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Thomas J. Knittel is a design partner with McLennan Design, a global design firm. His projects in the U.S, Asia, Brazil, Middle East and Haiti explore connections between people, place and ecology. His work in biomimicry—taking inspiration from natural systems in order to solve human problems—focuses on integrating models from nature into the design of...
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’...
Much has been written on the topic of using virtual reality (VR) to inspire empathy. But simply feeling empathy is not enough to make more compassionate and socially adept society. For children, there is a very tangible opportunity to use VR as a tool to promote social and emotional learning – and there are risks....
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.
It’s the Opening Night of Black Box 3.0 at Art Hack Day E R A S U R E! Black Box 3.0 is the third edition of an annual festival in Seattle that explores how technology is transforming the arts, culture, and public life. Core programming is nomadic and experiential, presenting new work and ideas...
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...
Celebrate the ongoing transformation of the Mount Baker Town Center with local music, food, and festivities in and around the Sound Transit Link Station and ArtSpace Plaza. The festival will highlight and celebrate the ongoing transformation of this complex station area into a vibrant livable community. The City's Accessible Mount Baker project is moving forward...
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...
The community is invited to attend our free program, “Mount Baker Hub — Transforming a 20th Century Intersection into A 21st Century Model Community” on Monday September 19th at 6:30 pm. This event takes place at the Art Space Mount Baker Lofts, in the community room (2915 Rainier Avenue South – facing the Mt Baker...
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,...
Celebrate the conclusion of the 2016 Design Festival at the Design in Public After Party event at MAKERS in Belltown! The event will include local food and drink, an art installation by the University of Washington summer design/build studio and music by T.Wan. The event serves as a thank you to all who participated in...
RSVP: link.seadesignfest.org/Rumble_1 Whether you’re proposing an installation for the 2017 Seattle Design Festival Block Party or simply looking to assist with another’s proposal, attendance to each RUMBLE event is mandatory. The first RUMBLE will give you an opportunity to brainstorm ideas, find teammates within the community, seek advice from others and more. The Seattle Design Festival...
RSVP: link.seadesignfest.org/CommunityProgramsMixer This event is for those proposing Community Programs for the 2017 Seattle Design Festival. The mixer will give you an opportunity to brainstorm ideas, find collaborators within the community, seek advice from others and more. The Seattle Design Festival committee will also share important information about the Community Programs at this event. The Mixer...
RSVP: link.seadesignfest.org/Rumble_2 Whether you’re proposing an installation for the 2017 SDF Block Party or simply looking to assist with another’s proposal, attendance to at least 1 RUMBLE event is mandatory. The first RUMBLE will give you an opportunity to brainstorm ideas, find teammates within the community, seek advice from others and more. The Seattle Design Festival...
RSVP: link.seadesignfest.org/CommunityProgramsMixer2 SDF Community Program Partners will have the opportunity to join other hosts in the context of small group discussions to share/ critique respective program goals and approaches. Programs partners will be encouraged to pitch their program proposal to the small group. This will be an opportunity for the public to critique and support the...
The Center for Architecture & Design will be closed from June 12-28. During this time we will be making modifications to the space to support our growing exhibits. Design in Public staff will be working remotely during normal business hours. Feel free to contact us directly via email or voicemail and we will get back...
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.
Exactly how authentic do we want our outdoor experience to be, and how far do we have to go to find it? How can we protect our natural treasures in the midst of explosive regional population growth? Can we mitigate that human pressure on these environments by leveraging urban wilderness? Wild Tensions: How Design Mediates...
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...
2019 is the year of Balance. From August 16–25, the Seattle Design Festival (SDF) will connect designers, community members and civic leaders to explore how we design for Balance. We invite you to collaborate with SDF 2019: Balance. Proposals due 5pm, May 22. link.seadesignfest.org/CFP
An inaugural Seattle Design Festival program in partnership with City of Seattle Parks & Recreation; Design in the Parks pairs our community’s best designers with some of its best parks. Points of Contact Lake Union Park LMN The Emergence Waterfront Park Gensler + BNBuilders Vertigo Lake Union Park DLR Group + BNBuilders
How might design transform lives around the world? Act as a catalyst for change? Expand access? Include those who have been excluded? Design with the 90%: Improving Lives Around the World, highlights the global efforts of designers striving to answer these questions and developing affordable and sustainable shelter, food, drinking water, sanitation, and health solutions...
Exhibit runs June 6 – August 31, 2019 City systems operate similarly to people. Much of the day is concerned with utilitarian, functional, and obvious needs. Budgets are allocated to potholes and traffic alleviation like paying rent and filling a pantry with groceries. The blueprint for the average city is largely shaped more by cost,...
For “Shapeshifters,” four artists working in the Pacific Northwest have each been paired with a work from Pacific Bonsai Museum’s collection and asked to respond in their own medium. John Hogan’s glass vessel is paired with a 150-year-old Sierra Juniper in training as a bonsai since 1957; Diane Rudge’s hanging macrame is paired with a...
A Way of Living is a new book published this year which chronicle the design history of Herman Miller, an innovative furniture company. We will have a lecture and discussion with Llisa Demetrios of the Eames Office and Amy Auscherman, one of the editors of this new book and the corporate archivist for Herman Miller....
Join us for an evening celebration to kick off the 10-day Seattle Design Festival (exploring BALANCE, August 16-25) and recognize the many people and organizations who make it possible. Featuring two DJs, food from Golas Kitchen, drinks, dancing, design and more. $20 suggested donation gets you 2 drink tickets, no one turned away for lack...
Join us for a city-wide take over of designers, creatives, and companies hosting events during the Seattle Design Festival! Click the links below to learn more about each event. 98.7°: Fresh Perspectives on Recalibrating Design Balance Panel discussion moderated by Ken Yocom A Way of Living Herman Miller + Civilization “Balance” Microsoft Surface Experience and...
Are you game? The Seattle Design Festival invites you to immerse yourself in the design concepts and contexts during its Capitol Hill Neighborhood Design Crawl. Put your love for community and design to the test by participating in its inaugural Instagram-based scavenger hunt. Simply identify the Capitol Hill landmarks, partner design concepts and neighborhood personalities...
Your street, your vision. What would it look like if YOU designed a section of Capitol Hill? What would a leveled up street look like? The Seattle Architecture Foundation and Board & Vellum invite youth ages 10-16 to take the lead in reinvigorating the streetscape by designing and modeling their own parklet. During this two...
A Way of Living is a new book published this year which chronicle the design history of Herman Miller, an innovative furniture company. We will have a book signing with Llisa Demetrios of the Eames Office and Amy Auscherman, one of the editors of this new book and the corporate archivist for Herman Miller in...
Learn more about the Capitol Hill Design Crawl Scavenger Hunt The Capitol Hill Neighborhood Design Crawl consists of concentrated events, open studios, exhibits, interactive workshops or participatory design interventions that are meant to activate and celebrate the neighborhood. Design professionals, residents, business owners, and community groups are all invited to activate and celebrate neighborhood identity...
What would you do with 15 acres of new public land in the middle of the city? The Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) is embarking on a major feasibility study for lidding the central segment of Interstate 5. The Lid I-5 Steering Committee, the volunteer citizens who have led the initiative to...
For our participatory event, we intent to interview Seattle’s citizens at our location in Chophouse Row, Capitol Hill, during the Capitol Hill Design Crawl on their opinion about Seattle’s city-life balance. As interview foundation, we have developed four topics about which we want to collect some data. The event idea is based on the annual...
We are implementing a paradigm shift in our design processes, integrating rigorous neuroscience and deeper holistic dialogues to address challenging design issues. Brain-based design principles reveal how different personalities interact with the built settings that serve their purpose. Our workplaces, buildings and cities must change to support our overloaded digital information-age, to provide places that...
As part of the Capitol Hill Neighborhood Design Crawl, come visit Schemata Workshop's storefront office space. We will serve as a Hub and scavenger hunt stop for the event where you can enjoy some light refreshments and snacks while observing the current work our offices is doing - much of it related to affordable housing,...
Discover Arts in the Park in partnership with Terra Nostra are happy to announce the upcoming free outdoor family-friendly community event Symphony for Climate Change on August 17th 2019 at the upper field of the Daybreak Star Center in Discovery Park. We invite the community to enjoy Arts in the Park and also to join...
Showings at 4pm, 6pm + conversation after screening, and 8:30pm. Swing through NWFF’s Capitol Hill Hub for sweet and salty snacks, a talk on design aesthetics in modern consumer culture, multiple showtimes of "The Proposal" by Jill Magid, and a conversation following the 6pm screening. THE PROPOSAL Famed Mexican architect Luis Barragán is known as...
The Consumer Aesthetic Research Institute (CARI) is an online research community dedicated to developing a taxonomy of recent design aesthetics in modern consumer culture, interpreting and critiquing them in the context of societal trends. Our work spans a series of online platforms, taking advantage of their unique formats & structures to engage the public in...
Join us for a screening of a version Minda Martin's "Ramps to Nowhere" titled "Seattle Freeway Revolt". "Seattle Freeway Revolt" dives deep into the community activism behind the Freeway Revolt of the 60's and 70's, and how this activism lives on today. The screenings will be followed by a panel discussions with prominent Freeway Revolt...
Sound Curtain, was a collaboration between the Bertoia Studio and Thomas Cheney Architects for a proposed sound installation below the Osborne Street Bridge in Winnipeg Manitoba. Originally designed as a 9 ft tall x 30 ft long percussion instrument with over (600) 1/8 inch diameter copper rods suspended from 1/4" bronze plates. The rods, when...
A city’s identity is rooted in the history of its people: their shared experiences and the common perceptions and worldviews that come out of those. That history is manifest in a city’s built environment. When a city undergoes rapid change, it can lead to a collective identity crisis: especially when that environment embodies an uncomfortable...
In this Panel, we will explore how, as a company, Microsoft has been working on envisioning and implementing new ways for human beings to achieve balance with both Nature and Technology. In this panel we will share our philosophy for our new campus where both humans and nature will be successful in exciting new ways....
Join Olson Kundig and the Seattle Design Festival for a panel discussion on "Tipping the Paradigm: Shifting the Balance Towards Timber Construction." What if we could shift the building industry’s perception of materials, bringing timber (once again) to the forefront – making steel and concrete the outliers? However, timber actually holds more environmental benefits than...
Join us as Jim Graham, principle of Graham Baba Architects, shares his vision for breathing life into urban streetscapes as elicited by the firm’s thoughtful work in one of the city’s most dynamic and culturally-exciting neighborhoods. The work of Graham Baba along the Pike/Pine corridor in Seattle is predominantly composed of privately-developed projects. However, the...
IxDA Seattle will bring the design community together to share stories about balance in design. All stories will be true and under 8 minutes, as experienced and narrated by the storyteller on stage. No powerpoint or keynotes here, just the power of the spoken word. As humans (who also happen to be designers) we balance...
Following on two years of convening conversations with Office of Community Planning and Development regarding investment in our communities of need, AIA Seattle's Diversity Roundtable brings together three women leaders in built environment to talk about how their investment in cultural convening and community spaces provide lessons and perspective for how we might further catalyze...
Visitors to the Holocaust Center can take a Virtual Reality tour of the Anne Frank annex, interact with touch screens featuring survivor testimony and stories of how survivors came to Seattle, explore artifacts that bring history to life, and learn about local students who are upstanders in their schools and communities. The Holocaust Center for...
The SODO Track has transformed the portal to Downtown Seattle – a two-mile transit corridor traveled by over 50,000 daily – into a free and accessible urban art gallery exhibiting the work of over 60 artists from 20 countries who visually explore the themes of motion, speed and progress. Join 4Culture’s Public Art Director Kelly...
Architects Without Borders Seattle (AWB) and The BLOCK Project have partnered to build communities of compassion throughout Seattle, engaging individuals and their neighborhoods to welcome someone experiencing homelessness into their lives. Community engaged design has the power to mitigate the cyclical trauma of homelessness - coming closer is the first step in addressing the imbalance....
Shapeshifters: The Alchemy of Bonsai and Design exhibit curator, Aarin Packard, will be in conversation with glass artist John Hogan. All are invited to listen and participate in the conversation. RSVP is required and space is limited. To attend the event, send your name to RSVP@totokaleo.com before August 21. More information about the artists and...
The Laddership Program is a mentoring program for AIA Seattle members that matches groups of architects and emerging architects to share their experiences and learn from each other. Each year all the mentoring groups gather for a social to share experiences and invite new members to join. This is a casual event with refreshments, and...
Seattle is one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. We also have one of the highest rated public transit systems, expanding at an exponential rate. Add to that the permeation of ride sharing services adding more cars to our streets, and dockless bike sharing taking up real estate on our sidewalks. Capping it...
The Masters in Human-Computer Interaction + Design is a one-year intensive studio-based program where students engage in responding to challenging social and business problems using iterative research and prototyping, looking to find the balance between the needs of society, of business, and of individuals. This year, teams of students are exploring the future of using...
The Seattle 2030 District and Boeing welcome you to explore how we can recycle the beauty of Puget Sound to make Seattle more resilient and sustainable. This summer, we created a design competition challenging students, engineers, and architects to come up with innovative ways to capture rainwater and reuse it in building operations. These solutions...
Prestige built the Justice Bus so that BLC can bring services to homeless people at homeless encampments and small social service agencies where people are already receiving a meal, a shower, or other kinds of help. The welcoming design of the Justice Bus, created through a collaboration of architects with Prestige Construction, allows BLC to...
Please note that the Google Maps address for this event is incorrect. The correct address for Ten Penny Studio is 5840 Airport Way South. What does home mean? For some, home means a physical space to sleep, eat and shower, for others it means family and rest. In an aggressive political climate where people of...
Please note that the Google Maps address for Ten Penny Studio is incorrect. The correct address for Ten Penny Studio is 5840 Airport Way South. The Georgetown Neighborhood Design Crawl is a series of open studios, exhibits, and participatory design interventions - and an after-party at Photon Factory - that are meant to activate and...
The Georgetown Neighborhood Design Crawl consists of concentrated events, open studios, exhibits, interactive workshops or participatory design interventions that are meant to activate and celebrate the neighborhood. Design professionals, residents, business owners, and community groups are all invited to activate and celebrate neighborhood identity through a series of design-related events. DJ Natural Selection will be...
At the root of our climate crisis is trauma we carry in our relationship to the planet, each other, and ourselves. This trauma, unprocessed and often ignored, prevents deeper self-awareness and limits our ability to transform the systems that are the source of that trauma. Many religions and Indigenous communities teach that we are inherently...
98.6°F is the human’s normal temperature, the balanced state if you will. And while there is an acceptable range, and deviation from the norm, there are clear indicators when you’re experiencing something out of balance internally or as a result of the environment around you. Without a concerted effort, it is easy to be kept...
Photon Factory is a design studio and cultural space with an emphasis on community imagination and fearless creativity. The studio will open its doors for the first time to explore past projects in immersive design, graphic design, performance art, and dance. The Georgetown community is invited to come together, celebrate creativity and party in a...
Come and enjoy a rich discussion with Microsoft Surface; Experience and Devices Design Team on our Human centered design approach. Our panel discussion and exhibition will reveal ideas on the “spectrum of being human” across future ambient experiences. Together we will explore our design principles and values along with topical themes around designing for future...
Join us for an interactive discussion on how public open space can promote balance and equity in the City of Seattle. This discussion will explore how designers can support holistic and systemic solutions that address barriers to equity in the community. We will examine a collection of case studies from local design teams, neighborhood coalitions...
Collaborative Companies invites you to explore the impact of balance within the unique structures of beliefs, ideas, and relationships that make up our community. We encourage you to participate in a fun game related to "balance" that is short and easy to play, We will proceed to engage in meaningful conversation surrounding how healthy balances...
This tour examines key ingredients for urban revitalization and discusses the urban design and architectural strategies at work in the vibrant, rapidly growing South Lake Union neighborhood. Participants will experience the evolution of re-investment and re-development in the neighborhood and discuss transformation of a no-mans-land into one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in the country....
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 installations, performances, and design activities all centered around the Festival’s 2019 theme, BALANCE. The...
Please meet at the northwest corner of Thomas St & 9th Ave N. South Lake Union is the epicenter of Seattle’s tech-industry boom. As the international home of Amazon.com, and a regional center for Google, Facebook, and others, this neighborhood has contributed greatly to Seattle’s economic prosperity and status as a rising global city. Over...
“It comes down to know thyself. It’s important to know yourself, and I think that scent can help trigger that.” - Saskia Wilson-Brown, Founder, Institute for Art & Olfaction Why do 19 iconic brands and thought leaders including scent-branding experts, neuroscientists, technology behemoths, and a Game of Thrones language creator feel so strongly about this...
Throughout history, people have sought connections with nature. In particular, designers have observed nature, investigated its materials, and imitated and abstracted its forms and qualities. Join UBC Botanical Gardens and TEALEAVES, along with a series of industry experts for a screening of The Garden of Secrets documentary. The screening will be followed by an intimate...
The Seattle Architecture Foundation's Annual Model Exhibit celebrates the creativity of local and international design firms. Each year, the exhibit displays physical and digital models, architectural renderings, and a variety of other displays that represent the design process. Through this exhibit local and recent architectural projects and the tools used to develop them take center...
How does technology influence our urban experience? Whether we like it or not, technology is deeply rooted in our everyday lives. As emerging technologies continue to evolve, and our cities morph and adapt, the relationship between technology and our urban environments grows more complex. Balancing Act explores the notion of balance by posing a series of...
“Proactive Practice,” the next exhibit @ the Center for Architecture & Design, has been extended into the summer. We hope to celebrate with a Closing Party (date TBD), so stay tuned for more information as we have it! As speculative development and fast-paced growth transform urban space, architects must not be complacent in service to...
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...
ByDesign Festival is a cross-cultural exploration of people, structures, and ideas at the intersection of design and the moving image happening March 18 - 22 at Northwest Film Forum. In its 20th year, ByDesign recontextualizes the global to the local and examines pressing issues such as sustainability, affordability, indigeneity, and infrastructure, as they relate to...
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! In light of the current situation, we're pivoting to a 'virtual information session' for...
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...
PROPOSALS DUE: June 22, 2020 @ 5pm PST For more information see our Call for Proposal page and our About Seattle Design Festival + FAQs page.
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...
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...
Submit your message of hope, social justice, community, or resilience to be letterpress printed by SVC Seattle’s Partners in Print by Saturday, August 15, and experience submissions virtually and in-person throughout the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Printers from SVC Seattle including Jenny Wilkson, Amy Redmond, Kristen Ramirez, Annabelle Larner, Bonnie Thompson Norman, and Marie Kuch-Stanovsky...
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...
2020 is a big year in many ways– the Seattle Design Festival is turning 10! Our anniversary comes at a pivotal moment in time. This year’s theme, About Time, sought to ponder past, present and future at a unique moment of transition for the city, the region and the world. Instead, it presently confronts the...
Community Spotlights are physical displays and experiences throughout the city that are visible from the public right-of-way and can be visited safely and with social distance. These will all be running the length of the festival, August 15 - 23, except where noted below. Links out to event pages for full descriptions. 15th...
Team: Thomas Cheney, Julie Hale On March 23rd, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee issued proclamation order 20-25 'Stay Home Stay Healthy.' In light of the global pandemic, the public was asked to shelter in place to prevent community spread of the COVID-19. With only essential businesses allowed to remain open, many local restaurants and bars...
As a reflection of our specific time in history and our human need to interact with each other and nature, SHKS Architects and Site Workshop have collaborated to construct a community garden at an underutilized corner in Fremont. A pixelated grid demarcates space and order in our time of six-foot distancing. Transforming from planter to...
Team: Kendra Azari, Malcolm Wolfdelux Procter, Kevin Snoddy (artists) Lia Coleman, Alana Zakroczemski, Simon Budker, Brooke Cheng (organizers) "ON THE RECORD" is a mural celebrating how black artists have shaped music over the ages. It is painted on the side of Everyday Music, a record shop in Capitol Hill. The mural shows 3 influential black...
Team: Jacob Young, Isaac Greenetz, Sidney Burton, Noah Firth “We Are One” aims to use creative and thoughtful design to demonstrate the many faces and voices that make up our greater Seattle community. It integrates multiple levels of interaction to help visitors understand the important role of each individual, a crucial part of the whole....
Team: EJ Deocampo, Gargi Kadoo, Hannah Estrich, Nicholas Zurlini, Parker Meade, Simba Mafundikwa, Stuart Jones How do we spend time together, or spend time apart? Coming together in the midst of global pandemic may look different than our previous understanding of the word together. Yet the ongoing fight for racial justice and equality shows us...
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...
Vortices of Myrkott På Reutersvard is a projection of a hand-drawn animation on a mural, both animation and mural are artworks created by Paul Kuniholm. The animation depicts the stylized movement of a revolving earth, echoing the long history of the Kuniholm family in Seattle, dating back to 1890, when Johan Emil Kuniholm arrived to...
Visit Rolluda Architect's event website at any point during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Matthew Budinger, Tracy Law, Mark McCarter, Brett Barbakoff, Zamzam Arale, Karina Djaynurdin, Sabina Punjani, Vicki Pena, Richard Murray, Nestor Marquez, Eleanor Shull, Alex Rolluda, Princess Coleman, and Tanya Rolluda At Rolluda Architects, Architecture is what we do. But our Culture—who we...
Visit Reimagine in Color website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Weber Thompson - Erin Hatch, Brittany Porter, Tom Geeslin, Cody Lodi, Aaron Swain, Allison Rose, Carrie Hinshaw, Emily Evenson, Johanna Lirman, John Hornibrook, Leslie Riibe, Mark Dorsey, Stephanie Farrell Reimagine in Color is a digital art project with a purpose of amplifying youth...
Visit the This Moment in Time: a Creative Response website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: KPFF - Diana Timpson, Huitt-Zollars - J. Ulrich, Gannett Flemming - Leisa Geiger, ScharrerAD - Christine Scharrer, Jeff Hammerquist, Ben Lynn, Frank Brescia As creative and design oriented people, we often note and respond to the world...
Visit The Antibody to the Pandemic of Fake News event website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Yuansi Li, Catherine Chang, Alex Banh "The Antibody to the Pandemic of Fake News" is an online experience for visitors to learn the dangers of misinformation in the media and the tools to protect themselves and...
Visit the Listen Now website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Sunny Zhang, Stacey Crumbaker, Claudia Saunders, Anne Schopf, Violette Yang Each of us comes to our community bringing with us the stories that have made us who we are. People come together through their work, organizations, and initiatives, but what really brings...
Visit the Running Dry: How Water Will Design Our Future website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Aaron Argyle, Malika Kirkling, Rob Misel, Casey Riske Viewers are invited to an immersive digital platform that highlights the design thinking of the future voices in our community. The exhibition is a collection of work created...
Visit the Dreamscapes website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Orlando Orozco, Eduardo Silva, Astrid Garcia, Hannah Lim & Alonso Cantu Our environment is constantly changing and there have been so many visions of what we may be along the way of human progress. Inspired by the current times, in which we must look...
Time is a connection—connection between past, present, and future, connection between an individual and the other, connection between one generation and another. Through time, everything can happen and right now the world is pausing, yet time is still moving. Time is complicated. Each time frame has its own value and opportunity. It is a moment...
Visit the EMI website every morning at 8:30 am (PST) during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Lisa Ehli, Brandon McNerney, Randy Larsen, Laura Salmela, Toby Wong, Nathaniel Gundersen Come with us and step into a space of reflection - a space of communal pondering to look for a bigger picture, a broader understanding of who we...
Northwest Film Forum presents an interdisciplinary film program and interactive community vision board collectively contemplating the poetry of pace, process, and performance in how we relate to our built and natural environments. From a foundation of improvisation and biomimetic ideation, these films invite us to slow down and prioritize care in the doing, serving as...
Design at Your Desk at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! About time! We’ve all been spending a lot more time at home recently because of COVID-19. By now you are VERY familiar with all the rooms in your house. Are there any that don’t function well or could function better? What if you could...
Use the Urban Harmony Seattle mobile application at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: NBBJ In addition to the health impacts of COVID-19, the pandemic also creates another problem — isolation. With many disconnected from family and friends, and only leaving the house for essential purposes, they are feeling disengaged from their community. URBAN...
Visit the Seattle Happy Places website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Hannah Rudin and Rosie Sabaric Seattle Happy Places invites you to find Happy Points in your community that inspire you, bring you joy, and recognize the unrecognized in good design. As Seattle navigates ongoing crises in these emotionally-charged times, there are...
Visit the Sharing Stories of Racism & Resistance in Seattle website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: City of Seattle OPCD + SDCI Change Team Our website will collect and share stories of how the City and community have exacerbated racism and advanced liberation. Building off the work of similar websites, we will...
Visit the Duwamish Crossing website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Matt Wittman, Angela Yang, and Canan Sevim We all need to cross the Duwamish River, why not new connections that combats climate change? The West Seattle bridge has failed. After only 36 years of useful life—it will be closed until 2022, and...
Visit the It's About Time We House Everyone website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Third Place Design Cooperative, Sheri Newbold, Bruce Parker AIA Seattle works to shape policies that rethink the city's majority single-family zoned areas which have historically restricted access for communities of color, renters, low-income residents, and others. To achieve...
Visit the Created then, Here now, Envisioning for the future website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Whitney Valerio, Jessica Cody, Madi Thomas, Anna Spencer, Jocelyn Camacho, Merike Mighell, Michelle Northfield This event spotlights 10 landmarks in Seattle and surrounding areas from the past, present and future. We've selected one landmark per decade...
After running into some location complications, the team is currently trying to find another storefront and exploring the option of moving the display online. More information coming soon! Team: Edward Gibbons, Loren Supp, Erik Heironimus, Chao Deng, April Sun, Hugh Campbell, Divya Kapuria, Gemma Mechure, Xandr Stack, Rotimi Seriki, Jeffrey Stafford, Marshall Turner, Marjorie Chang...
CLICK HERE to access the Scavenger Bingo Time PDF. Team: Tara Brooks, Emilia Cabeza De Baca, Yue Chen, Miranda Karli, Liz Szatko, Genevieve Theriault, and Michelle Yates This time is one of undeniable environmental, economic, social, and biological adversity. This time is also one for developing new identities and communities by renegotiating boundaries and comfort...
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...
The following Partner Programs include virtual experiences as well as indoor and outdoor activities that will be running the length of the festival, August 15 - 23. Links out to event pages for full descriptions. A Poetics of Living: Biomimetic Blueprints Northwest Film Forum Connection in Time Tracy Law Created Then, Here...
The following Partner Programs are live stream webinars, discussions, and other virtual programming that will occur on specific days and times. Some events will require registration or ticket purchases. Links out to event pages for full descriptions. Architect’s Role in the Civic Conversation for Design Justice AIA Seattle Diversity Roundtable & NOMA NW Chapter...
The Seattle Architecture Foundation just launched a new tool for exploring Seattle's built environment! The new Seattle Architecture Foundation App includes profiles of over 200 Seattle buildings in the downtown core, sorted into 5 neighborhood tours. Researched and written by local historian Maureen R. Elenga, each description offers a bite-sized snapshot of a building’s historic...
This film will be available throughout the run of the Seattle Design Festival! Team Members: Sarah Lisette Chiesa, Terence Chiesa (father), Aaron Chiesa (VFX artist), Julia Chiesa (sister) of Moving Violations Throughout the past six months, the world has dealt with one of the most sad and discouraging periods in our history. A capitalist society’s...
Visit the How Do We Want To Live? website at any time during the Seattle Design Festival! Team: Abbie Drake, Candon Murphy, Willie Mak, Ellen Dulweber, Ryan Lascano, Isabella Noet, Casey Hopkins, Kim Drake, Michelle Northfield, Cori Concepcion In 2017, MG2 brought the 'How Do You Want To Live?' experience to Design in Public, where we...
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...
We hope you have been enjoying the festival, and found ways to plug in, celebrate design, and think critically about the roles designers can play in shaping our communities. Donate today and safeguard future festivals for all!
Traditionally, Architecture is presented as a finished product, exact in its completion. However, each project is a body of work with a life of its own, changing over time and affecting the surrounding context in unexpected ways. “Finished” architectural projects are only the final outcome of a long process of design studies, client requests, city...
Team: Justin Panganiban, Doug Sharpe, Trevor Mauro, Victoria Kovacs, Solaja Ratcliffe, Isaura Perez In times of chaos and uncertainty, regenerative healing is deeply inherent to both the natural world and the human heart. When faced with disruptions to ecosystems, life cycles, and habitats, nature’s response is to regrow and rebuild. In a season of pain...
Join us for Architect’s Role In The Civic Conversation For Design Justice, a 2-hour panel discussion furthering the conversations of the impact design professionals have on the communities they serve. Team: Whitney Lewis, Rico Quirindongo, Rania Qawasma, Susan Frieson Design justice, design impact. In the civic realm, we design not only for the communities we...
Team: Trevor Dykstra, George Zatloka, Mike Hua, Letao Tao, Kai Curtis, Allison Shroeder, Allana Zakroczemski, Ken Roepe, Lia Coleman, Joy Jin A roving mobile printing press that asks "What is the change you want to see in the world?" and will allow anyone to make a placard or sign with words describing their past, present,...
Join us for This Bitter Earth Project, a short film that brings together dancers from around the world in response to social inequality and the global health crisis: Artists perform in containment while song and film synchronize movements and create a powerful collaboration. Does the extreme social tension caused by America's inequality and the global...
Team: Justin Panganiban, Doug Sharpe, Trevor Mauro,Victoria Kovacs, Solaja Ratcliffe, Isaura Perez In times of chaos and uncertainty, regenerative healing is deeply inherent to both the natural world and the human heart. When faced with disruptions to ecosystems, life cycles, and habitats, nature’s response is to regrow and rebuild. In a season of pain and...
Join us for Creative Rituals: Designing for the New Normal, a 90-minute virtual panel! Team: Madeline Macdonald, Ezgi Emiroglu, Carly Williams, Kate Morsink While Seattle Design Festival 2020 gathers the design community to focus on the concept of time, it is impossible to refute that we are living within a time of historical significance, having...
Team members: Kayla Ford, Steve Lee, Maria Garcia Llop, Toby Peterson, Samira Qayyum, Cameron Walker Community is a central pillar in a thriving society. There are repercussions of its breakdown in inequality of its people, hostility and tribalism, and individualistic selfishness. When our communities are strong, we see the evidence in its inclusive nature, and...
Team: John E. Perkins, PhD in Organizational Change, Principal in Keep the Change Consulting. Only boldness can deliver from fear. ~ Carl Jung Let’s fully own our boldness. Boldness expresses our soul’s sovereignty over how we speak, act, think, create, and engage. Our challenging time calls for everyone to be bolder. This means you, too....
Join us for Defense of density after COVID-19, a 90-minute panel discussion. Team: Crisann Brooks, Family Support Program Director, Refugee Women’s Alliance; Brent Butler, Age Friendly Seattle Program Manager, City of Seattle Human Services Department; Donald King, Principal Architect, Mimar Studio; Patience Malaba, Director of Government Relations and Policy, Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County;...
Join us for Reimagining Retail in the Time of Coronavirus: What will the role of the store be in our post-pandemic world?, a one-hour live stream panel. What will the role of the store be in our post-pandemic world? From pop-up exclusives to showrooms, the store had become a curated technology-rich experience giving customers more...
Team: Carrie Basas, Director; Sam Blazina, Senior Ombuds; Sean Heans, Community Engagement Specialist The Governor's Office of the Education Ombuds has worked with families, educators, K-12 students, and community organizations to draft its next 3-year strategic plan which is intended to be anti-racist and anti-ableist. While we've co-designed with communities to create the framework, we...
Mask up and head to MoPOP at Seattle Center to view large scale displays of some of our city's recent murals! 2020 has been a difficult year for all but Seattle’s community has really demonstrated its resilience and its support for those who have been deeply affected by COVID and for the Black Lives Matter...
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...
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...
Join us for this 90-minute panel to learn from the young leaders who helped to shape this exhibition. Team: Bitanya, Noah & Michaela, Youth Ambassador Program Members We the Future showcases the stories of ten young leaders working to build an equitable and inclusive world through their respective social change movements. Inspired by Amplifier’s We...
Team: Kendra Azari, Malcolm Wolfdelux Procter, Kevin Snoddy (artists) Lia Coleman, Alana Zakroczemski, Simon Budker, Brooke Cheng (organizers) This is the online live-streamed event with an opportunity for a Q&A with all of the artists that accompanies the ON THE RECORD mural that can be viewed throughout the festival. Join us August 19, 5pm (this...
Join us for Designing for Behavior Change, a 90-minute virtual program that will review concepts important to designing for behavior change and explore ethical considerations of these approaches. Team: Rebecca Van Singel, Delaney Cunnigham, Neha Kaura Is designing something that drives people toward a specific behavior manipulative, or is it a valid approach to design?...
Be sure to attend this 90-minute panel! Join us for a unique experience where we take you on a journey through recent history. 2020 has been a difficult year for all but Seattle’s community has really demonstrated its resilience and its support for those who have been deeply affected by COVID and for the Black...
You may have found yourself wondering recently: What day is it? What year? Who even am I? As designers, we are constantly thinking about the implications of time throughout people’s work, life, and school experiences. And as we see our habits and instincts disrupted by global unrest in real-time, it’s more important than ever that...
Join USC Shoah Foundation & Substantial for an hour-long online program + Q & A. We are experiencing changes in education more quickly than ever. How can technologists and organizations learn from well-designed virtual experiences that prioritize access and experiential learning? Join us for a livestream discussion with Sheryl Cababa (VP of Strategy, Substantial) &...
Join us for Steven Holl - Making Architecture, a one-hour virtual Q&A session from the Bellevue Arts Museum. Renowned American architect Steven Holl joins Executive Director & Chief Curator of Bellevue Arts Museum Benedict Heywood in conversation about Holl’s current Making Architecture exhibition at BAM. The conversation will be hosted on Zoom and will be...
Team: Aaron Ladd, Carmen Scraper, Daniel Scully, Ian Stevens, Jenny Prieto, Michael Beck, Patrick Dodson, Sarah Ellen Jodway, Sherif Sugiyama, and contributions from Stephen C. Grey & Associates, LLC 9 artists and designers created 9 sculptures in their 9 separate homes. These sculptures will be placed distances apart, located along the South Ship Canal Trail...
Vortices of Myrkott På Reutersvard is a projection of a hand-drawn animation on a mural, both animation and mural are artworks created by Paul Kuniholm. The animation depicts the stylized movement of a revolving earth, echoing the long history of the Kuniholm family in Seattle, dating back to 1890, when Johan Emil Kuniholm arrived to...
CLICK HERE to access the Scavenger Bingo Time PDF. Team: Tara Brooks, Emilia Cabeza De Baca, Yue Chen, Miranda Karli, Liz Szatko, Genevieve Theriault, and Michelle Yates This time is one of undeniable environmental, economic, social, and biological adversity. This time is also one for developing new identities and communities by renegotiating boundaries and comfort...
Join us for UTOPIA: touch, an hour-long, live, durational performance with 9 dancers in isolation exploring the tendernesses of unity and rebellion. Team: Vladimir Kremenović We are exploring proximity and unity in the virtual space while grappling with the politics of surveillance and tensions between obedience and freedom. It is the second event in UTOPIA, a...
Join us for Empathy is Not Enough: How to Take Action Towards Inclusion, a one-hour participatory session. Design thinking has helped teams gain empathy and create better experiences for people around the world. Yet sometimes the experiences that result from design thinking processes benefit only the communities and populations that are directly engaged. At other times,...
Team: Trevor Dykstra, George Zatloka, Mike Hua, Letao Tao, Kai Curtis, Allison Shroeder, Allana Zakroczemski, Ken Roepe, Lia Coleman, Joy Jin A roving mobile printing press that asks "What is the change you want to see in the world?" and will allow anyone to make a placard or sign with words describing their past, present,...
Team: Erica Bush, Juliette Dubroca, Mariana Gutheim Central Collective will project silent short moving images meant to showcase Seattle designers from underrepresented communities. Through 'It's about time', Central Collective intends to reflect on the lack of visibility of women, communities of color, immigrants and LGBTQI+ in our creative industries. This invisibility leads to a monoculture which struggles to address in our...
Join us for The Design of Everyday AI Things, a 60-minute virtual panel! Team: Madeline Macdonald, Ezgi Emiroglu, Carly Williams, Kate Morsink, Nathalie Attallah Four leading figures in the future of AI discuss the responsibilities and opportunities for designers using data as material to create social impact through a more inclusive design of products and services....
Join us for UTOPIA: touch, an hour-long, live, durational performance with 9 dancers in isolation exploring the tendernesses of unity and rebellion. Team: Vladimir Kremenović We are exploring proximity and unity in the virtual space while grappling with the politics of surveillance and tensions between obedience and freedom. It is the second event in UTOPIA, a...
Join us for Towards a Region of Short Distances, a 2-hour virtual panel discussion. Team: Elijah Coley, Adam Bettcher, Lisa Awazu Wellman Before the Second World War, central Puget Sound cities grew around neighborhood nodes that were naturally limited to walkable radii around transit access. Development after the 1940s prioritized automobile mobility. Automobile dependence became a...
