{"id":147182,"date":"2025-11-22T14:15:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T14:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/147182\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T14:15:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T14:15:20","slug":"designblok-celebrates-courage-with-its-inaugural-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/147182\/","title":{"rendered":"Designblok celebrates courage with its inaugural conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Promotion:<\/a> Prague-based festival Designblok<\/a> returned in 2025 for its 27th edition, focusing on “risk-taking” within design, architecture and art. <\/p>\n

The festival, which took place from 7 to 12 October 2025, explored the theme of Courage.<\/p>\n

It addressed new approaches to design and highlighted projects that combine the latest technology with traditional crafts and skills.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoThis year’s Designblok for Kids pavilion featured an inflatable installation titled Cloud by Maxim Vel\u010dovsk\u00fd<\/p>\n

Designblok<\/a> spanned the city, with events taking place at the Museum of Decorative Arts<\/a>, the K\u0159i\u017e\u00edk Pavilions at V\u00fdstavi\u0161t\u011b Praha<\/a>, Galerie Rudolfinum<\/a> and the Queen Anne’s Summer Palace<\/a> at Prague Castle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Programme highlights included the launch of Designblok Talks<\/a>, a conference co-curated by Dezeen, located at cultural centre The New Spiral at Prague Exhibition Grounds.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoThe festival takes place at the Museum of Decorative Arts, V\u00fdstavi\u0161t\u011b Praha, Galerie Rudolfinum and Prague Castle<\/p>\n

Taking place during the festival’s annual networking day, titled Professionals Day<\/a>, the conference comprised five talks.<\/p>\n

This included panel discussions, The Future of Design, The Future of Prague and The Future of Living, and keynotes led by director of product design at Sn\u00f8hetta<\/a>, Marius Myking, and designer Erwan Bouroullec<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Czech bathroom manufacturer Ravak supported The Future of Design, which was moderated by Dezeen’s editorial director Max Fraser<\/a> and welcomed designers Cyril Zammit, Patrick Norguet<\/a> and Lucie Koldov\u00e1, and China editor at Wallpaper* magazine, Yoko Choy, to outline the upcoming role the design industry can take in an undetermined future.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoDezeen’s editorial Max Fraser moderated a discussion at Designblok Talks<\/p>\n

Architects Jakub Cigler and Bernard Dubois<\/a>, fashion designer Jan \u010cern\u00fd, managing director and head of marketing at Koma Modular, Stanislav Martinec and Marie Sch\u00fcller, and partner at Esty Real Estate, Jakub Vrzala, forecasted architecture and interior trends at The Future of Living.<\/p>\n

Participants in The Future of Prague, a talk moderated by Dezeen’s co-CEO Benedict Hobson<\/a>, included architects Winy Maas<\/a>, Roz\u00e1lie Ka\u0161parov\u00e1, Jan Magasanik, spoke about urban transformation, outlining their ongoing projects in the city, including Prague airport and the Vltava Philharmonic concert hall.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoAt the Royal Summer Palace, High Craft presented a curated selection of designers and producers<\/p>\n

Myking’s keynote highlighted Sn\u00f8hetta’s first furniture collection, the Array modular seating system for MDF Italia, while Bouroullec spotlighted his work with Swiss furniture brand Vitra<\/a>, the Mynt task chair on display during the festival at the K\u0159i\u017e\u00edk Pavilions.<\/p>\n

Another event highlight was the 11th edition of Designblok Diploma Selection, a showcase and competition for product and fashion design graduates across Europe.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoErwan Bouroullec hosted a keynote at Designblok Talks. Photo is by Ondrej Holub<\/p>\n

With over 190 projects submitted by almost 20 universities across 12 countries, 15 product pieces were selected to be displayed at the Museum of Decorative Arts<\/a>, while 15 designs were spotlighted at a fashion show<\/a> in The New Spiral Na V\u00fdstavi\u0161t<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Designblok’s jury was made up of curators and directors from Design Museum Gent<\/a>, the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland, Fondation Martell and 3 Days of Design<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoThe Designblok Diploma Selection showcases fashion and product design. Photo is by Jan Hlavacek<\/p>\n

The jury selected Belgian designer Jaron Vandevelde<\/a> as the winner of the product design category for his piece Woodwormdesign<\/a>, which addressed how humans and nature can co-create, while Andrea Rehbein<\/a> from the Swedish School of Textiles won the fashion award for her work Approximation to the Acrobatics of Flesh.<\/p>\n

Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola<\/a> also received the Award for Extraordinary Contribution to Global Design at the festival, with the award made from Czech crystal by the creative director of glass brand Moser, Jan Plech\u00e1\u010d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPatricia Urquiola was granted the Award for Extraordinary Contribution to Global Design<\/p>\n

“Designblok, with the theme Courage, was for me above all a manifestation of Czech design in the context of the global scene,” said the director of the festival, Jana Zielinski.<\/p>\n

“We hosted the largest number of international guests so far and introduced two new formats \u2013 the Designblok Talks conference and the Designblok for Kids pavilion \u2013 both met with an excellent response from professionals and the public,” she added.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoThe festival took place from 7 to 12 October<\/p>\n

The festival has announced its theme for next year’s event, Light, which encourages participants to explore “hope, truth and life” through design.<\/p>\n

The 2026 iteration of Designblok<\/a> will take place from 6 to 11 October. To find out more about Designblok, visit the brand’s website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Photography is by Martin Faltejsek unless stated otherwise.<\/p>\n

Designblok<\/a> took place from 7 to 12 October 2025. See\u00a0Dezeen Events Guide<\/a>\u00a0for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.<\/p>\n

Partnership content<\/p>\n

This article was written by Dezeen for Designblok<\/a>\u00a0as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Promotion: Prague-based festival Designblok returned in 2025 for its 27th edition, focusing on “risk-taking” within design, architecture and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,57910,438,89968,146,52465,85,46,5779,448,10158],"class_list":["post-147182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-czech-republic","tag-design","tag-designblok","tag-entertainment","tag-exclude-from-apple-news","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-prague","tag-sectionall","tag-sectionpromotions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}