Seattle Design Festival
Sunday, August 18, 2024 from 10:00am to 07:00pm
Seattle Design Festival
Lake Union Park
860 Terry Avenue North
Seattle Design Festival thrilled to invite you to join us for 6 days of transformative programming, all designed to unleash the design thinker in everyone and to build more equitable and thriving communities through design.
Schedule of Events:
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Lofty Lines: Nature Powered Laundry
What if… we stopped relying on machines and the use of valuable energy resources for drying our clothes?
An idyllic scene of clothing blowing in the breeze allows visitors to reminisce on a time when laundry was manual, and invites them to explore how borrowing from the past can pave the way to a healthier future. Within our pavilion space, guests will experience a series of temporal partitions formed by rows of clotheslines and clothing that together form a structure that interacts with its environment, transforming with each breeze that flows off of Lake Union.
In an effort to eliminate material waste, we are committed to donating all materials from our pavilion to local nonprofits following the Festival, to give new life to materials that still have so much use in them. In an age where we find ourselves divided from our neighbors, rows of billowing cotton serve as a reminder that the most minute of tasks can bring our communities together and foster connection, all while helping preserve our planet.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Story House
What if we listened to gain empathy and understanding?
Through a presentation of video recordings, Story House shares personal stories of those who have experienced being unhoused in King County. Story House includes perspectives on homelessness as well as stories of resilience, asking visitors to reflect on the way they think about this issue which challenges Seattle and nearby communities.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Plinko for Thoughts
Help shape your vision for Seattle!
Plinko for Thoughts invites festival-goers to participate in shaping the future of Seattle through a community-based design effort. By answering questions like ‘What if we build a park?’ or ‘What if we build affordable housing?’, participants can envision and choose locations for these projects in the city, stepping into the role of architects and urban designers.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: The Grove
Immerse yourself in a grove of inflatable stumps and logs that colorfully transform with your creativity.
Engage with nature’s dialogue by responding in color, mirroring the vibrant language of the plants. Watch as your contributions turn this evolving piece into a vibrant tapestry of collective imagination.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Big Orange Whale & The Whale Box – What if… Healthcare is Recrafted: Resilient Collaborations of the Future
What might be possible with a small plastic bottle?
Big Orange Whale & The Whale Box invites thoughtful contemplation about the issue of the preeminent need to get massive amounts of polypropylene prescription vials out of the trash and into a dedicated single-source recycling stream. The progressive city of Seattle could become a model for other programs like it throughout the country or the world. A site-specific interactive (online) art installation could be another reason people visit, study, or work in Seattle. It’s a thought-provoking concept that requires near-endless collaboration between people, artists, the city, healthcare, large corporations, facilitators, designers, and innovators. What if it works!!!
What if a 3rd-grade class gets to design art, especially for a Whale Box in their district, then take a field trip to the art site, forevermore changing their perception of what might be possible in a small plastic bottle?
What if a senior care center made an art day & field trip to see their art displayed on a permanent site, leaving a message of endurance?
What if Sister Cities collaborate across the world to engage in creating similar concepts for polypropylene recycling?
The concept of small drawings that anyone is capable of, collectively becoming something bigger that can be seen, utilized, and become a proponent for great change is a concept that invites engaging discussion and inherent collaboration on many platforms.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: What IF buildings were designed for everyone?
What IF buildings were designed for everyone?
Explore common spaces through the lens of people with various needs. Through an interactive game, you’ll be able to spot features that either help or hinder inclusion. Join the movement for inclusive design to create spaces that work for all people, at every stage of life.
Asking the “What IF” is the critical first step towards exploring the possibilities for design to accommodate our human range of needs. After people leave our demonstration, we hope one question continues to linger: What IF we can do better?
10:00AM - 7:00PM: SDF 2024 Block Party
The Seattle Design Festival kicks off with a Block Party at Lake Union Park!
The Seattle Design Festival Block Party is a two-day street fair celebrating the powerful ways design affects our lives. This fun outdoor event is an opportunity for the design community and the public to come together and interact through large-scale design installations, performances, and design activities all centered around the Festival’s 2024 theme, WHAT IF?. The installations are designed to be enjoyed by people of all ages, sizes, and abilities. Families are welcome and encouraged.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Raindrop Run
When we build homes and roads, it changes the way water moves all around us. But what if we designed urban spaces that acted more like nature?
Water flows through our homes and streets to our creeks, lakes, and the ocean, influencing how Seattle looks, feels, and functions along the way. When rain falls, Seattle’s urban environment speeds up stormwater. But what if we designed a city that acted more like nature, where undeveloped landscapes soak up water like a sponge? Water already shapes our lives – but what if we all took a more active role in shaping our water?
Build your own stormwater pathway at this collaborative installation that mimics a traditional marble run. Working together with other participants, you will co-design a landscape of human-built and natural solutions for water management, attempting to slow down the flow as your marble travels through the installation. Use pre-made modular elements to design and re-design water’s journey on its way from the sky to the Salish Sea. Runs are timed to identify the slowest raindrop run.
Together, let’s collaborate to create a more resilient water future for everyone who calls this place home.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Folding for the Future
What if we could harness the power of collective impact?
Folding for the Future invites us to take part in a collaborative and interactive exploration of the possibilities for our communities. It inspires us to contemplate how we can unite, build, and motivate each other through future-focused design, asking the question, “What if you could design your neighborhood?” Individuals can express their vision, hope, and aspirations for their neighborhood and community by crafting colorful origami pieces. The synergy of community voice and ideas will be displayed in a tunnel walkway, creating an immersive experience where people can view, interact, and be inspired by others’ contributions.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Between Baleen
What if you were swallowed by a whale?
Through a fully immersive sensory installation, Between Baleen (Buh·leen) explores the humbling scale of ocean life, paying respect to the greater ecosystem of our local waters. Within a lightweight skeletal bamboo structure hangs a dense screen of rope and extruded film. Utilizing cork line collected from local fishing industry partners along with repurposed semi-transparent polymer tubes, the screen simulates the fibers of whale baleen, a filter-feeding system inside the mouths of baleen whales. Suspended in space on the cork line, cork buoys are reminiscent of the krill, plankton, and fish that become entangled in the baleen.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Sensing Seattle
Experience Seattle with your eyes closed!
Take some time to explore the city with your fingertips, take in the welcoming scent of coffee, and listen to the sounds of the Pacific Northwest.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Postcards to Third Places
Send a postcard to your favorite Seattle “third place” and learn about the places Seattlies go to find connection and community.
Together we will co-create a momentary third place in celebration of these places outside of the home and office that nurture connections, inspire creativity, and foster community care. Throughout the weekend, our map and postcard wall will grow, telling a story about the places that Seattlites love most, and begging the question: what if we prioritized third places in Seattle’s long range planning efforts?
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Bats in the Belfry
What if we could design for survival?
Bats in the Belfry – Bats are the only mammals capable of sustained flight. They consume over half their body weight in insects each night, dramatically reducing crop destruction and the need for pesticides, saving billions of dollars in agriculture each year. Nectar-feeding bats are excellent pollinators and help disperse seeds, especially in clear-cut landscapes like the rainforest. With speculation as to the origins of COVID-19, one could argue that no animal on the planet is in more need of a friend than bats. With declining populations, bats face unprecedented challenges with habitat loss, accelerated climate change, invasive species, and disease. Slow gestation periods and a limited number of offspring only compound their survival.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Traviamento: What If We Get Lost Along The Way?
What if… we got lost along the way?
UW AIAS has elected to deliver a reflective and transparent maze installation as a metaphorical symbol of the organization’s values, highlighting its main facets: mentorship, progression, and career trajectory for students exploring the architectural field. The reflective/transparent maze, embodies AIAS’s values of mentorship, progression, and career trajectory while delving into the project’s theme, “What if we got lost along the way?”
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Social Perspective
What if we could see the ripple effect of our social choices in real-time?.
Work together at this installation to adjust sculptures and view them from the correct angle in order to gain new perspectives of the people and places around you. We as people shape each other yet we rarely recognize how. For example, few realize when a party invitation sparks a romance. Or when cooking together inspires a healthy lifestyle. Even sharing a hashtag can define a generation. Our daily choices are social, frequent, and powerful.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Komorebi
What if the built environment was reimagined as a framework for nature?
A dance between shadow and light, an urban view seeps through plants and various layers of plexiglass sheets. ‘KOMOREBI’ offers an immersive experience in nature, constantly changing depending on the viewing angle and the movement of light, providing a colorful landscape. Visitors entering ‘KOMOREBI’ may take a seat to watch the passage of time, surround themselves with the scent of their favorite plant, or view a twisted reality through the diffused light. This frame for nature is made from plexiglass diverted from construction waste.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: interCONNECTION
What if your environment reacted to personal and community needs?
The interCONNECTION Pavilion allows users to interact with “puzzle pieces” to develop different spatial experiences. Curated configurations of elements encourage play, rest, and community.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: What if Mermaids Do Exist?
What If Mermaids Do Exist?
Come wag her tail and move the waves around her. See her hair blow in the wind and imagine yourself pursuing your own “what if” question. Where will it take you?
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Oli – Fostering Human Connections
Experience Oli, an interactive musical installation that invites you to create music and connect with people and places around you.
By simply moving your hands around Oli, you can create delightful tunes and experience the joy of making music together with others. Join us at the Seattle Design Festival and rediscover the joy of spontaneous human interaction with Oli. Designed for everyone, regardless of musical background, Oli transforms everyday interactions into profound shared experiences. The installation encourages visitors to pause, engage with the object, and connect with their surroundings and fellow beings.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: A World That Loves and Nurtures All – Game
Unleash your creative energy to step into a cooperative board game!
Join us this August at Lake Union Park in Seattle for the SDF Block Party, where you will be treated to a unique place-based creation board game event. We invite you to join a community that reimagines a world where collaboration is critical to building and improving a world that loves and nurtures all. At the AHBL pop-up, get ready for a hands-on, exciting experience!
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Links in a Chain of Possibilities
Join the team at Environmental Works and contribute your unique vision to the ever-evolving story of our city.
This thought-provoking interactive installation will invite participants to reimagine the utilization of Seattle’s surplus properties—those hidden gems scattered throughout our city, brimming with untapped potential.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Infinity – What if we collaborated?
Explore the possibilities of radical community collaboration.
What if we collaborated? “Infinity” is an interactive, thread-bound paper sculpture exploring the possibilities of radical community collaboration. Read responses to the prompt “What if” by community members of the Inland Empire of Southern California, and respond by writing responses, drawing pictures, and adding to a large honeycomb-like structure.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Under One Roof
Engage with our installation by contributing your own experiences and aspirations for equitable housing to our mind map.
Use string to create a mind map that will follow not only what your current reality, but what it has the potential to be. This installation will help SDF attendees envision a world that puts us all “Under One Roof”.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: What if we created a space where everyone can play, discover and create together?
What if… we communicated through curiosity and play?
This pavilion is an interactive and immersive installation designed to provoke the thought on a joyful social hub in our city through unconventional materials and the language of curiosity and play. From a distance, visitors will be drawn in by the gleaming, dynamic fabrics set behind the biophilic and cardboard façade, inviting them to engage with the vibrant materials. Inside, the sequin fabrics, acting as a canvas, are shaped to the interior space, encouraging everyone to interact and leave their mark. The plants will be given away to the community to foster a sense of connection and shared experience.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Collaborative facade
Make your mark and add to this collaborative facade!
What if an architectural facade was designed to incorporate unique input from a wide audience. Could it embrace individuality and expression? Could it generate new and undetermined patterns? Could it create an experience that defines space and transparency? Could it become a beacon for a community?
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Loom to Bloom: Inspiring ideas of sustainable architecture
“Loom to Bloom” invites you to bring your old and unwanted clothing and join us in this collaborative exploration!
We’re challenging our relationship to architecture in order to provoke new ideas of sustainability. Become part of this collaborative exploration by weaving discarded fabric at “Loom to Bloom” — an interactive pavilion at the Seattle Design Festival 2024. Save your old and unwanted clothing or home fabrics and bring them with you during the Block Party for a communal project led by Gensler and zero-waste fashion designer and artist Janelle Abbott. Fabrics can be old, discolored, or ripped, and of any size and material, but must be clean.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Untethered Bodies
What if existence were malleable?
This installation proposes a series of folding planes creating unexpected and contrasting experiences depending on the user’s approach. Reflection, choreographed openings, color, and whimsical imagery challenges perceptions of reality. Our team explored concepts that emanate from one’s physical reality to provoke surprise, discovery, and deep thought.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: STORYTIME
This installation opens discussion to the question: What if we could collaborate on ideas that transcend familiar ways of thinking?
Storytelling is the exchange of ideas that transcend our understanding. Surrounded by books, the space created acts as a multipurpose library. Affordances such as benches and nooks can be used for individual reading or to share ideas through the act of storytelling with the provided books.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Timbre
“What if structures could sing?”
Timbre (pronounced tam-ber) is an immersive installation in which differing columns double as musical instruments brought to life through human interaction. The word ‘timbre’ refers to ‘the quality of tone distinctive of a particular singing voice or musical instrument.’ Inspired by its similarity to the word ‘timber,’ timbre merges the languages of music and buildings, inspiring a new way of perceiving both.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Algae Arcology
Step into the future of urban living with “Algae Arcology” an immersive installation that transforms the concept of a city into a vibrant, living ecosystem.
This 3D-printed hydrogel city teems with life, featuring tiny shrimp swimming through translucent skyscrapers and algae that recycle CO2 into oxygen. As you explore this captivating miniature metropolis, you’ll engage with interactive displays and learn about the cutting-edge technology behind bioprinting and sustainable urban design.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: The EPIC Raceway: Race to Zero Carbon
Stop by to play the EPIC Raceway—a chance-based ball game illustrating the choices and challenges of the zero-carbon building design process for architects and engineers.
Users engage with the installation by dropping a ball into the game and watching it bounce through obstacles on its way to “construction” with the end goal of reaching zero carbon. The ball game transforms EPIC, a web-based carbon reduction tool developed by EHDD, into a physical experience. EPIC helps designers ask critical “what if” questions early in the design process, when data is scarce but the potential for emissions reduction is high.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Sound & Place
How can your senses help you gain an understanding of the past, present, and future of a place?
The SDF 2024 Call for Proposals asks: WHAT IF? At Mithun, this sparks such questions as:
What if we could create an interactive lens through which to better understand our regional history?
What if we could evoke past feelings of place through a spatial intervention?
What if we could create something which makes a lasting impact, beyond the two days of the Festival?
Mithun aims to explore these questions, in partnership with Arup, through an interactive built installation in Lake Union Park, something inherently temporary, responsible in both its use of materials and its relationship to the community. We envision an installation that takes shape through the engagement of the Festival’s visitors, and incorporates elements of sound, light and shadow to invite users of all ages and abilities. Whether through the addition or subtraction of sub-elements, the deeper meaning of the installation will be continuously revealed over the 2-day duration of the Festival, representing a collaborative effort of the community. We are inspired by the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest (canoes, rowing sculls, tugboats, cargo ships etc.). We aim to evoke these structures and a connection to the water through an installation that interacts with the ambient sounds of South Lake Union.
Visitors will experience a combination of analog and digitally amplified sound elements which, combined with selective visual screening and framing of views, create a space for reflection on the past, present and future of the site.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESSES
Streams of Consciousness is an installation that explores the question “What if our cities could read our minds.”
Through a colorful array of tubes, festival goers are encouraged to write down their emotions, thoughts, feelings and advice on slips of paper and place them in plastic balls. After placing this ball of emotions in a corresponding emotion tube, participants will then receive someone else’s thought on the other side.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: RE-Material, RE-Structure
RE-Material, RE-Structure is an exploration of an architecture from re-newable resources, or re-purposed/ re-newed materials.
New materials in buildings require extensive resource extraction, processing and transportation, while large amounts of construction waste continue to go to landfills. This installation, titled ‘RE-structure, RE-material’ utilizes only locally-sourced re-newable resources (grown, compostable), or re-purposed (second-life) materials in the creation of a dynamic architectural space.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: Reflection – A Study on Third Places
“What if structures could sing?”
As we reflect on the idea of utilizing design to drive community, we ask: what if Seattle cultivated vibrant social ecosystems by increasing accessibility to third places? In this installation, we invite visitors to reflect on and share their third places in an environment that incorporates biophilic design to increase their health and wellbeing and connectivity to nature. A reflection on third places takes place in an open circular wire mesh structure covered in moss. Inside the structure, three wooden benches are arranged for reflection, allowing for ADA accessibility.
10:00AM - 7:00PM: THERMAL BREAK
Take a break from the heat and experience how we combined futuristic technology, ancient building practices, and a modern design aesthetic to create a new vision for outdoor spaces of the future!
THERMAL BREAK – Thermal Break is an architectural term that refers to a construction material that is strategically placed to interrupt the path of heat flow and reduce the flow of thermal energy. What if innovative thinking and materials in the built environment could be used to address climate change from many angles at one time, while actively providing relief from the consequences of climate change too.
12:00PM - 5:00PM: SDF 2024 Block Party Mainstage
Join us at Lake Union Park during the SDF Block Party for the first-ever SDF Mainstage! These performances, talks, and demonstrations are happening live at the times listed below. Be sure to grab your seat before the program starts!
12-1pm
Design is ‘Connection’ Made Manifest
Justin Dauer — Anomali by Design
1:30-2:30pm
Playing with Design: Creating Goopy Mag
Goopy Girls
3:00pm
The Reverberative Heart
art gallery PKULTRA
3:30-4pm
Sounds Interesting: The CAMPBIENT Experience
The Creative Center for Adaptive Praxis
4:30-5pm
The Future of Connecting Communities through Creative Technology
Grace Chee
1:00PM - 5:00PM: What if we were friends?
Join us speed-dating style to make friends through a rotating portrait drawing session.
Our pop-up explores possibilities of what can happen when we use creativity to learn about others in our community. We will cultivate an inviting space free of expectations or external pressures that allow genuine connection between participants. All skill levels and ages are encouraged to participate, no drawing skills needed! We will be collecting portraits to create a physical and digital gallery, while making new connections within our community.
10:00AM - 2:00PM: Balancing Act
Come imagine Seattle’s possible futures at the interactive pop-up, Balancing Act!
Explore the region’s alternate realities by responding to “What If?” prompts and posing some of your own unconventional ideas. Over the course of the day, we’ll use these Q&As as building blocks to piece together an intricately balanced structure comprised of found and recycled objects and materials.
10:00AM - 2:00PM: Waste Becomes Wonder: Upcycled Crafts with IIDA NPC
Join us to create some fun crafts and engage in discussion!
“What If…” it was second nature for unwanted materials to be diverted from the landfill and transformed into something beautiful and useful, inspiring sustainable design choices and empowering everyone to embrace their creativity through upcycling. Stop by our Pop-Up to create crafts from upcycled materials donated by local Commercial Manufacturers, Architecture and Design firms (or snag a take-home kit), and explore your own creative potential using readily available materials.
12:00PM - 1:00PM: Design is ‘Connection’ Made Manifest
What is design, if not ‘connection’ made manifest?
Given the state of the world over the past few years, with designers navigating the global pandemic, mass layoffs, hybrid / remote work, and a struggling economy, connection is at is apex of relevance. The connection of us to one another, us to our work, and our work to those who engage with it. Be it a concert venue poster, a website, or an app icon, design is solving the problem of engaging people—agnostic of their circumstances—to connect and convey an experience.
12:00PM - 3:00PM: Mushroom Tent (Day 2)
Capture unforgettable moments next to an enchanting Mushroom Tent at the Seattle Design Festival.
Step into a world where creativity meets nature, and snap photos beside this whimsical structure, a testament to the power and beauty of design inspired by mushrooms! What if design could be whimsical, while still serving a functional purpose?
1:00PM - 5:00PM: Slime Fax
Send Slime Faxes from your mobile device at Seattle Design Festival this summer!
Ever wanted to send a Slime Fax? Slime Fax is a functional, fictional office communication tool that sends unreadable messages by spraying fake “slime” onto paper.
1:30PM - 2:30PM: Playing with Design: Creating Goopy Mag
Break your mundane routine and reignite the curiosity and excitement for life that is so present in childhood in this Block Party Mainstage presentation.
Brought to you by the creative studio Goopy Girls, Goopy Mag is a printed publication centered around play, mess, and childish glee. Goopy Girls present an hour long interactive presentation about the importance of play in both life and design. The Goopy Girls will be taking the audience through their process of creating Goopy Mag, an interactive publication centered around the theme of reconnecting to childlike play and curiosity. They will also be guiding an activity and conducting a panel from contributors from their magazine.
3:00PM - 3:10PM: The Reverberative Heart
Join Paul Kuniholm for a percussive performance where he reverberates his Steel Heart sculpture designed to calm unwanted noise.
What if sound were a precious treasure, nurtured in quietude? Can subtle sound at the threshold of audible vie with ignorant noise?
3:00PM - 7:00PM: Serendipity Salon (Day 2)
What if… we create serendipity?
A serendipity salon designed to spark joy and connection is a welcoming space that fosters meaningful interactions and delightful discoveries. Serendipitous moments ignite joy, as they inspire gratitude for the beauty of the present moment and the interconnectedness of our experiences. Swap stories, make collaborative art, write love notes, click hearty selfies and PLAY!
3:30PM - 4:00PM: Sounds Interesting: The CAMPBIENT Experience
What if we made an artist residency more accessible and lowered the barriers to participation?
CAMPBIENT: The 44 Hour Sound Art Residency is annual event that brings together dozens of artists to a Washington State Park for a weekend of conceiving, recording, and realizing a sound art composition. The residency includes sound-related workshops, creative activities, and a start-to-finish audio production process, the results of which are pressed on vinyl records and distributed digitally. Participating artists camp out, share meals, and collaborate in field recording, sound-making, and creative play.
4:30PM - 5:00PM: The Future of Connecting Communities through Creative Technology
Imagine ‘what if’ possibilities for the future of how we can empower, engage and connect communities through pioneering the use of new tools, mediums and platforms.
Human connection is one of the essential ways in which we find meaning in life, and as designers, one of our core directives is to facilitate communication. In this presentation, we will look at how recently-possible tools in augmented reality as well as virtual gaming platforms are creating fresh and authentic ways to celebrate and engage different communities – whether these groups are tied together by common interests, histories, institutions or other experiences.