Bratislava Design Weekend 2026: Future! Where are you?

• Venue: Družstevný dom Račan, Detvianska 3, Bratislava
• Theme: Future! Where are you?

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The 17th edition of the international contemporary design festival will take place at Družstevný dom Račan in Bratislava. This special shorter edition has been shaped by the destruction in the cultural sector and the dysfunction of the Arts Support Fund. Despite receiving no state support, the organisers have prepared a shorter yet fully fledged festival: instead of a week, they present a weekend of contemporary design from Slovakia and beyond.

Future! Where are you?

We expected our society to be elsewhere by 2026: more supportive, more sensitive, safer, more innovative and better educated. We expected equality, consideration and confidence, and that we would do everything possible to slow the effects of climate change. Instead, it feels as though we are falling into the past rather than moving towards the future. This year's theme, Future! Where are you?, asks how contemporary design responds to this situation. Design shapes the environment of our future and helps determine the quality of life in the present.

Dedeček's architecture as part of the programme

The festival's centre this year is the distinctive Družstevný dom Račan building, designed by architect Vladimír Dedeček in 1977. Owned by Villa Vino Rača, it has stood empty for a long time. Thanks to the owners' support, BADW will open it to the public after many years. The building, its architecture and its story will become part of the programme through guided tours, discussions and presentations.

Programme concept: Adam Gajdoš

Universal Substrate and more than 50 designers

The main international exhibition, Univerzálny substrát, will present current work from Slovak and international designers and a range of approaches responding to the festival's theme. It will be accompanied by individual presentations by more than 50 designers working in product, experimental and fashion design, jewellery, ceramics, glass and visual communication, including both professionals and students. The programme will also include M2M Market, a sale of works by emerging Slovak designers.

Curators of Univerzálny substrát: Ľubica Hustá, Viera Kleinová

Cash in your Future: BADW x SLSP

A special installation will present creative ideas from a joint BADW and SLSP project exploring the future of money. What is value? What will it look like in ten, twenty or fifty years? Who will create it, and how will we pass it on to one another? The installation shows how designers are thinking about these questions.

Curator: Damián Cehlárik

Guests from Taiwan, Czechia and Austria

Paul Gong and Tien Ling from Taiwan will be guests of BADW and the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. Guests from Czechia and Austria will add to the festival's international programme. Other events include Design Talks with figures from Slovakia and abroad (Matylda Krzykowski, Sylvia Jokelová, Ateliér Meter, Alan Prekop, Joy Joy Studio and others), creative workshops for children and adults, music and film screenings.

Faces of this year's edition

Monika Juríková and Peter Pozník of Ateliér Meter, the main winners of the BADW Awards 2025, are the faces of this year's Bratislava Design Weekend visual identity.

 

Find the full BADW 2026 programme on the festival website.