Come join us for the ultimate celebration to close out the SDF 2024 event! We’re throwing a party to wrap up the festivities in style at The Shop – LMN Architects. Get ready for an unforgettable night filled with music,...
Visit the new home of Gage Academy of Art, located in SLU right next to the Amazon Spheres! Expand your design community and connect with the Gage community over drinks, bites, and hands-on activities. We invite you to join us...
Team: Justin Dauer Virtual Mainstage What is design, if not ‘connection’ made manifest? Given the state of the world over the past few years, with designers navigating the global pandemic, mass layoffs, hybrid / remote work, and a struggling economy,...
Team: Paul Kuniholm Virtual Mainstage Watch this percussive performance where Paul Kuniholm reverberates his Steel Heart sculpture designed to calm unwanted noise. Paul Kuniholm’s family arrived to Salish lands in 1890. Kuniholm trained in ironworking at Vashon High School 1976-77....
Virtual Mainstage Imagine ‘what if’ possibilities for the future of how we can empower, engage and connect communities through pioneering the use of new tools, mediums and platforms. Human connection is one of the essential ways in which we find...
Team: Aiken Bömers-Muller, Brad Muller, David W Halsell Virtual Mainstage What if we made an artist residency more accessible and lowered the barriers to participation? CAMPBIENT: The 44 Hour Sound Art Residency is annual event that brings together dozens of...
Virtual Mainstage Break your mundane routine and reignite the curiosity and excitement for life that is so present in childhood. Brought to you by the creative studio Goopy Girls, Goopy Mag is a printed publication centered around play, mess, and...
Join us at the Seattle Design Festival Mixer and explore our current exhibition, “A Better Way to Go: Toilets and the Future of Sanitation.” Join a tour, participate in take-action activities, and enjoy beverages, bites, and connection with one another!...
SDF believes that design is for everyone. Join in the conversation from wherever you are with our Virtual Mainstage. This restream can be found on the SDF YouTube channel, and will premier on August 20 and 21! Are you able...
Team: Meredith Pellon, Elise Meiners, Madeline Morser, Shayley Timm Virtual Mainstage Reimagine the stage over and over again, as you are invited into a calm but charged landscape of contemporary dance. Last Last Last is a contemporary dance work utilizing...
Team: Bea Badipe, Sabin Timalsena Virtual Mainstage WHAT IF architecture could become the bridge between the physical and digital world? Explore the future of architecture as a bridge between the digital and physical worlds in this hallmark talk titled: The...
Virtual Mainstage WHAT IF we embraced mistakes? Did I Do That? is podcast about graphic designers: the ups and downs they face in creative practice, because making design means making lots (and lots) mistakes. In this special live recording, host...
Virtual Mainstage WHAT IF we could improve how we communally talk about and shape our past, present and future with AR/VR? Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are expanding the ways we can interact with our world and each...
Join us for food, drink, and community at Pratt! Connect with Pratt artists, instructors, students, and staff within a space that highlights the bridge between fine art, function, design, and community. We will gather in the fusing/flameworking studio, but opportunities...
Make connections at the SDF Mixers! WHAT IF? opens our minds to challenge the status quo, expand knowledge, develop new relationships, and make new discoveries. We invite you to bring that open mind to our Seattle Design Festival Mixers, a...
Block Party Mainstage Imagine ‘what if’ possibilities for the future of how we can empower, engage and connect communities through pioneering the use of new tools, mediums and platforms. Human connection is one of the essential ways in which we...
Team: Aiken Bömers-Muller, Brad Muller, David W Halsell Block Party Mainstage What if we made an artist residency more accessible and lowered the barriers to participation? CAMPBIENT: The 44 Hour Sound Art Residency is annual event that brings together dozens...
Pop Up Experience What if… we create serendipity? A serendipity salon designed to spark joy and connection is a welcoming space that fosters meaningful interactions and delightful discoveries. Serendipitous moments ignite joy, as they inspire gratitude for the beauty of...
Team: Paul Kuniholm Block Party Mainstage Join Paul Kuniholm for a percussive performance where he reverberates his Steel Heart sculpture designed to calm unwanted noise. What if sound were a precious treasure, nurtured in quietude? Can subtle sound at the...
Block Party Mainstage Break your mundane routine and reignite the curiosity and excitement for life that is so present in childhood in this Block Party Mainstage presentation. Brought to you by the creative studio Goopy Girls, Goopy Mag is a...
Team: Isabella Medina, Isabel Nelson Pop Up Experience Join us speed-dating style to make friends through a rotating portrait drawing session. Our pop-up explores possibilities of what can happen when we use creativity to learn about others in our community....
Pop Up Experience Send Slime Faxes from your mobile device at Seattle Design Festival this summer! Ever wanted to send a Slime Fax? Slime Fax is a functional, fictional office communication tool that sends unreadable messages by spraying fake “slime”...
Pop Up Experience Capture unforgettable moments next to an enchanting Mushroom Tent at the Seattle Design Festival. Step into a world where creativity meets nature, and snap photos beside this whimsical structure, a testament to the power and beauty of...
Team: Justin Dauer Block Party Mainstage What is design, if not ‘connection’ made manifest? Given the state of the world over the past few years, with designers navigating the global pandemic, mass layoffs, hybrid / remote work, and a struggling...
Team: Kim Anh Tran-Dinh, Augusta Milford, Brandon Milling Pop Up Experience Come imagine Seattle’s possible futures at the interactive pop-up, Balancing Act! Explore the region’s alternate realities by responding to “What If?” prompts and posing some of your own unconventional...
Team: Jessica Holman, Whitney Valerio, Kacy Jones, Lee Weihung Pop Up Experience Join us to create some fun crafts and engage in discussion! “What If…” it was second nature for unwanted materials to be diverted from the landfill and transformed...
Block Party Mainstage WHAT IF we embraced mistakes? Did I Do That? is podcast about graphic designers: the ups and downs they face in creative practice, because making design means making lots (and lots) mistakes. In this special live recording,...
Pop Up Experience What if we could improve how we communily talk about and shape our past, present and future with AR/VR? Want to know how Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality(VR) experiences are designed and created? Stop by the...
Pop Up Experience Beep. Beep. Beep. Did you hear that sound? That sound when you badge into the office to comply with RTO policy? Beep. A day start. Beep. A coffee get. Beep. A day end. Beep. Beep. Why do...
Team: Roy Hague, Tiffany Chang, Ryan Lascano, Arni Barnes, Karis Kim, Emily Dutton, Gunes Erel, Dana Lee, Nke Opoku, Catherine Park, Hely Parmar, Colette Reitenour, Justin Sze, Trevin Thompson, Sophia Vanderwarker, Athena Walker, Samantha Weissberg Pop Up Experience How could...
Block Party Mainstage WHAT IF we could improve how we communally talk about and shape our past, present and future with AR/VR? Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are expanding the ways we can interact with our world and...
Team: Meghan Oesterle, Akiksha Chatterji, Lisa Marcus, Art Quinones Pop Up Experience Help us create a “community of dreams!” What if Seattle ushers in a Green New Deal future and meets its climate goal to be Carbon Neutral by 2050?...
Team: Bea Badipe, Sabin Timalsena Block Party Mainstage WHAT IF architecture could become the bridge between the physical and digital world? Explore the future of architecture as a bridge between the digital and physical worlds in this hallmark talk titled:...
Team: Jigyasa Tuli & Ana Mengote Baluca Pop Up Experience Join us to pause and reflect about your intentions, inspire, get inspired and connect with others. A Collective Manifesto aims to foster connections and conversations across different perspectives and beliefs...
Join us at Lake Union Park during the SDF Block Party for the first-ever SDF Mainstage! These performances, talks, and demonstrations are happening live at the times listed below. Be sure to grab your seat before the program starts! Can’t...
Team: Mushroom Tent Pop Up Experience Capture unforgettable moments next to an enchanting Mushroom Tent at the Seattle Design Festival. Step into a world where creativity meets nature, and snap photos beside this whimsical structure, a testament to the power...
Team: Erik Miller-Klein, Ani Joh, Alec Lindsay, Mesa Kelly, Drew Lodarek Pop Up Experience What if you could hear sound in relation to the frequencies and visualize the different impacts it has on your daily experiences.? Tenor Engineering Group has...
Team: Meredith Pellon, Elise Meiners, Madeline Morser, Shayley Timm Block Party Mainstage Reimagine the stage over and over again, as you are invited into a calm but charged landscape of contemporary dance. Last Last Last is a contemporary dance work...
Team: Urban ArtWorks Base Crew Pop Up Experience Pick up a brush and collaborate with youth artists from Urban ArtWorks! What if young people were given the power to design art that was seen by the general public in their...
Team: Keerthana Venugopalan Pop Up Experience What if… we create serendipity? A serendipity salon designed to spark joy and connection is a welcoming space that fosters meaningful interactions and delightful discoveries. Serendipitous moments ignite joy, as they inspire gratitude for...
Team: Rebecca Ustrell, Nicholas Aceves, Samuel Signer Built Installation Explore the possibilities of radical community collaboration. What if we collaborated? “Infinity” is an interactive, thread-bound paper sculpture exploring the possibilities of radical community collaboration. Read responses to the prompt “What...
Team: Cierra Higgins (NOMA|nw), Kaylah Meikle(NOMA|nw), Matthew Fujimoto (NOMA|nw), Darren Smith (Cater 2 U Construction) Built Installation Engage with our installation by contributing your own experiences and aspirations for equitable housing to our mind map. Use string to create a...
Team: Amber Shi, Ben Larson, Ben Rogers, Biwen Sun, Eric Pope, Erik Heironimus, Heywood Chan, Jacky Wong, Joe Clark, Joonhyuk Yun, Karie Gipson, Loren Supp, Marjorie Chang Fuller, Parker Meade, Philip Bergsieker, Queenie Lyu, Ryan Kaname, Steven Herron Built Installation...
Team: Steven, Kan, Solara, Melia, Dan, Donn, Brian, Teng, Nolan, Mai-Anh, Ghida Built Installation Make your mark and add to this collaborative facade! What if an architectural facade was designed to incorporate unique input from a wide audience. Could it...
Team: Janelle Abbott, CRĒO Industrial Arts, Bianca Dyke, Justin Heu, Nicole Li, Simba Mafundikwa, Carolina Montilla, Kayla Quilantang, Krista Reeder, Eduardo Velasquez, Franci Virgili Built Installation “Loom to Bloom” invites you to bring your old and unwanted clothing and join...
Built Installation This installation opens discussion to the question: What if we could collaborate on ideas that transcend familiar ways of thinking? Storytelling is the exchange of ideas that transcend our understanding. Surrounded by books, the space created acts as...
Team: Brittany Porter, Sarah Rable, Austin Besse, Cody Lodi, Jiao Mei, Lara Tedrow, Marc Furst, Noah Scanlan Built Installation “What if structures could sing?” Timbre (pronounced tam-ber) is an immersive installation in which differing columns double as musical instruments brought...
Built Installation Join the team at Environmental Works and contribute your unique vision to the ever-evolving story of our city. This thought-provoking interactive installation will invite participants to reimagine the utilization of Seattle’s surplus properties—those hidden gems scattered throughout our...
Built Installation Step into the future of urban living with “Algae Arcology” an immersive installation that transforms the concept of a city into a vibrant, living ecosystem. This 3D-printed hydrogel city teems with life, featuring tiny shrimp swimming through translucent...
Team: Christopher Patano, Elizabeth Gilman, Jeff Ocampo, Brennan Kuhn, Caitlin Cypher, Radha Iyer, Dan Leckman, Megan Ryan, Eilish Cullen Built Installation Stop by to play the EPIC Raceway—a chance-based ball game illustrating the choices and challenges of the zero-carbon building...
Team: Brendan Connolly, Uwe Bergk, Evan Fleming, Alex Ayala, Nathaniel Smith, Veronica Macalinao, Laura Tittle, Carl Dominguez, Christian Runge, Bennet Song, Aaron Willette, Andrew Birklid, Ben Loshin, Ellen Li, Nitin Pauletti, Leah Guszkowski, Lucas Dubinski, Peter Burke Built Installation How...
Team: Aubrey Moore, Tyler White, Elisandra Garcia, Daniel Renner, David Dowell Built Installation Streams of Consciousness is an installation that explores the question “What if our cities could read our minds.” Through a colorful array of tubes, festival goers are...
Team: Tyler Sprague (UW Department of Architecture), Shannon Andino, Jonathan Bechtol, Felipe Cruz, Hajan Dunham, Siqing Han, Jahnvi Shah, Anthony Stoyanov, Zoe Willig (students) Built Installation RE-Material, RE-Structure is an exploration of an architecture from re-newable resources, or re-purposed/ re-newed...
Team: Bellevue College Interior Design Students Built Installation “What if structures could sing?” As we reflect on the idea of utilizing design to drive community, we ask: what if Seattle cultivated vibrant social ecosystems by increasing accessibility to third places?...
Team: Lindsey Heller, Cuiling Chen, Eli Winckler, Maria Gaviola, Ayden Nakamura, Team Chill Out – Montlake High School’s First Robotics Competition Team 1778 Built Installation Take a break from the heat and experience how we combined futuristic technology, ancient building...
Team: Alexandra Forin, Alex Mischke, Erik Peterson, Fangjie Guo, Matthew Bissen, Nicholas Miranda, Peter Sydloski-Tesch, Randal Bennett, Sam Schafer, Zichen Tian Built Installation What if existence were malleable? This installation proposes a series of folding planes creating unexpected and contrasting...
Team: Content Design: Yirim Seck; Project Design and Management: Connor Irick, Julian Uribe, Ekram Hassen, Stephen Yamada-Heidner; Build Partner: Crescent Builds Built Installation What if we listened to gain empathy and understanding? Through a presentation of video recordings, Story House...
Team: Saloni Agarwall, Bobo Yuansi Cai, Matt Campbell, Hope Freije, Sarah Lukins, Tyler Quinn-Smith Built Installation Send a postcard to your favorite Seattle “third place” and learn about the places Seattlies go to find connection and community. Together we will...
Team: Aaron Frease, Anais Adamska, Brena Daly, Libby Creim, Peggy Heim, William Bilyeu Built Installation Help shape your vision for Seattle! Plinko for Thoughts invites festival-goers to participate in shaping the future of Seattle through a community-based design effort. By...
Team: Trevor Dykstra, George Zatloka, Z Loh Built Installation Immerse yourself in a grove of inflatable stumps and logs that colorfully transform with your creativity. Engage with nature’s dialogue by responding in color, mirroring the vibrant language of the plants....
Built Installation What might be possible with a small plastic bottle? Big Orange Whale & The Whale Box invites thoughtful contemplation about the issue of the preeminent need to get massive amounts of polypropylene prescription vials out of the trash...
Built Installation What IF buildings were designed for everyone? Explore common spaces through the lens of people with various needs. Through an interactive game, you’ll be able to spot features that either help or hinder inclusion. Join the movement for...
The Seattle Design Festival kicks off with a Block Party at Lake Union Park! The Seattle Design Festival Block Party is a two-day street fair celebrating the powerful ways design affects our lives. This fun outdoor event is an opportunity...
Team: Britta Johnson and Nina Vichayapai (Artist Co-Creators); Dre Avila, Samantha Keller, and Leslie Webster (Seattle Public Utilities); Julie Bassuk, Beth Batchelder, Laura Basile, Claire Farrington, Queenie Gipaya, and Chad Sharp (MAKERS); Anand Balasubrahmanyan and Molly Michal (Team Soapbox) Built...
Team: (MAKERS) Queenie Gipaya, Chad Sharp, Joey LoRocco, Laura Basile, Claire Farrington; (Contributing Artist) Edward Deas Built Installation What if we could harness the power of collective impact? Folding for the Future invites us to take part in a collaborative...
Algae Arcology DXARTS Collective, The Molecular Information Systems Lab at UW Bats in the Belfry Thomas Cheney Architects Between Baleen Olson Kundig and Dowbuilt Big Orange Whale & The Whale Box – What if… Healthcare is Recrafted: Resilient Collaborations of...
Team: Ozana Gherman, Nico Koppe Built Installation What if you were swallowed by a whale? Through a fully immersive sensory installation, Between Baleen (Buh·leen) explores the humbling scale of ocean life, paying respect to the greater ecosystem of our local...
Saturday, August 17 10am-12pm Building Together: Crafting Our Collective Vision Seattle Architecture Foundation 10am-2pm WHAT IF…Kids Designed Their Own Playgrounds? Sarah Chu, Chris Copeland, Liz Forelle (UW Department of Landscape Architecture) 10am-3pm A World That Loves and Nurtures All –...
Team: Sydney Lai, Kaitlyn Ellington, Aaliyah Diaz, Natanya Schwimmer Built Installation Experience Seattle with your eyes closed! Take some time to explore the city with your fingertips, take in the welcoming scent of coffee, and listen to the sounds of...
Team: Igor Draskovic, Derek Groves, Chelsea Flickinger, Jessi Lapano, Jonathan Teng, Kelsey Tyas, Kyle White Built Installation What if… we stopped relying on machines and the use of valuable energy resources for drying our clothes? An idyllic scene of clothing...
Team: Thomas Cheney, Julie Hale, Korben Mathis Built Installation What if we could design for survival? Bats in the Belfry – Bats are the only mammals capable of sustained flight. They consume over half their body weight in insects each...
Team: Alexander Guthrie, Victor Noordhoek Built Installation What if we could see the ripple effect of our social choices in real-time?. Work together at this installation to adjust sculptures and view them from the correct angle in order to gain...
Team: Aparna Pillai, Ben Anderson-Nelson, Brandusa Bularca, Colin Park, Dan Qin, Erik Mott, Jose Lorenzo-Torres, Josh Lewis, Laura Ovsak, Matt Alvarado, Mounica Guturu, Ryan Bussard, Valeria Masciotti, Yingjing Ma Built Installation What if the built environment was reimagined as a...
Team: Olivia Webster, Sarah Kang, Logan Dolezal Built Installation What if your environment reacted to personal and community needs? The interCONNECTION Pavilion allows users to interact with “puzzle pieces” to develop different spatial experiences. Curated configurations of elements encourage play,...
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....
Team: Keerthana Venugopalan Built Installation Experience Oli, an interactive musical installation that invites you to create music and connect with people and places around you. By simply moving your hands around Oli, you can create delightful tunes and experience the...
Team: Alderik Gastmans, Maria De Jesus Arevalo-Martinez, Corey Smith, Craig Skipton, Daniel Ratkus, Juliana Hom, Kiera Eason, Matthew McFall, Meredith Sessions, Sarah Singleton Schroedel, Stuart Johnson, Trey Hernandez, Vasy Karp Pop Up Experience Unleash your creative energy to step into...
Team: Students from University of Washington, Department of Landscape Architecture Pop Up Experience Ever dreamed of designing your own playground? Join us for an exciting one day workshop where kids take the lead in exploring and designing play environments for...
Team: Gwen Lennox, SAF Volunteers Pop Up Experience What if you were involved in designing the layout of a city? What would you like to see included? Seattle Architecture Foundation (SAF) invites you to co-create a new city scape that...
Join us August 17-22 We are thrilled to invite you to join us for 6 days of transformative programming, all designed to unleash the design thinker in everyone and to build more equitable and thriving communities through design. Mark your calendar-...
Mainstage This year the Block Party is expanding to include a mainstage featuring performances, talks, and demonstrations. Can’t make it in person? No problem! Our Mainstage will digitally broadcast as a Virtual Mainstage August 20 & 21- so that you can...
Join us @ the first gathering of SDF 2024 Partners and Volunteers Festival staff and organizers will be on hand to answer questions, and provide an overview of this year’s festival—expanding on the key themes explored by our program partners....
Join members of the Festival Planning Team and our other amazing volunteers at the 2024 Seattle Art Fair! Get a sneak peek of what you can expect to experience at this year’s Festival and be one of the first to...
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 and be one of the first to snag some WHAT IF? swag! The SDF booth will...
Join members of the Festival Planning Team at the SLU Saturday Market this weekend! Learn more about what to expect at this year’s Festival and be one of the first to snag some WHAT IF? swag! The SDF booth will...
The Festival Planning team will reach out to all design teams who have submitted a proposal for the 2024 Seattle Design Festival on June 7. Accepted partners will receive an acceptance packet that outlines how to successfully move their proposal...
Proposals Due TONIGHT May 29/ 5 pm PT Review the Call for Proposals to learn more about how to engage as a Festival Partner, and what you can propose. Quick Links SDF 2024: Call for Proposals SDF 2024:...
Join the SDF team for a casual social hour to learn more about the Festival and how to participate! This is the time to ask questions, meet other designers, connect with potential SDF 2024 partners… or become one! Leave with...
Join the SDF team for a casual social hour to learn more about the Festival and how to participate! This is the time to ask questions, meet other designers, connect with potential SDF 2024 partners… or become one! Leave with...
Get that DOUBLE Giving Feeling! A gift today supports a 99% free Seattle Design Festival and provides funds for students, community-led organizations, and non-profit partners to unleash their design thinking. The SDF Board is matching your gift dollar per dollar...
Are you interested in how to engage as an SDF 2024 Festival Partner? Review our Call for Proposals to better understand how to unleash the design thinker in everyone at the Seattle Design Festival! Quick Links SDF 2024: Call for...
Learn more about the goals and vision that drive SDF programming. Be the first to hear what’s new for the 2024 Festival. Vote on this year’s theme! Connect with other members of the SDF community- find potential partners, start brainstorming...
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...
Join us for an evening celebrating CURIOSITY Join Seattle Design Festival 2023: Curiosity partners, volunteers, and supporters to celebrate a successful fest! Wrap up the festival in style at this fun event as we transform this architecture workshop by day to a...
No one can predict the future, but anyone can shape it – So let's inspire people to rethink the way we live/age and discover how shared living/cohousing can help solve some of our biggest challenges.
Join SDF + the Seattle Architecture Foundation (SAF) for light food and beverage as we explore the transformative power of architectural design in fostering CommUNITY. CommUNITY, SAF’s 26th Annual Architectural Model Exhibit, invites us to reflect on architecture as a...
Seasoned designers know soft skills are important, and studies show psychological safety encourages innovation, but putting this into practice is often surprisingly hard. This talk will give you some tools to feed your curiosity, so you can see your teammates...
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?
Drop by and check out Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births, join a tour, participate in take-action activities, and enjoy beverages, bites, and connection with one another! Visit Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births...
Join us for food, drink, and community in the Pratt Woodshop! Connect with Pratt artists, instructors, students, and staff within a space that highlights the bridge between fine art, function, design, and community. Attendees will be able to park onsite and...
Spend your evenings (virtually) with SDF August 21-23! Join us during the week, August 21-23, for lively and engaging virtual events created by partners, hosted by SDF, and broadcast live online. Be sure to subscribe to the SDF YouTube channel...
What if… we added a new festival feature this year? We are! Get curious and make connections at the SDF Mixers Curiosity opens our minds to challenge the status quo, expand knowledge, develop new relationships, and make new discoveries....
What are you curious about? Have your tarot fortune told by a great soothsayer who divines the past, present and the future. Enquire within! Answers are waiting...
Play a completely new instrument with all your limbs! You'll learn about how MIDI works within music softwares and how design, engineering, and electronics can make music more expressive!
Presented by: Seattle Design Festival Volunteers Stop by between 11a and 1pm on the final day of the SDF Block Party to screen print your very own SDF merch! Bring your own bag or shirt, or pick up a free tote...
Join us to brainstorm ways we can create new designs and strategies for product packaging. Let’s keep materials out of landfills and get innovative about how we repurpose items for good!
Calling all explorARs! Join us for a fun-filled romp into a collection of playful games, artistic showcases, and meaning-filled stories created by local VR/AR artists and studios from Seattle and the PNW.
Reconnect with the curiosity you had as a child, and make space for play in art! Our parade of puppets will move about the Block Party, engaging with exhibits and attendees. Gaze up at the towering puppets and watch as...
What are you curious about? Have your tarot fortune told by a great soothsayer who divines the past, present and the future. Enquire within! Answers are waiting...
Journey to our mystical realm and become part of the intricate symphony of whispers, where the power of collaboration is whispered through gentle embraces.
Experience the magic of Wonderhood as you step into a world of vibrant colors, movable and paintable elements, and an immersive chess game-like adventure.
The Rabbit Hole encourages multi-sensory engagement: each hole offers glimpses into intriguing sights, sounds, and textures, creating a multi-sensory experience.
"UnEarthed" asks us to get curious about the material beneath our feet. In this installation we explore materiality from the absurd to the natural, as a alternatives to standard paving practices.
UNFOLD is a pavilion installation inspired by the sailboats afloat on Lake Union and the constant motion of the waves that highlight and invite curiosity and engagement.
Join a team of lighting designers as they harness the power of the sun! MOBILE-ized allows you to contribute to a community art project as you trace and overlap shadows.
The Seattle Design Festival kicks off with a Block Party at Lake Union Park! The Seattle Design Festival Block Party is a two-day street fair celebrating the powerful ways design affects our lives. This fun outdoor event is an opportunity...
Abundance Madeline Jo Amazecity CallisonRTKL An Oasis of Curiosity Rolluda Architects, BNBuilders, ABC Imaging Are we even looking? Studio Waah Breaking the Pattern NOMA NW Cabinet of Curiosibees Site Workshop Collaborative Pillars DXARTS Collective COLLECTED VOICES Mahlum Cubular-Tubular Integrus Curiosities...
Saturday An introduction to circular design: Designing more sustainably for everyday objects Behnosh Najafi and Dana Reinert August 19, 10am – 1pm The Garden of Ideas MG2 August 19, 10am – 2pm Sketch Seattle Jojo & Gee August 19, 10am...
At the CommuniTEA pop-up, visitors will be asked to spill the tea on their experiences in Seattle! Come tell us how Seattle is working and not working for you and show us your ideal vision for a livable city!
The 2023 Seattle Design Festival lineup is ‘live’! We’ve updated the website with 60+ installations, pop-up experiences, virtual discussions, and mixers happening during the Seattle Design Festival, August 19–24. All our partners are exploring this year’s theme of CURIOSITY and...
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...
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...
Connect with other members of the SDF community Learn more about the goals and vision that drive SDF programming Share your vision for this year’s Festival Find your path to support SDF This virtual event will be part info session...
Join us for a celebration of our festival partners, volunteers, and supporters! Join us for an evening of CONNECTION and celebrating the festival partners, volunteers, and supporters who helped make SDF 2022: CONNECTION a success! Featuring Seattle Design Festival DJs,...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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?...
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...
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...
Spend your lunch (virtually) with SDF August 22-24! Log on from your desk as we stream design sessions and live discussions about CONNECTION with special guests. The mainstage will be a lively and engaging virtual show produced by the Seattle...
Spend your lunch (virtually) with SDF August 23! Log on from your desk as we stream design sessions and live discussions about CONNECTION with special guests. The mainstage will be a lively and engaging virtual show produced by the Seattle...
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...
Spend your lunch (virtually) with SDF August 22! Log on from your desk as we stream design sessions and live discussions about CONNECTION with special guests. The mainstage will be a lively and engaging virtual show produced by the Seattle...
Spend your lunch (virtually) with SDF August 22-24! Log on from your desk as we stream design sessions, films, and live discussions about CONNECTION with special guests. The mainstage will be a lively and engaging virtual show produced by the...
A series of programs from our Festival partners in Fremont August 22, Columbia City August 24, and Downtown August 25. Focused celebrations of Seattle neighborhoods and a chance to get to know the design community within them and how design...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
‘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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The Seattle Design Festival kicks off with a Block Party at Lake Union Park! The Seattle Design Festival Block Party is a two-day street fair celebrating the powerful ways design affects our lives. This fun outdoor event is an opportunity...
Arcade Environmental Works Community Design Center Beat Roulette CallisonRTKL and Absher Construction Bridge the Gap Coyote Central Building a Resilient Village: A Collaborative Design Swarm ecoTHRIVE Housing Building Blocks of Community The Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) Ned the elephant...
Sink or Sail: Toy Boat Challenge Puget Sound Maritime August 20, 10am – 2pm Webbing Urban Connections Dahlin Group August 20, 10am – 3pm Degrees of Separation // Chains of Connection Seattle Happy Places August 20, 11am – 6pm Exceptions...
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...
The 2022 Seattle Design Festival will be all about CONNECTION. When thinking about design, there is something very tangible and physical in how things ‘connect’ – but there is also something very emotional that ‘CONNECTION’ taps into as well. CONNECTION...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Now in its sixth year, the annual Seattle Design Festival (SDF) fundraiser brings together and acknowledges the community of designers, makers, activists, and enthusiasts who support SDF’s ongoing work to highlight all the ways that design has a powerful impact...
Drop by at any point from 5-7 pm to meet the Festival planning team! Seattle Design Festival (SDF) is running from August 20-26 this year, and it promises to be better than ever. Each year we look forward to events...
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...
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....
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....
Connect with other members of the SDF community Learn more about the goals and vision that drive SDF programming Share your vision for this year’s Festival Find your path to support SDF Join Festival volunteers, leadership, and staff at the...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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,...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
"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-...
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.
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...
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...
Team: Kendyl Smith, Viola Yeung, Madi Thomas, Anna Spencer, Jocelyn Camacho, Gabrielle Bacon, Kristen Peterson-Motan, Jessica Cody, Jordan Gates, Eileen Sunga, Zoe Post, Whitney Valerio Let’s celebrate coming together with our friends, family, and neighbors to share our hopes, dreams,...
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...
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...
This structure will tell the story of Latinx placemaking in Seattle through traditional Latinx crafts reimagined to be inclusive for all in our community.
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...
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...
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...
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.
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...
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.
As we collectively EMERGE from the pandemic, we hope to introduce a new vision of Seattle that establishes a shared optimism for the future and sense of care for the most vulnerable – including people experiencing homelessness, one of the...
Visit the Seattle Architecture Foundation's 24th Annual Architectural Model Exhibit, "Breathe," at the Center for Architectural Design. On display now!
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...
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.
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...
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.
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...
The 2021 Seattle Design Festival is Emerging! As the summer of 2021 is coming into focus we are excited to move into this Festival season with optimism and hope. With this year’s Seattle Design Festival theme EMERGE, we invite...
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...
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...
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...
The Seattle Design Festival is a community driven program made possible by small individual donations from our community. The Seattle Design Festival provides such a meaningful opportunity to leverage design. I am donating to help individuals and organizations to...
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.
Awaken your creative spirit and get ready for the 2021 Seattle Design Festival! Join the Seattle Design Festival planning committee and Surya Vanka, Founder & Chief Designer at AUTHENTIC DESIGN and longtime friend of the Festival, for the Design Jam,...
We are excited to be partnering with NW Film Forum once again for the ByDesign [Online] 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,...
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.
This year’s festival theme, EMERGE, seeks to inspire action, addressing the consequences of the pandemic to nurture new possibilities. Emerging is a process of adaptation, of transforming the way we interact, collaborate, and create. How can community-driven design strategies carry us...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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 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:...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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!
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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 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...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
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...
“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,...
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...
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...
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...
“In Knots” shapes an experience that illustrates how the collective impact we have on our environment is made up of the sum of our individual actions. This impact is represented through a dynamic path that emerges out of an organic...
The objectives for hosting the 2019 People’s Choice Urban Design Awards are threefold: to create dialogue with the public about urban design issues and considerations; to promote public understanding of the Design Review Program in Seattle; and to engage the...
In Memoriam A temporary installation remembering the homeless who died in King County since September 22nd, 2018. The final date of last year’s Seattle Design Festival. Conceived as a field of memory, staggered monuments spread out across a vacant residential...
Amid our everyday grind it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the endless juggle of “to-dos.” This installation asks you to slow down, take a moment to reflect on where you are, and consider where your fellow neighbors see themselves. In...
AIA Seattle Diversity Roundtable (DRT) and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) are providing an installation focused on on the ten axioms that are part of the Principles of Intelligent Urbanism (the term coined by Prof. Christopher Charles Benninger)....
This Installation seeks to explore the true meaning of “Carbon Neutral” and will hopefully challenge you, it’s visitor, as well as it’s designers, to envision a more eco-positive way of living. We give abandoned building materials a second life and...
For this year’s Design Festival theme we have taken inspiration from sculptor Alexander Calder who was best known for his innovative mobiles. While visually similar, our piece three dimensionally depicts images that represent some of our most common life choices....
Hazardous Waste disposal is a mystery to many people, and a half can of latex paint is of one of the many liquids that can’t just be thrown in the trash or poured down a drain. A quick web search...
The B+H Seattle Studio is the firm’s Centre for Advance Strategy. Advance Strategy services provide the tools for us to gain a deeper understanding of our clients’ current challenges, therefore equipping us with the data we need to solve for...
Heron’s Loop builds on a concept initially documented 2000 years ago by a Roman mathematician. A device commonly referred to as Heron’s Fountain, which utilizes a siphon between two vessels of water at different elevations also connects the air chambers...
FUME calls attention to fire as a balancing force between decay and growth. Human activity has significantly tipped the balance, leading to destabilized forest conditions that have caused heightened unpredictability and spreading volatility. Fire has historically played a part in...
Lives of modern society are inundated with commitments to family, friends, and personal careers. A popular choice to spend downtime is consuming social media. Keeping up with what’s going on in different people’s lives, sharing joyous moments can be a...
This interactive installation illustrates the importance of providing a baseline of stability in order to support a stable community. Living and thriving as an individual requires an interdependence on a community that provides access to education, a living wage, transportation,...
Who we are Think Outside the Park is an inclusive student group of undergraduates and graduates at the University of Washington representing the fields of landscape architecture, architecture, art, design, urban planning, and digital media design. Our design aims to...
BCRA’s installation balances order and chaos. In recent years, our society has been inundated by an array of technologies that seemingly expediate our lives. Many find themselves struggling with the accelerated pace, fighting to maintain order in a whirl of...
Designers can offer places of refuge and comfort in an unbalanced world, places for people to reconcile their internal balance: a pause within the storm to observe the chaos. This terraced pyramid offers a break in the midst of a...
The Navigating Perspectives installation explores what it means to forge your own path and create a balance with the world around you. At first glance, the piece provides a sense of freedom to explore negative and positive space without much...
Our installation centers around Imbalance Inequality. On each side of our structure A game challenges the players to collaborate, balance their way out of a puzzle. It celebrates the diversity of skills and opportunities in society, reflects on privilege and...
Striving to strike a balance between work and personal life is probably the biggest challenge most of us are facing today. And, because each of our lives are different, it requires thinking on a personal level for each of us,...
Aurora is an exploratory, sound-activated space where people awaken a world of light and color by exploring sound together. Rather than dispensing or discussing information about “balance,” this installation investigates the subject purely through interaction.
Murmur is an installation that explores the concept of BALANCE not as a static condition but as a dynamic and evolutionary process that is influenced by both individual and collective behavior. The murmuration or flocking patterns of the starling create...
Attendees will be drawn to this installation by the various hands-on demonstrations it will offer including contrasting views on solutions to common problems. This installation will provide visual demonstrations of how universal design principles create accessibility for all. These demonstrations...
The Problem: It has become common knowledge that the amount of waste that humans generate and dispose is an exponentially growing problem that must be addressed. In the past years, recycling and compost have become a large social change, slowly...
Why is design important for us to achieve balance as individuals and communities? As visitors interact in and around the exhibit, they will exchange shared values like diversity, social responsibility, integrity, quality, community, and service to achieve a sense of...
This installation highlights the individuals’ impact on the greater whole of sustainability by giving the users an opportunity to learn by interacting and receiving visual feedback. By answering multiple choice questions in a playful and physical way, this subject becomes...
Throughout history, people have created gardens as idealized versions of nature. Gardens reflect how we perceive nature and our cultural relationship to it. From wild to highly manicured, private gardens to expansive arboretums and public parks—we craft landscapes to insert...
The culmination of a three-year collaboration, “Hear & Now” aims to conduct a community-wide conversation about the perceptions exchanged between the housed and unhoused through a local tour over the course of 2019. In the summer of 2017, artist Trimpin...
Reflecting on lessons from the natural world, we know that diversity equals strength. Act | React aims to illustrate the power that comes from the differences in our community. To achieve equality in our cities, we must recognize, support and...
An interactive landscape combines with the city’s field of sensory experiences to question our finite delineation of space by encouraging visitors to maneuver through and manipulate the installation, finding individual points of personal comfort within the contexts of the festival...
This project delves into two different evolutions of digitization. The first references our continuous participation in intimate private space (being on the phone, engaging with social media) in public areas both physically and digitally. The second is about diminishing publications...
There are currently 107,000 individuals living with dementia in Washington State*—and another 320,000 people caring for these individuals. With dementia projected to increase 180% by 2040, many cities, including Seattle, are working to reframe the narrative surrounding dementia and what...
How do we use our senses to interact with the world around us? We often ignore one of our most powerful senses – smell. If we could communicate aroma, how might we connect with ourselves and the world around us...
Join Tinker Tank at Pacific Science Center to create paper flapping animals. We’ll be making mobiles balancing the wings and body of our creations so that they will resonate and flap and fly. Maybe you want to make a flying...
Ebb and Flow is a three dimensional screen that invites the participant to walk through and around it, expanding and collapsing graphic two dimensional space and 3D form. From four discrete vantage points, Ebb and Flow’s visual noise is balanced...
In 2015, King County and the city of Seattle government declared a housing affordability crisis and a homelessness state of emergency. Despite these proclamations, the number of people living without secure housing continues to grow and the region currently has...
Similar to most creative efforts, our team of Architects, Engineers, Contractors, and Builders began the design process for INFLUENCE by first collecting a common vision for the piece. After considerable effort, we decided upon the following guiding principles to guide...
Nature is brilliant at maintaining a balanced ecosystem. However, the introduction of artificial materials created by the built environment has interfered with nature’s ability remain balanced. It seems as though nature and artificial materials are constantly at odds, one trying...
A shiny inflatable nest with a hidden ball maze at its peak. Work together with others to shift the balance of the floating platforms and maneuver a series of beach balls to the exit.
Perception Bias began as a conceptual study at University of Washington and evolved into an interactive art installation in which participants material bias are explored in a fun low stakes way. The study engages critically on how cultural expectations play...
Hylomorphism: the doctrine that physical objects result from the combination of matter and form. Balance is a state that objects achieve in relationship to one another. Hylomorphism, in philosophy and physics, posits a simple equation: matter + form = objects....
Clothing is our second skin, and everyone deserves to feel good in it. Clothing, quite literally, touches on some of the most defining aspects of our culture today—from body positivity, to gender identity, and economic equality. The RepairCycle is a...
What does it mean for our earth to be in, or out, of balance? What are the forces that act upon our ecosystem causing the balance to continually shift? “Big Blue: in/out of Balance” will be an interactive installation that...
Disrupt the paradigm of “new = nice” with a visit to a pop-up shop featuring totally free reclaimed goods. This equitable “retail” space welcomes all community members without the social segregation that comes with price-point. Peruse, try on, and take...
In 2015, King County and the city of Seattle government declared a housing affordability crisis and a homelessness state of emergency. Despite these proclamations, the number of people living without secure housing continues to grow and the region currently has...
The Emergence is an installation of Design in the Parks, and will be visible in Lake Union Park starting on August 10th. The site is on a manmade plane hovering on top of water. The metropolis of Seattle to the...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
“Layers” is a collection of works curated specifically for the Design Festival. Working primarily in acrylic on duralar, Gupta explores mark making in a variety of ways. Her interest in the themes of dispersion and movement continues, with the new...
S.Kaye Ceramic’s studio will have it doors open to the public and there will a large collection of work available as both samples and if the whim takes you for immediate purchase. These are the finishing touches that make a...
At Abbrio: Kitchen & Bath Solutions, we are a supplier of luxury, high-end decorative fixtures, faucets, appliances and supplies located in the heart of the design district, Georgetown. We work with the State’s best architects, builders, designers and plumbing contractors....
Hoedemaker Pfeiffer is a multidisciplinary architecture and interiors studio. We are recognized for our honest use of materials and sympathetic response to nature and site. We seek to merge contemporary design with timeless traditions meant to last generations. Ground-level/ no-step...
Studio SixEight produces high-quality fine art prints, reproductions and giclees for artists and others who desire fine quality prints for their homes or businesses. Prints and giclees are produced on an Epson SureColor P6000 wide-format printer, using Epson archival inks....
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...
We are a high end custom metal and finishing shop located in Georgetown. We specialize in architectural detail and custom furniture. We welcome you to tour our 3000 sq ft facility and view current projects. There will be a slideshow...
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,...
NOTE: Due to a relocation, the address has been corrected. During the Georgetown Design Crawl, Hinge Studio will open it’s doors to the public to interact in discussions and activities surrounding architecture. On display will be images, sketches, and VR...
As refugees from The Soviet War who literally fled on foot out of Afghanistan, the Ahmadi family and their hard-earned success epitomizes the American Dream. But a comfortable life in the safety of West Hollywood isn’t what drives them. They’ve...
Mystical things come from the unmarked warehouses of Georgetown. Come take a peek behind the walls of the Electric Coffin studio where the team creates artworks every day. The behind-the-scenes peek will grant you free rein to explore the studio,...
Seattle Glass studio open for the public. Blown glass custom lighting created locally by glass artist Julie Conway. Introducing the new LUMi Collection product line launching in 2019! Spec projects for your home or hospitality projects. Direct trade pricing available....
Architectural artwork using combination of metals and canvas . Balance and harmony is formed between the different materials that I fuse together. Ground-level/ no-step entry Directional signage for accessible entrances, restrooms, and other facilities
Open Showroom showcasing the new Lawrence & Scott lines of lighting and home accessories that balance the Danish Hygge and Chinese Zen. Ground-level/ no-step entry Wheelchair-accessible display cases, exhibit areas, and counters Wheelchair-accessible restrooms and water fountains
Excellent for waiting rooms, lobbies, or anywhere that people gather, these unique installations provide a tranquil haven. The installations come in different sizes, and custom creations can be made to fit any area and even wrap around architectural elements. They...
At Black Dog Forge and Studio Gioia, we create beautiful custom furnishings for home and office. We combine old world forging techniques with modern day fabrication to create one of a kind pieces for designers and their clients. Please join...
For the Seattle Design Festival, artists Elizabeth Gahan, Liz Tran, Kate Sweeney, and memory as a gang (The Balance King + Zaiche Johnson) use the concept of energy and balance to create an immersive studio installation that embodies seemingly contrasting...
I am a mixed media sculptor and installation artist whose work over the last few years has been focused on creating environments that highlight light, color, movement, sound and how they unexpectedly combine. Recent projects have consisted of hand forming...
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...
Oxbow Fabrication specializes in the use of CNC technology in conjunction with traditional woodworking techniques to produce functional, aesthetically pleasing objects. We are commonly fabricating anything from custom one off pieces of furniture, to solid wood topographical architectural models, to...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
Vertigo is an installation of Design in the Parks, and will be visible in Lake Union Park starting on August 10th. Currently, the installation proposed is a field of objects made from reused materials. These objects are weighted, providing the...
Points of Contact is an installation of Design in the Parks, and will be visible in Lake Union Park starting on August 10th. Points of Contact is a site specific installation that engages with the existing pedestrian bridge in South...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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,...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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,...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Join Hello Velocity, with Natasha Marin and Josephine Devanbu, for a panel discussion of work revolving around economic inequity. Hello Velocity will present Gradient: An ecommerce plugin that implements sliding scale product pricing based on consumer income. Natasha Marin will...
Access to Technology: Design Through User Empowerment The Taskar Center for Accessible Technology is working to help more people with disabilities gain access to the technology they need by empowering non-engineers to “Do-It-Yourself” (DIY) and create, modify, or build. This...
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...
The School of Visual Concepts has been Seattle’s leading center for professional development training for the design, marketing communications, and copywriting fields since 1971. SVC offers a long list of five- and 10-week evening classes for those putting their portfolios...
Take a trip through history in one of Seattle’s most treasured urban neighborhoods. From Queen Anne Style homes to Modern, this vibrant hilltop neighborhood has it all, and is in a constant state of evolution as new residents call this...
See. Make. Break. Share. Repeat. Maker Faire, hailed as the “Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth,” is a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness—and a celebration of the maker movement: people not just hungry to talk about the next...
As Seattle’s landscape shifts behind a curtain of construction scaffolding and cranes it is often hard to imagine the reality that will emerge on the other side. This piece creates a playful means of giving those walking through Seattle a...
Programs: Dream, Design, Build, Repeat, presented by Sawhorse Revolution Designing Pricing Systems for Economic Equity, presented by Hello Velocity Funktioning Full Force With Nothing but “Funktional Design,” presented by Xenobia Bailey Visualizing Relational Poverty Knowledge, presented by Relational Poverty Network...
Join graphic designer, illustrator and activist Emory Douglas for a free lecture at the Seattle Public Library – Central Branch, followed by a discussion facilitated by Marissa Jenae Johnson of #blacklivesmatter. Emory Douglas has created decades of graphic work that...
Is Seattle’s current zoning code preventing or encouraging positive growth in Seattle? What actions can developers, architects, planners, politicians, taxpayers do to create positive change in Seattle’s growth – urbanistically, demopraphically, culturally, and spatially? Where are there areas of potential...
Come join us for a weekend of creativity, innovation, and learning! The VR Hackathon is an opportunity to learn about Virtual Reality and other immersive technologies, to meet new people, and to get hands-on experience with VR design and development....
PLAIN AIR Opening Reception/ September 16, 2016, 5–8pm Exhibition Dates/ September 17 and 18, 2016 Hours/ noon to 6 pm both days Address/ 1716 Warren Avenue North – Seattle, WA 98109Participating Artists: Julie Alexander Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes Nancy Brooks Brody Matt...
Visit our four pop-up locations, all focused on removing the grey and bringing back the green. Share your vision for Seattle streets in any of the following locations: Capitol Hill: 12 Ave Arts Pike/Pine: Summit Ave (between Howell and Olive)...
CreativeMornings is a breakfast lecture series for the creative community with chapters in over 148 cities around the globe. Our free, monthly events feature a short talk and breakfast. Founded in 2011, CreativeMorning Seattle has hosted speakers from a range...
Each year in September, people, businesses, and organizations across Seattle participate in the international PARK(ing) Day event. This event is an opportunity to rethink how streets can be used with temporary parks in on-street parking spaces. The program has been...
This conversation engages questions about how a city – and the institutions within it – creates community histories, and how memories affect personal and collective identities. The discussion is presented in conjunction with the exhibition MOTHA and Chris E. Vargas...
Pecha Kucha Seattle, KUOW Public Radio, Town Hall Seattle & the Seattle Design Festival are proud to present PKN SEA vol. 68: Region of Boom on September 15th at Town Hall. Based on a KUOW Public Radio series on growth...
Cities are back. The yen for urban living is swelling downtowns and walkable neighborhoods. With little vacant land, Seattle grows vertically to add places to live and work. But what about space to romp, relax or refresh? Be inspired by...
Join ARCADE to celebrate the release of the Fall 2016 edition, ARCADE Issue 34.2. A $20 suggested donation at the door brings beverages, light fare, musical entertainment, your copy of ARCADE and a warm philanthropic rush—it supports the creation of...
Luminarium is a custom blown glass lighting installation that is controlled with body sensors to change the quality of light output according to stress responses and heart rate pulses. It is created by Julie Conway, founder of Illuminata Art Glass...
Dunts are breaks that occur in ceramic forms when atmosphere induces stress. The resident artists of Seward Park Clay Studio will create a collectivized sculpture in ceramic and wood. The public is invited to participate in this unfolding work by...
Architectural Walk Through of the Frye Art Museum with Alan Maskin, principal of Olson Kundig How does architecture support the mission and vision of cultural institutions? Join architect Alan Maskin, owner and principal of Olson Kundig, on a walk through...
GGLO presents Step It Up! a series of temporary interactive public art installations engaging the public at Harbor Steps, one of one of Seattle’s premiere urban gathering spots. The installations connect the public with new ideas and design changes that...
Tour Seattle’s innovative Beacon Food Forest, a project in permaculture design that uses nature-focused structures and collaborative community-designed methods. Participants will get to try out their collaborative design skills and dream up their ideal public space, designed for community and...
MG2 presents a temporary, micro-luxury lodging solution that can be used in a variety of ways: from shelter at a music festival to hoteliers needing additional rooms for major events or for camping at Big Sur. For the last few...
Women of Color Speak Out come to Cornish Playhouse to present on climate change and systems of oppression and how this informs the creative practice. They call upon designers and artists to use their skills in solving the environmental crisis by...
The City of Seattle is in the process of updating its Comprehensive Plan. What’s missing? A clear direction for physical development in our downtown. A policy framework is insufficient to achieve the urban outcomes we all desire; we also need...
MG2 presents a temporary, micro-luxury lodging solution that can be used in a variety of ways: from shelter at a music festival to hoteliers needing additional rooms for major events or for camping at Big Sur. For the last few...
What is a neighborhood? How does architecture and urban development converge with social and cultural life to create a dynamic environment for communities to live, work, and play? This panel explores the evolving geography of Seattle’s First Hill Neighborhood, highlighting...
Stomp the Patriarchy! Celebrate and vote on the SYA T-Shirt Design Contest Winners during this evening of art, design, music & shouting to celebrate #ShoutYourAbortion’s first anniversary. Enter the SYA T-Shirt Design Contest online through September 7, and vote on...
WHERE IT WAS IS HOW IT IS by Francesca Lohmann Opening Reception Saturday, September 10th 6pm – 9pm A fabric sack filled with wet plaster conforms to a situation, making relationships of weight and pressure visually explicit. As it sets,...
Design and change in Seattle retains a gritty realism and modernist refrain that makes the city’s evolution engaging. An honest look into the tension between the emerging and hidden spaces of the city. Photography and design capturing the cultural shift...
The Alice, Bridge Productions, and Interstitial Theatre present three contemporary art exhibitions that address time, transformation, memory, identity, and history in our rapidly changing city. During the Seattle Design Festival, our hours are: Saturday 9/10 from 12pm-9pm (Georgetown Art Attack)...
Brainfreeze is a pop up gallery featuring new, emerging artists and a retail concept shop installation. In the exhibition space there will be a month long installation by installation artist Amanda James Parker. Ghosts of Flesh Ave is a portal...
Prompted by the Seattle Design Festival’s theme, Design Change, Continua is a project that explores the idea of change through the visual experience of one color changing into another. The formal exercise represents the idea of a continuum where, in...
Ongoing throughout the Festival. Design and change in Seattle retains a gritty realism and modernist refrain that makes the city’s evolution engaging. An honest look into the tension between the emerging and hidden spaces of the city. Photography and design...
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...
GGLO presents a series of temporary interactive public art installations engaging the public at Harbor Steps, one of one of Seattle’s premiere urban gathering spots. The installations connect the public with new ideas and design changes that are set to...
[un]Restricted, SAF’s 19th Annual Architectural Model Exhibit, will highlight the ways local designers use creativity to navigate environmental, material, social, and economic challenges. Architectural models showcase how restrictions introduced throughout the design process can be catalysts for innovation. Please join...
Pumping Gasoline is a mobile performance art piece which illuminates gasoline’s pervasive role in our daily lives, and challenges our use of gasoline, a dirty, toxic fuel which accounts for more than 60% of our carbon emissions. The gas nozzle...
Create an Experiential Map of Pioneer Square With AIA Seattle Young Architects Forum Pioneer Square is the longest-standing urban core in Seattle. What has pioneer square meant through the history of Seattle? What does it mean now and how can...
Tinker Tank at Pacific Science Center and Seattle Design Nerds are teaming up to build a gravity maze machine. Explore gravity, build pathways, and work collaboratively to make amazing tracks for balls to traverse their way down. See how elaborate...
MORPHOS invites festival goers to contribute their creative agency toward an evolving sculpture. Two cornerstones set within the exhibition space evoke the histories and traditions we inherit and are called to mediate and build upon. Through the materials of straws and marshmallows,...
A cross-disciplinary team of students and faculty from the University of Washington in collaboration with Tellous Consulting are exploring creating a mobile participatory design lab to allow more access to policy making in Seattle. Currently the need to interact directly...
Will you be ready when the next earthquake strikes Seattle? According to “The Really Big One” published in The New Yorker in July 2015, the Cascadia Subduction Zone, spanning from Northern California to Southern Canada, has a 1 in 3...
Cause-and-effect: a phrase noting a relationship between actions or events such that one is the result of the other. Our changing built environment is sculpted by design decisions. Decisions which embody choices made in economy, function and time; choices that...
The IMVISIBLE installation will showcase contest entries and invite the public to keep collaborating and hacking the donation system. For more information, visit Imvisible.us.
The house of [ex]CHANGE is a place for Seattleites to react on community issues by reflecting and rediscovering a common ground where everyone can connect and begin to break social barriers. Our intention is to broaden the social dialogue by...
REVELution is an interactive experience combining geometry, sound and visual stimuli to prompt a conversation about how we participate in change. Six simple triangles form a unique structural frame. The geometry of the frame allows participants the opportunity to enter...
Adapt is a system that invites its user to tell it what its purpose is. Its user can build it for their space and their purpose. At the block party it will offer festival goers a space that will conform...
Metal Over Wood is an interactive, mixed media installation confronting the tensions between ‘development’ and displacement in Seattle’s past, present and future. Echoing the form of the traditional Native plankhouses which once stood in Pioneer Square, the project integrates construction materials with...
Often times, we can feel like passive players in our world; temporary observers in an environment designed despite us. Appropriations of space or voice are looked at as something to be silenced, and responsive environments left highly controlled. But what...
ICE CUBE, a temporary installation designed by Olson Kundig, showcases the stages of the natural water cycle as the ice shifts from opaque to translucent. As the 10-ton ice cube melts, it offers a cool respite to visitors and scatters...
A Fine Line is an installation aimed at changing the public’s perception of Seattle’s unhoused by using stories and art to create empathy for those on the streets. Working with organizations focused on housing solutions, we hope to bring light...
Seattle has and always will be a boomtown. It is in our DNA. From the Yukon gold rush to the current tech boom, Seattle changes in dynamic fashion. In order to gain perspective on the current state of change in...
This is “Design for Good” in action. The Changemaker installation is designed to be a learning experience that addresses Housing & Homelessness in Seattle, including the causes, the barriers, the people it effects, and the organizations that are dedicated to...
We inhabit two worlds – the physical infrastructure that surrounds us and the virtual platforms that engage us. CON[TEXT] aims to bring these worlds together through design. The Instagrammer, the Texter, the Tweeter, the Snapchatter. All these people will be...
As designers, we change the world every day. We want to encourage people of every background to imagine themselves as Architects and designers of their community. Our profession needs a diversity of experiences and imaginations to grow and continue to...
This interactive installation aims to provide insightful data about how change in Seattle has disproportionately impacted its unhoused population. By inviting visitors to navigate various layers of data, an abstract problem and its impacts become visible.
Rain. A song written in the sky, a silent force acting upon an infinity of instruments. pitter-patter–plip-plip-ploop-plip-ploop, flick a flack-fleck, dibble-dibble-dopp-dopp, tluck…….tlock……….tluck. A transformative experience, it delights with its gentle syncopation and allow us to re-see shapes, colors, shadows and...
Tipping Point: Where do you want to put change into action? is a dynamic game to comment about making change. Mock coins are flipped by participants into segments of a large circular board depicting 6 areas of change in Seattle....
Urban Air Market is a curated marketplace for sustainable design. We connect independent artists and designers with their ideal customers through a unique shopping experience that builds community and supports the local economy. Founded in 2005, Urban Air Market is the largest...
The SDF2106 Block Party will present design demonstrations, activities, workshops, exhibits, tours and more! This year the Block Party will feature installations from the SDF Rumble, designed and built by teams of local designers, community groups and contractors. Families welcome...
The 6th annual Seattle Design Festival is two-weeks of celebrating Seattle's diverse design design community through events, exhibits, a block party and more.
The AIA Seattle Happy Hour Series is a monthly gathering presented by the Young Architects Forum and Women in Design committees to encourage connections within the Seattle design community. This year’s happy hours will highlight design partnerships that have led...
August 11, 6:30 – 8:30pm Hosted By Ghosts of Seattle Past With Seattle City Council Member Lisa Herbold Seattle residents will testify about the places they want preserved, while city officials, landlords, real estate developers, policy makers and other community...
BOOM: Changing Seattle is a tribute to places lost, preserved and desired during moments of rapid development and growth in Seattle. This multidisciplinary exhibition incorporates archival and recent photos, documents, and contemporary art to position history and memory as integral...