A rebooted, pandemic-friendly version of Dundee Design Festival 2021 has opened across four locations in the city and online.
The fourth edition of the free-to-attend festival has taken over a former pump station in Finlathen Park, a former shop unit in Stobswell, Hilltown Park and the waterfront plaza outside the V&A, turning the spaces into ‘design houses’.
An online design house will also allow those who are unable or unwilling to travel to in-person events to participate, as well as opening up the festival to the rest of the world.
Smaller venues
Unlike previous versions of the festival, which were held in one large, enclosed venue, the 2021 edition is being held in a mixture of outdoor and small indoor venues to limit the number of people gathering together in an enclosed space.
Dundee Design Festival, which aims to entertain and educate the public about the role of design in everyday life, will run until October 3 and is being delivered by UNESCO City of Design Dundee and Agency of None.
This year’s theme is ‘everywhere design’, exploring how design is an essential but often invisible part of people’s lives. Each design house was created in collaboration with the local communities in the locations where the design houses are based.
Everyday design
“From the outset, we’ve always tried to ensure that Dundee Design Festival reflects the world we are living in, with content showing the ways in which design can impact on our day to day lives”, says Annie Marrs, Lead Officer at UNESCO City of Design Dundee.
“From the vast industrial space of West Ward Works in 2017 to the underused retail units of the Keiller Centre in 2019, our choice of venue has been really important to highlight the local relevance of the festival and 2021 is another step on that journey.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the importance of our local areas, local services and communities. It wouldn’t make sense to hold DDF21 anywhere but within our neighbourhoods.”
Design house locations
At Finlathen, visitors can create their own zine, as well as upcycle clothing developed in collaboration with Badbish Designs, run by designer Sara Gillespie, and Kate Scarlet Harvey.
Closer to the city centre, Stobswell Design House on Albert Street is a space focused on health and wellbeing, where visitors can assemble their own character from kits containing different body parts, designed by illustrator ‘Headless Greg’. The aim is to spark discussion about how to keep the body healthy.
Hilltown Design House, meanwhile, features a games system designed by Dr Lynn Love and Dr Paul Gault, where visitors can create their own park game, such as crazy golf, in miniature. At the end of the festival one design will be picked and built as a full-scale structure in the park, using reclaimed materials. There is also a soundscape feature with audio from across the world including sounds from other UNESCO cities.
At the Waterfront visitors can explore the design process outside V&A Dundee by running through the Ball Run designed by FifeX alongside Agency of None.
Colouring book
Activity sheets and a Design Festival Colouring Book are available to pick up from the design houses, as well as a design trail map.
The colouring book contains some of the design highlights in Dundee from multi-storey flats and streets to churches, shopping centres and a water tower. It was created by German illustrator, Dana Ulama, in collaboration with Dundee creatives, Kathryn Rattray, Stephanie Crow and Poppy Jarratt.
Online, the Digital Design House contains a design jargon glossary, interviews with local and international designers explaining over 50 different design terms in a game-show format, videos on the design behind everyday objects and an interactive design game created in partnership with inGAME.
Playful design
Lyall Bruce, co-producer of Dundee Design Festival 2021, said: “We are continuing to develop our vision of a design festival as a series of playful experiments that opens up design to new audiences by encouraging people to participate in lots of hands-on design activities.
“From creating new forms of play in a park, redesigning old clothes, a giant playable design process and a shop that encourages you to consider wellbeing, we have worked with designers with many different skills to bring together a design festival that puts the focus on experimentation and play to create a unique experience.”
