Virtual Design Festival

VDF week four highlights

This week's VDF highlights included Carlo Ratti, Space Popular and Iris van Herpen plus a live drone performance and a cocktail masterclass

Week four of VDF featured Bar Basso, Studio Drift, Adam Nathaniel Furman, Sevil Peach, Bureau Spectacular, Arthur Mamou-Mani and much more!

Virtual Design Festival, the world's first online design festival, runs until 30 June. For the full schedule of upcoming events, visit dezeen.com/vdf/schedule.


Monday 4 May

VDF x Dezeen Awards: with the Dezeen Awards entry deadline just a few weeks away, we brought together eight judges and winners to discuss the role of awards in architecture and design as well as topics including virtual reality and designing with gaming engines. Participants included Arthur Mamou-Mani, Adam Nathaniel Furman, Sevil Peach and more.

Screentime with Carlo Ratti: today's live interview featured Italian architect Carlo Ratti, who explained why hospitals and universities are "dinosaurs" that need design in order to remain useful to society.


Studio Drift uses drones to create beating heart above Rotterdam in tribute to healthcare workers

Tuesday 5 May

VDF x Friedman Benda: our collaboration with the New York City gallery kicked off with the first of its Design in Dialogue conversations. Today's saw curator and historian Glenn Adamson in conversation with pioneering architect James Wise.

Screentime with Space Popular:  Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg of design studio Space Popular discussed designing in virtual reality in a live interview with Dezeen's Marcus Fairs.

VDF x Studio Drift: we teamed up with the Dutch design duo for a live interview followed by a live stream of their spectacular Franchise Freedom drone performance in Rotterdam.


Jimenez Lai is founder of architecture studio Bureau Spectacular

Wednesday 6 May

VDF x Iris van Herpen: we launched our exclusive series of video interviews with the Dutch fashion designer.

Screentime with Jimenez Lai: Bureau Spectacular's Jimenez Lai discussed how he started out wanting to be a comic artist in today's live interview direct from Los Angeles.


Bar Basso owner Maurizio Stocchetto appears live as part of VDF

Thursday 7 May

VDF x Bar Basso: Maurizio Stochetto, owner of the design world's favourite bar, shared his Bar Basso cocktail recipes and told the history of the legendary Milanese institution in this live interview and masterclass.

VDF x Iris van Herpen: today we published the second of our three exclusive video interviews with the Dutch fashion designer. 


Friday 8 May

A day off: today was a holiday in the UK so the VDF team had a much-needed rest! However, we still managed to publish...

VDF x Iris van Herpen: the third exclusive video interview with Iris van Herpen went live today.


Previous weeks

Did you miss week three? Read our summary of the highlights, including a video message from Ben van Berkel and an exclusive screening of Gary Hustwit's Dieter Rams documentary.

Did you miss week two? Read the summary of the highlights from the second week, including Ron Arad, SO-IL, Kunlé Adeyemi, Nelly Ben Hayoun, Beatie Wolfe and Studio Drift.

Did you miss week one? Read the summary of the first week's highlights include live interviews with Li Edelkoort and Klein Dytham Architecture plus the now-legendary VDF launch movie.

For more information about VDF or to join the mailing list, email [email protected].