Bratislava Design Week 2025: Premena
This year’s Bratislava Design Week is marked by transformations. The dormitory on Svoradova Street is being transformed – a place with a difficult past, which is trying to find its meaning again under new management. The art scene is also changing – at a time when it can no longer rely on institutions, it is dependent on its own courage and solidarity.
The festival enters spaces that bear the imprints of decayed societies and systems. But it is these traces that become the basis for new stories. In the tangle of walls that remember, a space opens up for contemporary design: as exploration, as provocation, as the possibility of rediscovering life in what seemed to have been forgotten.
Bratislava Design Week 2025 is thus not just an exhibition of design. It is an exercise in transformation – common, uncomfortable, but necessary.
This year, Bratislava Design Week will occupy the premises of the boarding house on Svoradova Street – a place that has been undergoing a challenging transformation in recent years. Svoradov, as the dormitory was originally called, has a rich and layered past – from the “Nesporák” period to the present. Its stories carry the memories of generations of students and the search for their own identity.
Under new management, the complex seeks to repurpose its vast spaces in the heart of the Old Town, on one of Bratislava’s most beautiful streets. In collaboration with Bratislava Design Week, Svoradov will be opened to the public as a place to reflect on its potential to become a space for encounter, dialogue and opening up to the city – along with its community of hundreds of students who live there.
Programme:
Wednesday – September 24, 2025
- 10:00 a.m. – Presentation by Austrian group Is Ok It
Design that asks questions instead of providing answers
Location: Svoradova – Design Gym
- 5:00 p.m. – Opening of Modernista at the Czech Center in Bratislava
Location: Parallel area – Czech Center Bratislava, Prepoštská 6
- 6:00 p.m. – Grand Hotel BADW. Guided tour of the exhibition with curators Ľubica Hustá and Viera Kleinová
Grand Hotel Bratislava Design Week will introduce festival visitors to the hotel section of the Svoradov dormitory. This part of the building, opened in the 1920s and economically revitalized after the Velvet Revolution, has the specific atmosphere of a hotel suburb. Slovak designers will take over the basic interior with its austere functional design for a few days and infiltrate it with their work.
Location: Svoradova – Svoradov Grand Hotel
- 6:30 p.m. – Guided tour with guests from CINEMA Parensi
The project operates at the intersection of scenography and moving image curation. It creates spatial installations that transform the way viewers experience cinema – from collective viewing to experimental forms of projection. Design functions here as a transversal discipline: it combines architecture, visual art, and film to open up new dialogues between space and image.
Location: Svoradova – Design Gym
- 7:00 p.m. – PechaKucha Night Bratislava 57: Zbierky naratívov
Location: Svoradova – Svoradov Gymnasium
Thursday – September 25, 2025
- 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. – FAD STU Workshop: Lost Ants
Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems in urban environments bring life to the asphalt and concrete jungle of the city. Trees provide pleasant shade, flowers refresh our days with their colors, and it is difficult to imagine the autumn mood without the yellow-orange hues of the leaves. Small insects are also part of the diversity of nature, without which these systems cannot function. The workshop led by Martin Mjartan follows on from his work Lost Ants, which draws attention to the importance of ecosystems in the city in public spaces. It is important to constantly remind ourselves that humans are also part of nature’s biodiversity and that without it, we are lost. At the workshop, visitors will have the opportunity to make their own ants using a very traditional medium – wire. They will recall the origin and metaphor that humans are also part of a large anthill and cooperate with other “ants” every day.
Location: Svoradova – Svoradova Park
- 5:00 p.m. – Design Safari BADW x How I Met My Architect
Location: Svoradov boarding school and the surroundings of Bratislava
- 5:00 p.m. – Typospot | Nikoleta Dekanová: [insulation] Opening
[insulation] explores feelings of loneliness and isolation, which are very common among young people today. These feelings often stem from the pressure to perform, whether from school, work, or social media. Insulation is a layer created as protection from the outside world. And like any proper insulation, this one will be on the facade.
Location: Parallel area – Zichy Palace, side facade, Prepoštská Street
- 5:00 p.m. – Jana Machatová: Everyday Stories. Guided tour with jeweler Jana Machatová
The exhibition Everyday Stories presents a series of original jewelry that loosely follows on from the artist’s previous work. It focuses on depicting women and their world, their everyday experiences, and the repetitiveness of ordinary activities. Jewelry as a nonverbal means of communication is used to express a broader social theme based on the personal story of an individual.
Location: Parallel area – Čin Čin Gallery, Podjavorinskej 4A
- 6:00 p.m. – Power to Renovation. Discussion on the demolition and renovation of buildings, screening of the film Power to Renovation with Adam Gajdoš
The demolition and renovation of buildings are becoming the hottest topics in the architectural debate in Europe. The European citizens’ initiative House Europe! calls for an end to speculative demolitions and simplification of the renovation of existing buildings. The event consists of a screening of the film Power to renovation! and a discussion with architects who have experience with building renovations on various scales.
Location: Svoradova – Svoradov apartment
- 6:00 p.m. – Brot: Presentation of the book Catalogue of endings (How to End Things) with the authors: Martin Jenča and Katarína Poliačiková
(During the BADW festival, BADW visitors with a wristband receive a 5% discount at BROT).
Location: Parallel area – Brot, Panenská 32
- 6:00 p.m. – Prototypes and Visualizations 2025. Industrial, Graphic, and Spatial Design, School of Design — SŠUP B. Baču. Vernissage
The exhibition will present a selection of works by graduates of the School of Design from the fields of Industrial Design and Graphic and Spatial Design. Visitors will see, for example, prototypes of functional objects, experimental furniture, urban furniture solutions, and designs for other objects. In the section dedicated to graphic and spatial design, they can look forward to original visual identities, exhibition installation concepts, spatial models, and projects focused on visual communication in public spaces. The projects, created under the guidance of experienced teachers, respond to the current challenges of contemporary design. The exhibition is an opportunity to look into the studios where the future of design is born and experience the energy of creation that transcends the boundaries of the school.
Location: Parallel area – Amandari Reduta, Námestie Eugena Suchoňa 1
Friday – September 26, 2025
- 11:00 a.m. – VŠVU Experimental Design Studio. Guided tour for secondary schools
Presentation of projects in the exhibition.
Location: Svoradova – Svoradov
- 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. – Closing of the exhibition ÚĽUV Open Studio
From 2:00 p.m., presentation of the ÚĽUV Open Studio concept with Diana Némethová, director of the ÚĽUV professional activities department, followed by an open discussion on the topic.
Location: Parallel Area, ÚĽUV Design Studio, Dobrovičová 13
- 2:00 p.m. – Juraj Marth: It matters what stories we tell. Guided tour of the exhibition with curator Viera Kleinová
Many of the works by ceramist, sculptor, and designer Juraj Marth (1939–2019) are no longer found in public spaces. Although he was one of those (along with Imrich Vanek and Jozef Sušienka) who left a strong mark on ceramics in the late 1960s. About his work with curator Viera Kleinová.
Location: Svoradova – Svoradov Grand Hotel
- 2:00 p.m. – Koncept magazine. Discussion and presentation of the new issue on the topic of wood.
Presented by: Editor-in-chief Zuzana Pastirčák Duchová.
Pavol Pokorný explains how not to get stuck in your thinking and succumb to greenwashing. Veronika Kotradyová (FAD STU) will present research on wood design in relation to humans. Nikola Beim follows up with thoughts on how to restore monuments. Three implementations and two concepts of tiny houses will be presented – a retirement home by the Stoa studio, an administrative building for Vojenské lesy a majetky SR (Military Forests and Estates of the Slovak Republic) by Domesi Slovensko, and a family house by the Šercel Švec studio, Faircraft, and Ark-shelter. Karolína Plášková spoke with Andres Lepik, director of the Museum of Architecture in Munich, on the occasion of his visit to Prague. The Venice Architecture Biennale has begun, and the magazine was there. In addition to a general assessment, it also features insights from exhibitor Jozef Olšavský. Detail: Woven, Sketch: Michal Bogár, Model: Vertical Studio Gregor Varga Smatanová, Drawer: 2021 architects. The new issue will be presented by editor-in-chief Zuzana Pastirčák Duchová.
Location: Svoradova – Svoradov Gymnasium
- 4:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. – Open Architectural Studios Tour. Guided tour of architectural studios with Adam Gajdoš
What do the studios where spaces are designed look like? The surroundings of this year’s Bratislava Design Week are rich in several architectural studios in Bratislava, which are, by their very nature, not very accessible to the public. We will take a look inside the premises of WHAT Architects, Sadovsky & architects, and Studený architekti, learn about their architectural work, and answer the question posed at the beginning of the annotation.
Location: Svoradova Street and surroundings
- 5:00 p.m. – Elusive Ceramics: Current Trends in Ceramics. Discussion with David and Šimon Valovičovci
What do pasta, bricks, and Mugzzz ceramic mugs have in common? The answer will be provided by a discussion with the brotherly artist-designer duo David and Šimon Valovičovci. They will present their Mugzzz series and describe the creative process – from the use of clay extrusion technology to the unique handle that innovates the traditional cup grip. The discussion will touch on current trends in ceramics, how design can polarize or entertain, and why it is worth looking for playfulness in the objects we use every day. Visitors can join the discussion and also purchase a Mugzzz mug on site.
Location: Parallel area – Kút.museum shop, Bratislava City Museum, Primaciálne nám. 3
Saturday – September 27, 2025
- 11:00 a.m. – Transformer workshop with designer Jarka Labudová
The workshop with Jarka Labudová will draw you into the soft world of stuffed animals. As part of the open workshop, you can bring your own stuffed animal or choose from the stuffed animals on offer and transform them according to your own ideas under the guidance of the instructors. The workshop is intended for all age groups. A series of pre-prepared fabric characters will be waiting for you on site, and it is up to the participants to decide how to transform them.
Location: Svoradova – Svoradova Park
- 2:00 p.m. – Workshop ÚĽUV x BADW Change the Wire
Location: Svoradova – Svoradova Park
- 4:00 p.m. – Discussion FAD STU. From Matter to Code: How is the originality of design changing in the transition from physical craft to digital technologies? Moderator: Eva Polgáryová
How does originality manifest itself differently in authorial design when it is shaped either by physical contact with the material and the craft process, or by work in a digital environment influenced by algorithms and artificial intelligence? The discussion presents a confrontation between two authorial approaches that represent different positions in contemporary design practice. Dávid Valovič, a graduate of UMPRUM in Prague, artist and designer, focuses mainly on ceramics, porcelain, and glass in his work. His approach is rooted in analog processes and craft tradition, focusing on experimenting with materials and searching for original solutions and possibilities. Lea Turzáková, an external doctoral student at the Institute of Design at the Faculty of Architecture and Design at STU and a UX designer working at Škoda Auto, reflects on design in the context of digital technologies and artificial intelligence. In the field of User Experience (UX) design, she focuses on creating user interfaces with an emphasis on intuitiveness, functionality, and comprehensibility within digital products and services.
Location: Svoradova – Svoradova Park
- 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. – DJ Set Diana Paulova
Location: Svoradova – Park Svoradova
- 5:00 p.m. – Discussion: Representation, Štefan Sekáč, Silvia Sukopová, moderator: Omar Mirza
Slovak design in international competitions. How is it doing and how to qualify, who are the judges and where are the fans?
Location: Svoradova – Svoradova Park
- 5:00 p.m. – Young Architecture. Discussion with Adam Gajdoš
What is it like to start your own studio and stand on your own two feet? In recent years, Bratislava has seen a rise in new studios run by the younger generation. A discussion with its members will highlight their past projects, the challenges they face, and how they think about creating spaces.
Location: Svoradova – Svoradov Byt
- 6:00 p.m. – BADW Awards
Ceremonial announcement of the winners. An international jury selects the most innovative BADW projects.
Location: Svoradova – Park Svoradova
Information about this event was provided by the portal GoOut.sk
