into which the visitor can look into the interior of the...
Explore how landscape architects use plants to design green, healthy, and inclusive future cities! Imagine what it would be like to be a plant yourself! And create your own radical botanical future landscape! What is your relationship to plants and why do they matter? How do trees help cool cities, clean air, and collect rainwater?...
Soundscape is inspired by the simple kid's toy string can telephone, composed of two cans and a taut string. Playing with that concept, this pavilion features hundreds of tin can phones, where visitors can share playful interactions through abstract sound – a secret, a thought, a story, a laugh. In a departure from the pandemic,...
Create a banner that captures elements your own intersectional identity to help build a collective tapestry of hidden connections with other festival-goers. Like the mycorrhizal networks that connect and strengthen apparently individual trees in the forest, this installation seeks to reveal the hidden social and cultural networks that make up our diverse city. This installation...
Re-think waste streams as you are confronted by your own trash! We build with what we have. In an effort to reduce waste, we propose an installation from found materials. What if design was driven by the resources available and not the aesthetic we desire? This project seeks to re-think trash by telling the story...
Come play a game with Environmental Works! Push and Pull pegs to prepare a pathway – then score by aiming your ball for the buckets below! Environmental Works invites people to establish connections by way of one of humankind’s most practiced methods of engaging our neighbors and transcending barriers – playing a game together! Push...
What happens when people come together and use deliberate relationship building and community engagement as a pathway to ending homelessness? Help build a BLOCK Home with The Block Project, a dignified, restorative, affordable, community-based solution to the homelessness crisis. Facing Homelessness and The BLOCK Project work with Seattle homeowners to provide a permanent place to...
Let's imagine ecoTHRIVE Housing’s first resilient village together! Join us in visualizing a beautiful community-centered village that is affordable for today, for generations - for good. We will have a large-scale model of our 1.8-acre building site to help us envision all of the ways we can build beauty and resilience into our village -...
Pick a thread of your choice! A connection is made once you weave yours onto a peg interwoven with other people's threads, creating a beautifully woven design. This abstract connection relates other users' interests and ideas anonymously to yours. A cylindrical installation comprised of parallel wood slats with varying heights. Pegs are embedded in the...
Share your favorite places, activities, and memories in and around Seattle through ribbons! Come learn and trade experiences with your neighbors. Discover new adventures in your local community and connect through each other’s experiences. Whether you’ve been in Seattle for a few days, months, or years, Unveiled connects festival-goers to each other and the city....
Visit ‘Equipoise’ to connect and socialize! While you're here, create artistic flags that will be attached to the installation for display throughout the festival! Rooted in Pacific Northwest summertime, ‘Equipoise’ seeks to embrace two identities intrinsically tied to our regional culture: the celebrated pastimes of sailing and camping. Though differing in objective and venue, these...
Pulse is a kinetic display that offers a unique sensory experience inspired by the site at Lake Union Park and by each other. Visitors will enter and exit a tunnel-like structure one at a time in a processional fashion, simultaneously experiencing a moment of solitude and a moment of connection with those around them. While...
Discover new ways to interact and build resilient, transcendent connections! When our world of constant motion was brought to a jarring halt by the pandemic, social interaction gave way to solitude, and ‘IRL’ connection, once the norm, became dangerous, indulgent, and rare. Now, as we continue experimenting with re-opening, our relationships with one another and...
Stop by the new SDF Pavilion to learn more about this year's Festival. Pick up your schedule-at-a-glance, meet Festival volunteers, engage with our SDF Partners! Earlier the year SDF hosted our Pavilion Design Competition, to find a design that would be the visual anchor of the Festival. We are excited to work with the team...
Tie threads throughout the installation to connect yourself with the community and others around you by creating a network of memories! Enjoy the sounds of these connections as they begin to tie into one another and create a web of shared experiences that help tie the community together. While we are slowly emerging from the...
Push and pull different mechanisms along the wall to create a structure where openings and connections appear and dissolve through the interactions! Throughout history, walls have always been built to set boundaries and separate people spatially and socially. The rigid structure often resembles authority and power with the intention to keep people away from each...
Join us for a chaotic game of ping pong in the round. Grab a paddle and a friend or seven! Connect directly with other festival-goers by playing this group game. This round ping pong table with a motorized net was developed by Design Nerds, a group of like-minded designers who join forces to make Seattle...
Fling the foliage! Lob some leaves! Cast a canopy! Help re-leaf our tree. Loop strands over branches to collectively compose a canopy. Together, our combined contributions will weave an unexpected tapestry and result in emergent form. By creating in this fashion - repeating a simple action in subtly different personal ways - we hope to...
Come create a piece of art with us! Explore how we are connected to place, community, art, and self by composing a selection of cube faces, comprising a holistic image. The Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) presents an interactive building block art installation that invites festival goers to see a visual narrative of how art...
Come make a personal connection to the thing that sustains us all: our planet! Forest Net(work) is a pavilion helping us to create a more sustainable world through reforestation. Planting new trees is one of the most effective ways to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere and fight climate change. Visitors will have the opportunity to...
Track, chart and project your personal connection from where you are to where you'll go to. This abstract framework, inspired by South Pacific Stick Charts, tells the story of the connecting paths we encounter in our journey through life. An assortment of string, rope, ribbons tags and found objects can be utilized to create the...
Scale the elephant in the room, and learn about the community of survivors looking to re-enter the workforce. The hard work of defeating cancer is often seen as an unfavorable career gap. But fighting cancer is one of the toughest jobs an individual will ever have and it deserves a place on any resume. The...
This installation will explore how mycelium can be used as a building material in impermanent and fugitive architectures. Whiteness expresses itself spatially as monumental, permanent, and universal. Non-human relatives, like mycelium, can help us to understand the value and experience of humble, impermanent, and fugitive spaces. This installation is meant to guide the user in...
Work together to solve this collaborative maze game installation! Labyrinth encourages an environment of cooperation and problem-solving. Participants stand on either side of the maze, one side where the maze is visible and one side where it is obscured. Attendees on the side with the maze visible must guide those on the “blind” side through...
Leave your mark on our interactive art exhibit! For this first installation of City Canvas, we are exploring ‘Happy Accidents.’ We believe that connection sparks when two ideas, two people, or two groups come together around an idea. Progress is communal. While we do believe in ‘Happy Accidents.’ We’d like to argue that they aren’t...
This installation is designed to invite visitors to engage with the spaces created by the participants as they relate to aspects of togetherness that have been on hold, lost or adapted during pandemic. SWITCHBOARD is a collection consisting of MODULES that can be arranged into different configurations to create a multitude of spatial conditions AND...
'let's play' encourages people to interact with and examine the environment within which connections are built upon and reinforced. Through an array of apertures the installation unfurls an evolving tapestry of variation; close and open, conceal and discover, separate and connect. With simple manipulation, a landscape of light and shape is crafted, filtering surrounding sounds...
What'll Seattle's residential neighborhoods look like in thirty years? Explore visions for new & reimagined housing types proposed by UW students. Explore student work, data points, and key takaways from a UW graduate architecture research design studio focused on re-establishing a diversity of housing types in Seattle's Neighborhood Residential (formerly single-family) zones inspired by and...
Up for the Sink or Sail challenge? Design a toy boat, plan for the supplies you'll need, construct your design and then see if it floats! Compete against other groups, or build on your own. The Sink or Sail: Boat Design Challenge activity allows participants to use everyday materials to construct a boat that they...
Foster community connections and collaborate with your neighbors through a shared map of your favorite Seattle experiences. What does post-pandemic look like? One thing that everyone can agree on is that simply emerging may not be enough. So, what is missing? For our group, it became a study on how to connect with new people...
Create chains of connection between meaningful places. Write on paper links about why a place is meaningful to you and add it to the map! Using large printed maps of the Seattle area, we will engage the public in creating chains of connection between meaningful places around our city. Starting with key places or neighborhoods,...
How can the edge conditions we value redefine Seattle for its post-pandemic era? This pop-up space will act as a conduit for bringing readers both new and existing to ARCADE’s collective dialogue and written work. Last year, ARCADE asked festival attendees to set down the Seattle they imagined or dreamt about—what were its salient characteristics?...
Creativity fosters connection. Tap into your inner artist and help create a collective masterpiece! You are invited to contribute your own one-of-a-kind painted piece to help complete the larger image on the canvas. Festival-goers are encouraged to design and decorate a piece that expresses who they are, how they feel, what sparks joy, etc. Our...
Stop by the Creative Mornings' booth at the SDF Block Party to learn more about their free monthly breakfast lecture series where they offer free coffee, breakfast, and an inspiring talk highlighting an artist, maker, entrepreneur or creative individual in our community! IN-PERSON SDF Block Party at Lake Union Park on Sunday, August 21st, between...
Examine how you engage with public space and come away with techniques that increase ease and fulfillment as well as greater relationships to the spaces we inhabit in daily life! This workshop will offer tools and strategies for increasing awareness of our experience – and our ability to make choices - in designed spaces. •...
Stop by between noon and 4:30p on the final day of the SDF Block Party to screen print your very own SDF merch! Pick up a free tote bag to carry your Festival schedule at a glance, while supplies last. Pack your bags with all of the snacks and supplies you'll need to keep up...
13 Rabbit is a band made up of veteran musicians, who also happen to be architects, designers, and contractors. Jam out to their mix of rock, soul, and blues! Great summer music is the perfect fit for this year’s Seattle Design Festival Block Party, and what better band than one made up of architects, designers, and...
Spend your lunch (virtually) with SDF August 22-24! Log on from your desk as we stream design sessions, films, and live discussions about CONNECTION with special guests. The mainstage will be a lively and engaging virtual show produced by the Seattle Design Festival. Click through to see Streaming link and Speaker information for each day...
A series of programs from our Festival partners in Fremont August 22, Columbia City August 24, and Downtown August 25. Focused celebrations of Seattle neighborhoods and a chance to get to know the design community within them and how design affects them. Fremont: Evening, 5-8pm Grab your Festival schedule at the SDF Booth, and maybe...
Tour will tentatively depart from outside of Fremont Brewing at 1050 N 34th Street at 5 pm. How can we come together as a community to ensure people of all abilities are able to connect and enjoy our designs? Join us in learning how different individuals may experience the environment and use your takeaways to...
Columbia City Connections will feature several interactive tables of different scales highlighting design from small arts and graphic design projects up to site scale through to neighborhood planning! Enjoy Live Music and interactive art at Ferdinand and Rainier • Beatwalk presents Prime Time featuring Bryant Moore, Jeremy Joes and Josh Rawlings at Ferdinand and Rainier...
Tour will depart from the south side of S Edmunds Street and 36th Ave S at 5 pm. How can we come together as a community to ensure people of all abilities are able to connect and enjoy our designs? Join us in learning how different individuals may experience the environment and use your takeaways...
This workshop will offer tools and strategies for increasing awareness of our experience – and our ability to make choices - in designed spaces. Stop by the SDF Booth at the south end of Columbia Park at 5pm to learn more about the starting point for this experience. Participants will be guided to try on...
KAVE USA "Drink & Walk Your Coffee" invites you to come and experience the sleuth in you! Over a designated path, in this urban setting participants will explore the landscape for clues to a Puzzle that reveals a Problem, and suggests a Place where all may be resolved. But the discovery isn't enough! In the...
Tour will depart from the Center for Architecture and Design at 11 am. How can we come together as a community to ensure people of all abilities are able to connect and enjoy our designs? Join us in learning how different individuals may experience the environment and use your takeaways to inform your designs. Our...
We’re hosting a coffee-fueled networking event and conversation on low-waste journeys – from small wins to sticky hurdles – with a Seattle furniture manufacturer, zero waste advocate, and sustainable design consultant. This April, we launched the Washington Chapter of the Good Future Design Alliance, a member organization committed to reducing waste in the design and...
Visit the Seattle Architecture Foundation's 25th Annual Architectural Model Exhibit, "JUNCTION," at the Center for Architecture and Design. On display now! JUNCTION is an exhibit hosted by the Seattle Architecture Foundation at the Center for Architecture and Design that features recent work by local architects and designers. Participants will engage with physical models, 2D architectural...
Children of all ages and their chaperones are invited to a drop-in modeling workshop with the Seattle Architecture Foundation! Seattle Architecture Foundation invites youth to take the lead in a design and modeling challenge inspired by our current exhibit at the Center for Architecture and Design, "JUNCTION." During this drop-in workshop, participants will gain hands-on...
Catch a concert in Occidental Square! Lady A is known as “The Hardest Workin’ Woman in Blues, Soul Funk & Gospel.” She always strives to meet the needs of her audience through story-telling performances in lyrics and musical inspiration. Come listen to all the blues you can use — with a twist! This concert is...
What are the points of connection between a mammoth tooth, a peach pit someone spit out in the 1890s, and tiles glazed with glacial clay? Join an all ages artist talk that crosses through time, archaeology and urban design. Kate Clark, lead artist of Parkeology, will share some of the stories of the lives that...
Join IIDA NPC Seattle City Center in a downtown Architecture & Interior Design Firm Crawl! Through this group tour, we will visit three architectural firms and one furniture showroom in downtown Seattle. This year we’re part of the Seattle Design Festival’s Downtown Community Spotlight Events held on Thursday, August 25th. Our event will take place...
"Evolution of Instinct - Our Modern Wilderness" is a vibrant vinyl-powered augmented reality mural on 3rd Avenue supported by revival efforts of Downtown Seattle Association. Local illustrator Christoph Sagemuller in collaboration with creative technologist Quin Kennedybring a digital painting to life using Augmented Reality to explore this year's theme: The New Nature. Passerbys can use...
What'll Seattle's residential neighborhoods look like in thirty years? Explore visions for new & reimagined housing types proposed by UW students. Join the UW Department of Architecture and the AIA Seattle Comprehensive Plan Work Group for this panel discussion. Explore student work, data points, and key takeaways from a UW graduate architecture research design studio...
Join us for a celebration of our festival partners, volunteers, and supporters! Join us for an evening of CONNECTION and celebrating the festival partners, volunteers, and supporters who helped make SDF 2022: CONNECTION a success! Featuring Seattle Design Festival DJs, specialty drinks, sumptuous snacks and celebration of design at The Collective, an urban basecamp for community...