Kieran Long spoke to Dezeen in a live Screentime conversation as part of our collaboration with ArkDes for Virtual Design Festival.

The director of Sweden's National Centre for Architecture and Design spoke to Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs about the museum's current exhibitions and how it has pivoted towards virtual exhibition openings during the Covid-19 crisis.

As part of its takeover of Virtual Design Festival today, ArkDes premiered its most recent exhibition Kiruna Forever, in a virtual, 360-degree exhibition opening.

The exhibition explores the relocation of Kiruna, a city in the northernmost part of Sweden, which is one of the biggest urban transformation projects in Sweden in recent history.

It also presented a video tour of its most recent exhibition Weird Sensation Feels Good which investigates the phenomenon of ASMR as a design movement, and a video interview with artist Linda Tegg about her recent Infield installation at the museum.

You can explore the full day of content here.

Long was previously the Keeper of the department of Design, Architecture and Digital at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and has been a design and architecture critic for over 20 years before being appointed director of ArkDes in Stockholm in 2017.

About ArkDes

ArkDes is a museum, a study centre and an arena for debate and discussion about the future of architecture, design and citizenship.

Its aim is to increase knowledge and cultivate debate around how architect and design affect our lives as citizens, and to influence this change through debate, exhibitions, campaigns and research relating to Swedish and international architecture and design.

ArkDes has previously shown an exhibition charting the evolution of pre-fabricated concrete panels in architecture and an exhibition investigating the intersections between architecture and cruising, the practice of looking for sex in public.

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020. It brings the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

To find out what's coming up at VDF, check out the schedule. For more information or to join the mailing list, email [email protected].

Partnership content.