Romanian Design Week, a multidisciplinary festival dedicated to creative industries, recently announced the complete agenda for this year's edition, which will take place between May 24 and June 2 in Bucharest.

This year’s theme is "Unlock the City" and aims to explore how creativity and innovation can shape the cities of the future. The event also seeks to contribute to the exploration of Bucharest and the discovery of its potential, the city's creative spaces, and the cultural organizations or projects that animate and define them.

"This year's edition aims to facilitate a reconnection of residents with the urban environment and local communities, highlighting the important role of creative industries in revitalizing and reimagining the city. [...] Through the extensive program of events on the festival's agenda, we want to encourage walking tours of neighborhoods and meetings with organizations, businesses, studios, designers, and architects that animate and define it, contributing together to the development of a dynamic and optimistic urban environment,” said Raluca Mirel, Project Director Romanian Design Week. 

In 2024, Romanian Design Week will develop eight distinct formats that invite Bucharest residents to discover the creative specifics of various city zones and contribute to defining spaces for dialogue. These are:

• RDW Design GO! will be a platform for multidisciplinary dialogue and exchange, addressing the general public, consumers of design, and professionals, highlighting the concentrated energy of the city and its creative richness.
• RDW Exhibition promotes local creative industry professionals by presenting the best architecture and design projects completed in the last year. Under the RDW Exhibition umbrella, the public has the opportunity to admire over 200 projects from 6 distinct categories: Architecture, Interior Design, Graphic Design, Product Design, Fashion Design, and Illustration.
• RDW Design Flags serves as a connector between the local and international architecture and design landscape, offering a variety of themes, approaches, and representations of design and architecture. The format is developed alongside cultural institutes, embassies, and local cultural-creative organizations.
• RDW Young Design presents to the public this year a series of young designers and architects who have stood out at the DIPLOMA Show festival. 
• RDW Concept Store is a space dedicated to Romanian design consumption, presenting a selection of local designers and brands. Here, the public has the opportunity to discover and purchase unique products. 
• RDW Social contributes to the celebration of local design and the growth of a well-defined creative community, through organizing events and contexts for meetings, dialogue, and collaboration. This format provides a relaxed environment for meeting new partners and collaborators.
• RDW Talks promotes the most creative minds from Romania in dialogue with international professionals, addressing current themes of the global architecture and design scene. This format aims to offer the public new perspectives on the evolution of creative industries, to trace the relationship and interaction with the city, and to stimulate discussions and constructive idea exchanges. 
• The Night of Architecture Studios proposes a special evening where architects open their offices and workspaces to present their latest projects to the public and to organize social events. 

These eight formats aim to create a dynamic urban environment full of opportunities for exploration and interaction.

radu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Romanian Design Week organizers)