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Funktioning Full Force With Nothing but "Funktional Design" is a Health, Wellbeing and Material Cultural Revival featuring the Industrialization and Commercialization of African American "Funktional" Design that derives from the domestic African-American visual aesthetic of Funk (recycling & sustainable living skills). The aesthetic of Funk evolved from the creative, but financially deprived African-American Homemaker, Caregiver...

Visualizing Relational Poverty Knowledge is an audience-participatory discussion between activists, artists, and designers to engage economic and racial justice through visual, spatial, and structural storytelling. Relational poverty knowledge shifts the focus on "the poor" to the larger forces of power and privilege that maintain and reinforce poverty. We will investigate this year’s festival theme ‘Design Change’...

Seattle's innovative Beacon Food Forest shows that permaculture is not just for designing landscapes--Its principles make an even bigger impact when applied to community change efforts. Hear from leaders at the Beacon Food Forest as we discuss how to design effective social change efforts using lessons from permaculture. The Beacon Food Forest was founded in...

Dream, Design, Build, Repeat: A Conversation About Youth Design and Social Change With Non-Profit Sawhorse Revolution What does it mean for teens to design and build responses to some of Seattle’s toughest social problems? What kinds of change might come about if young people designed part of the built world? Is there a difference when...

The After-Conference Mixer is a celebration for speakers and audience members of the SDF 2016 Conference. Join us for snacks and refreshments, meet speakers, and reflect on SDF Conference with other participants.

Sound Transit’s next light rail system extension will happen in 2021, with new stations opening in the University District, Roosevelt neighborhood, and Northgate. Existing light rail stations already exist, from the newly opened UW Stadium station down to Sea-Tac Airport. When a light rail station opens, it means some big changes will be occurring in...

Hear from members of the Placemaking Leadership Forum report on discussions held at the International Project for Public Spaces conference, convened in Vancouver BC September 14-17th. Topics will include: place-led development strategies, models for placemaking campaigns, consideration of transformative agendas aligned with 1) the recent COP21 agreement which identifies concrete actions that leaders need to...

Seattle is growing. Denser, more efficient urban environment replaces existing structure. Businesses come and go. Infrastructure expands. Neighborhoods are redesigned around pedestrians and cyclists. Rents increase. Displacement occurs. But does urban growth lead to inequitable neighborhoods? How do we, as a city, design neighborhoods that serve the greatest share of the population? How do we...

Winners of our IMVISIBLE presentation will be presented. We will also have a Pecha-Kucha style open-mic presentation on how to move forward and do more as designers to help the urban poor. Part of the IMVISIBLE design challenge series, this event will be the conclusion of the competition and we can hopefully inspire other events that relates...

Ever wonder how design decisions get made and how you can play a role in creating change in your community? Learn what it takes to build a park, playground or create a new shared space in your neighborhood! Join us for this interactive panel discussion that will offer practical tips and share case studies for...

Do you ever wonder what toxins are lurking in your home or office? There's a movement  to bring healthier materials into our everyday spaces. The Healthy Materials Collaborative (HMC) is a local grassroots collective of designers, architects, contractors, and other industry professionals working to improve human and environment health by advocating for product transparency. Join...

The Poetic Operations Collaborative (POClab) presents Public Design Lab, a workshop hosted at the Institute for New Connotative Action (INCA). The workshop will include a conversation between members of the POClab on our current design and art research projects.  The projects include: #stronger, a project that imagines futures of health and strength for trans and...

Opening Reception: Room for Change: A Mural by Carolina Silva For this year's Seattle Design Festival, Space.City and Urban ArtWorks are collaborating with Carolina Silva to create a mural at the Pike Street Hill Climb along Western Avenue. The transformation will take place over the first week of the festival, with support from Downtown Seattle...

The design process has always relied on illustration to visualize concepts ahead of the design’s physical creation, but recent technologies have allowed creators to visualize their designs in a way that they’ve never been able to before. Increasingly sophisticated virtual reality technology has opened the door for a new kind of design model, one that...

Seattle is experiencing unprecedented growth. Given the ongoing discussion of housing, zoning, and transportation, VIA developed a game that asks participants to think creatively about where the city can best accommodate population growth. VIA's hope is to generate ideas and facilitate discussion to create the best city possible. VIA architecture is an architectural and urban...

Convening works in a variety of media, Robots Building Robots addresses the intersection, or divergence, of creation and consciousness in the digital age, reflecting ways in which images are harvested without human direction; take on lives of their own and experience half-lives and afterlives; materialize in iterative forms; and proliferate via feedback loops, algorithmic generators,...

change.gif is an exhibition of GIFs that explores their potential to enact social change. Presented by @fungiform and @imaginarymachine.  

Conflux, Amazon’s fourth annual internal design conference will celebrate our worldwide creative community and open up the closing keynote event to the Seattle Design Festival audience. Join us for an opportunity to learn from and connect with design leaders and creative thinkers from around the world as well as hear from Ravi Naidoo, Design Indaba,...

How can design be brought out of the abstract, and into the forefront of our cities' and community’s priorities? Through the lens of design, our panel of maverick Pacific Northwesterners discusses inspiring ideas and innovative approaches, and rallies us to take action and make a difference on both a local and global scale.

Join us and Seattle Architecture Foundation for a special Family Day celebrating the opening of Wild Tensions: How Design Impacts the Outdoor Experience! Create your own delicious snacks at our trail mix bar, build your own wilderness shelter, learn about the wild lives of animals who live with us right here in the city, and...

The Center for Architecture & Design will be closed March 9 - May 31 due to the current recommendations of our local health officials regarding the COVID-19 situation. All staff will be working remotely and adjusting planned meetings, events, and gatherings for the health and well-being of our volunteers and the entire Seattle community. Please...

Design Jams are an opportunity to generate ideas, connect with others in the design community, and ask questions of the Festival planners. Come with ideas, resources, skills, needs, and a desire to collaborate. We welcome participants from all fields of design! Join us for our second virtual Design Jam as we explore what going virtual...

Design Jams are an opportunity to generate ideas, connect with others in the design community, and ask questions of the Festival planners. Come with ideas, resources, skills, needs, and a desire to collaborate. We welcome participants from all fields of design! Join us for our third virtual Design Jam as we explore what going virtual...

Join us for our first-ever online benefit breakfast, May 27, 8-9:30am as we bring the Design Community to you right into your own home! Table Captains will facilitate design discussions with all participants about the real challenges Seattle is facing right now, after which our Keynote Speaker, co-founder and CEO of Minko, Ana Pinto Da Silva will...

As part of Design in Public's call to do better in how we stand for racial justice, we are closing our office and canceling all non-aligned meetings in solidarity with Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County's call for a General Strike and Silent March in the state of Washington on Friday, June 12. Information on the...

Sharpen your skills and expand your thinking by engaging in our weekly virtual design challenge THINKERCYZE is a weekly virtual design challenge from some of our favorite designers that anyone can do – brought to you weekly this summer by the Seattle Design Festival Committee with support by Microsoft. Every challenge has been crafted for...

Sharpen your skills and expand your thinking by engaging in our weekly virtual design challenge THINKERCYZE is a weekly virtual design challenge from some of our favorite designers that anyone can do – brought to you weekly this summer by the Seattle Design Festival Committee with support by Microsoft. Every challenge has been crafted for...

All are invited to join the public unveiling of the 2020 Seattle Design Festival and get a Sneak Peek of what's to come. Festival staff and organizers will provide an overview of this year’s festival on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram —expanding on the key themes and ideas explored by festival program partners. Video will be...

Sharpen your skills and expand your thinking by engaging in our weekly virtual design challenge THINKERCYZE is a weekly virtual design challenge from some of our favorite designers that anyone can do – brought to you weekly this summer by the Seattle Design Festival Committee with support by Microsoft. Every challenge has been crafted for...

Sharpen your skills and expand your thinking by engaging in our weekly virtual design challenge THINKERCYZE is a weekly virtual design challenge from some of our favorite designers that anyone can do – brought to you weekly this summer by the Seattle Design Festival Committee with support by Microsoft. Every challenge has been crafted for...

Team: Gretchen Claire, Shannon Carrico, Leslie Batten, Chris Parker COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter are highlighting the inequity that has persisted in our city for centuries. It’s about time for architects to consider how our profession has been complicit in this, and how we can work to support creation of an equitable built environment. For...

Team: Elizabeth Golden AIA of UW Architecture, Jeff Hou of UW Landscape Architecture, Brice Maryman - Principal Landscape Architect with MIG, Tiffani McCoy - Lead Organizer at Real Change, and Rick Mohler AIA of UW Architecture. Collaborators: Anita Chopra of UW Medicine, Mehr Grewal of Odle Middle School Seattle, the country’s eighteenth largest city with...

The first floor forum is open to the public from 11am – 5pm, Wednesday-Sunday. The Steven Holl-designed first-floor Forum at Bellevue Arts Museum is one of King County's most impressive public architectural spaces. With free admission, visitors can engage with a series of rotating exhibits, exemplifying the best in art, craft and design from the...

How can our design and planning processes help create great places while repairing harm and building community? If you are an architect or designer caring or curious about community engagement, we hope you will join us October 19–21 for Establishing Meaningful Relationships with Communities You Serve. This multi-day continuing education forum will convene design professionals,...

Mark your calendars for #GivingTuesday! We are thrilled to be participating again in #GivingTuesday – a global day of generosity on Tuesday, December 1. Your gift is an investment in encouraging a greater understanding and appreciation for the ways that design can improve our lives. Design is for everyone and inclusive co-design practices are essential to shaping an...

Join volunteers with SDF planning committee to ask questions about our call for proposal process and learn more about the Festival. Subscribe to the SDF YouTube channel and tune into the live YouTube premier.

We are excited to be partnering with NW Film Forum once again for the ByDesign Film Festival 2021! The 21st Annual Festival is a cross-cultural exploration of people, structures, and ideas at the intersection of design and the moving image. ByDesign’s film program, composed of nine feature films and one short film package, collectively dissects the intentions and industries...

We invite you to connect with our amazing group of Seattle Design Festival Core Team volunteers to get your Call for Proposal questions answered - April 30th at 6pm on Instagram Live @seadesignfest.

All are invited to join us for the public unveiling of the 2021 Seattle Design Festival at the Sneak Peek August 7, 10am-Noon @ 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...

Join the Seattle Architecture Foundation for this one-hour walking tour, which tour examines key ingredients for urban revitalization and discusses the design and architectural strategies at work in the vibrant, rapidly growing South Lake Union neighborhood. Participants will look at the commercial growth of the neighborhood – from Amazon’s historic lease agreement to today’s downtown-like...

Team: Marijke Keyser & Coyote CRE8 Students Do you enjoy working with your hands to create something tangible and creative? Then come join us for some interactive printmaking, where we'll explore monotypes and block prints to create custom-made greeting cards, stamps, and posters! You'll use professional printmaking tools like linoleum cutters, ink, and brayers to...

Emerging Gratitudes, a community-sourced gratitude project, is an installation designed for public use, reflection, and fun. An analog wall will display gratitude postcards created by the community to the local businesses, people, and places that they are grateful for. In addition to the analog gratitude board, we will be posting the gratitudes to a Substantial-made...

Team: producer and curator Megan Harmon, graphic designer Jordan Grant, contractor Estee Clifford, and artists Nikita Ares, Stevie Shao, Colleen Louise Barry, and Mary Anne Carter Limelight spotlights four emerging Seattle artists and invites them into the design community. The exhibition is curated and produced by Megan Harmon, a freelance curator, and project manager in...

Create a paper boat, with personal sentiments tucked safely inside. Once complete, you’ll set your boat – and your thoughts – free.

Team: Janie Bube, Nakisa Dehpanah, Dena Aghazadeh Communication Unmasked is an installation that features a web of masks to represent the burdens on communication we are shedding as we EMERGE into a post-pandemic world. Volunteers with Architects Without Borders Seattle (AWBS) and Crescent Builds developed the installation to show communication obstacles we have faced through...

Monophases in an interactive time capsule that captures the emergence of a new era of hybrid creativity. Cataloguing our pandemic passion projects that took place in solitude and led to cultivating hope in virtual vestibules, Monophases is the story of how the world changed and creativity lead the way.

As we rejoin the physical public sphere, we ask: What does it mean to communicate, on a human level? In this installation we invite two strangers to have an intimate conversation, confiding in each other without ever seeing one another.

"What do you need to THRIVE?" is the question we asked when we took art supplies into the community to listen- and bear witness- to people's stories of "home" and "homelessness." We did not set out to become housing developers- but that is what has EMERGED. ecoTHRIVE Housing is committed to creating beautiful, affordable, resident-owned villages that build community and human resilience- and joy!- as we adapt to an ever-changing world and shifting climate. Let’s talk about how we can bring all of our passion, compassion, and brilliance together to create the future we want to live into. Join us!

Team: Isabella Ceriale, Isabella Gaule, Sophia Johnson, Peyton Todd, Charmaine Yabut There’s no denying that the past year and a half has been tough. From losing loved ones to being confined to the company of our own bubbles, individuals worldwide have faced hardships that none of us could have predicted. The University of Washington Medical...

An interactive and evolving papier-mâché framework to foster dialogue and guide the future of ARCADE magazine.

Team: Julia Bruk, Debra Webb, Laara Garcia, Anna Czoski, Wolf Erickson, and Vancouver Mural Festival Future Arts presents Augment Your Block! A showcase of physical/digital interactive Augmented Reality sculptures, featuring local and international creatives blending and bending space through mobile AR technology. Community members will experience the physical installation at the block party either with...

A panoramic, wrap-around collage of Seattle neighborhoods is presented as a line drawing, stripped of color and content. Participants are encouraged to draw, color and write anywhere and everywhere, filling in blank store signs, populating buildings with new residents, and adding new public spaces and amenities, describing what they feel the city needs.

Movement through the installation represents leaving behind a long and isolating year and the opportunity to envision and build a thriving world together going forward.

Team: Mahlum Architects, Hoffman Construction Company Explore a wandering path punctuating time and space. Move through a series of vertical gardens, animated by simple repeating objects. At main welcome boards, untie a small flag, write a message, and tie it a trellis along the path. Plants at different stages of growth wind their way up...

Labyrinth is an experience grasping at senses and a journey perpetuated by emotion and mental health. Join us as we explore how we can emerge better together.

Emergence can be an act of celebration so let's dance and make some music together! A chorus of abstract inflatable figures has gathered here; high five an inflatable to add a new instrument to the soundtrack or change the bean and wiggle along with your new friends.

LiteHouse Shelters creates more than sleeping spaces for homeless villages or backyard sheds, we are creating and designing insulated construction panel systems to build tiny village spaces. Please come to discover our tiny home panels and our tinier scale model village made by bending craft sticks.

Team: Ben Larson, Bryan Lammers, Darrell Turner, David Fields, Denis Blount, Edward Gibbons, Erik Heironimus, Kevin Aswegan, Lauren Beuris, Leah Guszkowski, Loren Supp, Marjorie Chang Fuller, Marshall Turner As a collective, we questioned what the experience of the past year has meant to us, what it gave to society – as well as what was...

A Meaningful Balance is a calibrated disk that allows users to take different positions based on their comfort with regard to distance and contact. The 12’ diameter plywood surface and curved wood support ribs will provide an opportunity for people to explore the relationship between distance and security with regards to stability and contact. The...

Travel through a covered gallery/pathway of multi-colored & patterned blocks, where you can use art materials to share your Summer of 2021 thoughts about relationships and uses of space.

Passage represents the process of emerging, an invitation to transformation carried through a sequence of space. The Passage is experienced as a channel that questions how the built environment, often encountered as a static object, can be reimagined as an alive and active form. It is an invitation to consider how design can speak to the life infused within the structures we inhabit and how designers can transform their practices to employ the full spectrum of living materials in the spaces and places we create.

Kaleidospace is an experience of contemplation, reflection, and adaptation. Through the last year, we all embarked on a journey of change and uncertainty. Our installation mimics the personal and wonderous safe space we all created during last year, and from which we have Emerged transformed.

Bloomhouse is an interactive installation designed to symbolize the enclosures we have experienced throughout quarantine while asking visitors to reflect on how we can emerge from this time in a new, better light.

Through the deconstruction of the old ways, a new way emerges from it.

A physical and virtual photo board tells the story of human resilience and the memories we built throughout the year to mark a passage of time and capture the ways in which we emerged stronger.

The Block Party lounge will be designed by Mithun in collaboration with the local non-profit Sawhorse Revolution. The table and seating in the Pop-Up  Zone have been designed to be welcoming to members of the design community, and the community at large. All elements of the installation will have a permanent home with community partners...

After a year of separation, how do we recreate/encourage human interaction through design? Youth and families will contribute to maps of greater Seattle and South Lake Union Park in response to this question. Contributions can range from small cutouts, drawings, to handmade models and will illustrate participants’ re-imagining of spaces for community gathering. Design and...

Team Members: Marty Johnson, John Watkins, and Natalie Delbrueck - Quick & Daring Judges; Sandy Lam, CWB Community Engagement Director Quick & Daring is a long-standing tradition where participants design their own boat, build it in a day and race it the second day. It is a festival highlight for all! The 2021 Quick and Daring Home...

You know four square as the classic elementary school game played on a square court divided into quadrants. Jackson | Main Architecture (JMA) designed a four square court to show you how a simple game in a creative space can inspire interaction and adaptation, and possibly create a sense of emergence in our city. Come play!

Watch a Plein-air painting demonstration using oil on canvas! Plein-air is a form of outdoor painting that compels a close study of nature -- and our harmonic relationship with the environment around us. The venue will be treated as a springboard for artistic principles as we explore how shape language and color theory can facilitate...

An interactive letter exchange pop up experience where participants are prompted to write anonymous letters to share life lessons they've learned, struggles they've faced, offer pieces of advice, or give encouragement to other community members to take home with them.

Team: Dylan Glosecki, UDF Co-Chair, VIA Architecture | Lisa Awazu Wellman, UDF Co-Chair, IA Interior Architects | Nicolas Vivas, UDF Co-Chair, Turner Construction Company | Daniel Herhold, UDF Co-Chair, B+H Architects | Adam Bettcher, UDF Co-Chair, Seattle Dept. of Construction and Inspections This event will take place in the SDF Block Party Pop-Up Zone! Explore...

Team: Artistic Director - Vladimir Kremenović This Pop-Up Experience will include a performance preview by CommonForm, followed by a conversation with the artists from Via and Velocity. UTOPIA: space is a durational, site-responsive performance set in Freeway Park, celebrating the work of Angela Donadjieva, the immigrant woman who designed Freeway Park’s landscapes. Featuring dance by...

You know what they say: distance makes the heart grow fonder. But really: Does socially/physically distancing ourselves make us fonder of where we live? As we dust off our social lives and emerge from social distancing, how can we gather safely, joyously, and expressively? How has our city changed and how can we get to know...

Team: James Brandalise Have you always wanted to use professional woodworking tools to build something with your peers? Then join us in building a community sculpture using hammers, drills, screws, clamps, wood-burning tools - everything you need to bring our collective imagination to life! Together we will explore composition and balance and contribute to a...

Team: Hannah Rudin and Rosie Sabaric We know that all of 2021 will be about re-emergence in many different ways. We are re-emerging into the public spaces around us and becoming reacquainted with spaces that may have felt risky or off-limits for much of the past year. We are also re-emerging into what it means...

Team: Mindy Lehrman Cameron, Hannah Elias, Isa Lichtenberg, Isa Overstreet, Jeweliana Romero, Amelia Rurey, Emma Siple Join the graduating class and rising senior students in the Interior Architecture Department at Cornish as they walk visitors through a design process of mind-mapping and quick 3D sketching, and explore our collective subconscious view of the built environment....

Visit us to learn recycling tips and how artists in the Recology AIR Program transform recyclables into art. Recology will have provide various examples and the opportunity for you to transform trash into a wearable button to take. Recology believes that art plays a unique role in educating and inspiring the public. By supporting artists...

We invite designers and multidisciplinary artists to submit designs for the temporary central pavilion of the 2022 Seattle Design Festival. The pavilion will greet Festival attendees and serve as an ideal hub for pop-up programming at the SDF Block Party. The pavilion should be designed in such a way as to allow all or portions...

Have questions about this year's Seattle Design Festival? The Festival planning team will be hosting a virtual information session to share more about how they hope to see our community connect with our call for proposals. They'll be working to identify and answer frequently asked questions, and there will also be an opportunity for you...

Come celebrate the Diversity by Design exhibit at the Center for Architecture and Design highlighting the works of BIPOC designers, designers of all genders, LGBTQI + designer, designers with disabilities, immigrant designers and more. Connect with our local community and professional allies for an in-person discussion on how we can encourage current and future generations to explore...

Join us for Character Matters – a virtual exploration of three sites that set the historic tone of Seattle’s Central District: Douglass-Truth Branch Library, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, and Washington Hall. As new development rises to the challenge of design reviews and community expectations, we will highlight the need to address and create spaces...

Join members of the Festival Planning Team at the Fremont Sunday Market this Sunday! Learn more about what to expect at this year's Festival, interact with an old Festival installation, and make your very own SDF button. The Fremont Sunday Market is one of Seattle’s longest-running, year-round Street Markets. Come connect with the Fremont community,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 -...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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?...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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"...

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,...

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...

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...

'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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

Get That Giving Feeling It’s time to GiveBIG to support Seattle Design Festival! The SDF Board of Directors has pledged to match every dollar you give to meet our goal of $13,000. Show your support today to help unleash the design thinker in everyone. Early gifts inspire more generosity from our supporters on May 2nd...

Mix, mingle, and get excited for the 2023 Seattle Design Festival! Join our community of designers, thinkers, and innovators in exploring #sdfCURIOSITY! All are invited for the first official gathering of SDF 2023 Partners and Volunteers on August 9, 5-8 pm @ the Center for Architecture and Design. Festival staff and organizers will be on hand...

City of Seattle citizens voted yes on I-135 to implement a Social Housing Developer, but what does that really mean and how does it affect the city's development strategies?

Team: Mary Hertz, Designer. Kathy Jeffers, Co-Designer. Built Installation What If Mermaids Do Exist? Come wag her tail and move the waves around her. See her hair blow in the wind and imagine yourself pursuing your own "what if" question. Where will it take you?   SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTMENT This team is committing to reusing materials...

Inspire Action. Become a board member. Would you or someone you know make a great Seattle Design Festival Board Member? Be sure to complete the nomination form before close of business on February 7! The SDF Board of Directors advances our mission through strategic planning and fiduciary oversight – planning for sustainable growth and resource...