Romanian Design Week 2018
This year, Romanian Design Week will take place in one of the most emblematic buildings of Bucharest: the Telephone Palace. A building is located on Calea Victoriei in the heart of the Creative Quarter.
The choice of space is not a random one, as the Telephone Palace was a turning point of Bucharest architecture. The building is a symbol of modernism and it was built between 1929 and 1934. The Telephone Palace has a style specific to American skyscrapers, with representative features of Art Deco style. The construction was the first high-rise metal frame in Romania, and until the 70’s it remained the tallest building in the city.
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Despite the name, Romanian Design Week is a 10 days festival that promotes design in all its forms as a manifest for cultural, social and economical growth. Starting 18th May and ending 27th May, Romanian Design Week will bring to stage over 150 projects of more than 100 designers, design and architecture studios.
As we are used to, a selected board of curators decides who are the participants of the main exhibition. At the main exhibition will be gathered the best creative work developed by Romanian designers, artists and architects.
The annual curators in this year’s edition of Romanian Design Week are sound names such as: Adrian Soare, Stefan Ghenciulescu, Mihai Gurei, Domnica, Maurice Munteanu and Ovidiu Hrin. Also, like all five editions so far, the architecture of the event is signed by architect Attila Kim, one of the biggest supporters of the project.
Another cool thing about this event is the proximity and cultural bondage it brings for several seasons. Over the past seasons the guest countries included international journalists (who are guided in private planned tours through the festival) from Netherlands (2014) and Denmark, Finland, Island, Norway and Sweden with a common project (2015).
This year Romanian Design Week comes with a new approach and with new surprises. Besides the central exhibition, Romanian Design Week proposes an extra event called SHOW OFF RDW which will bring together under the same roof a series of creative events with a strong educational component, inspired by UniCredit Bank, in the most active place from Bucharest — The Universe Palace.
This year’s participants are some of the greatest names in Romania’s creative scene. Get a glance at some of our favorite artists that will be on display during Romanian Design Week 2018.
PRODUCT DESIGN
13x14 // ABRUPTARHITECTURA // Adrian Balcău // Agnes Lukacs // Atelier MASS // Atelier Mustață // Ceramic Sparrow // Ciprian Manda // Co Laboratory // Constantin Laurențiu / Kubik Furniture & Design // DADA Studio by Dan Andreșan // De Ceramica — Mădălina Teler // Eduard Locota // Kubo Investments // Lightplay // Madlab // Meșteshukar ButiQ [MBQ] // Batem fierul la conac! / PRODID // Prototip Studio // Sabin Dumitru & Claudia Voinea // SPOONFOOL // Twins Studio // Ubikubi // Veronica Gegea
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Eduard Locota is a romanian sculptor and designer. He established his eponymous design studio with the aim to beautify modern living spaces. Using a special combination of acrylic glass, marble, Jesmonite, and wood. As a result, the objects are truly one of a kind.
Eduard Locota prepared for RDW 2018 ‘La Falaise Bench’, a creation inspired by the cliff, natural formation in a unique contrast to the humanly fabricated roman column, resulting in a distinctive blend of modernity and timelessness.
ARCHITECTURE
AA Studio // Abruptarhitectura // ADNBA // Arhitecți Asociați // Atelier MASS // ateliercetrei // Beros Abdul // Bogdan Ciocodeică // Camposaz + WWF Romania // Createlier // Cumulus // DAAA // Dico și Țigănaș // Someș Delivery// Fabrica de Arhitectură // Filofi și Trandafir // Gila Shemie Zakay + Bre. // Ideastezia Studio // IOG Arhitectura // Ioka Studio // Irina Nemțeanu // KOOHO // Mânadelucru + VIArchitecture // Motif // Picktwo Studio // prototip9 // Prototip Studio// Radu Teacă și Andreea Marinescu // re-act now // Studio 1408 // Ștefan Păvăluță // Yellow Office
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Radu Teaca and Andreea Marinescu prepared for RDW 2018 The Apartment in Brasov. The project was circumscribed to the idea of transforming an existing space, situated in an important residential complex in Brașov, with its own flaws: pillars outside the planes of the walls, installation ducts, beams, doors and windows in abundance and randomly placed, into an apartment meant to emanate the intention of a volitive act (where the “necessity” dictated by the structure and the technical services is diluted as much as possible) regarding the fluidity of the spaces, surfaces and materials.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Agenția Creionetica // Aitch // Alexandra Mihailciuc & Andrei Tache // Alexandra Mihailciuc & Mona Petre & Mirela Duculescu // Alice Stoicescu // Atelierul de grafică // Bianca Dumitrașcu // Bogdan Dumitrache // Daniel & Andrew // Daniel Strugariu // Diana Barbu // Fabrik // Factum Design // Grapho_mat // Halfdrop // Homeboy // Ioana Trușcă // Irina Neacșu // Kape Illustration // Kinga Tomos // Matei Branea // Mădălina Andronic // Mircea Moroianu // Paul Dersidan // Primitiv Print // Radu Manelici // Raymond Bobar // ROD Cărturești // ROD Cărturești & Loreta Isac // SADDO // Serioja Bocsok // Supersomething // Tzim Tzum Books // Victor Bartiș // Victor Moldoveanu // Visual Playground
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Irina Neacsu comes this year with HERBARIUM, an artist’s book in 50 copies, all signed and numbered. The herbarium book is a collection of thirty medicinal plants to be found in the spontaneous flora of Romania. Each plant has a pressing paper and a brief text, together with an illustration, to help the recognition of it. All illustrations are made in watercolor by Irina Neacșu.
FASHION
Adina Orboi // Alexandru Floarea // Alina Gurguță & Ellida Toma // Alina Moza // Andra Handaric // Andreea Matei // Andreea Tincu // Chic Utility // Claudiu Burca // IE Clothing // Ioana Adam // Ioana Ciolacu // Lana Dumitru // Laurențiu Cosmin Matei // Lena Criveanu // Liana Bădălău // Murmur // Sabina Georgescu // Sabina Pop // Sandra Chira // Smaranda Almășan
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Smaranda Almasan is the designer behind a Romanian high fashion design-label. Her collections are characterized by elegant designs, fine cuts and sharp silhouettes. Established in 2009, the studio is based in Cluj, Romania, at the Paintbrush Factory, where galleries and contemporary artists acquired the ex-paintbrushes factory’s space and transformed it into a place for galleries, artists’ workshops, contemporary dance, theater and so on.
Her style is avant-garde to wear every day, giving individuals a better opportunity to dress experimentally.
Multidisciplanary:
iele // Justin Baroncea // Klara Veer & Dan Burzo // Lidia Rățoi // Mădălina Andronic // Marc Borțun // Mihai Botărel & Alex Eftimie // Simina Filat // Simplu // stardust architects* // Thy Veils
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Stardust architects* are Anca Cioarec and Brîndușa Tudor, architects and teacher assistants at the University of Architecture and Urbanism ‘Ion Mincu’ in Bucharest.
Their project called ‘Topophilia’ is the result of the architecture competition organized by The Architects’ Order of Romania (OAR) for the Romanian stand at the International Union of Architects Congress that took place in September 2017 in Seoul.
Sources: iqads.ro, the institute.ro, eduardlocota.com, raduteaca.ro, irinaneacsu.com, smaranda-almasan.com, stardustarchitects.com
Originally published at sunchasers.
