Header: ZDW
Switzerland’s largest design festival, Zurich Design Weeks, opens today, 17 September 2026. The event marks its fifth anniversary and runs for 11 days across roughly 50 locations throughout the city. Created out of a need for stronger networking within the Swiss design scene, the annual gathering has developed into a major fixture for both industry professionals and the wider public.
This year’s festival operates under the central theme “OUT OF…”, an idea meant to prompt a shift away from familiar, established patterns towards unexplored creative territories. Festival director Gabriela Chicherio explains the driving force behind the choice:
“OUT OF… is an invitation to consciously break away from existing patterns and explore new paths. The theme connects a wide range of questions, from stepping out of one’s comfort zone to new forms of collaboration and circular processes. This openness and multidimensionality are also reflected in the key visual.”
Designed once again by local visual communication studio ALP Atelier Landolt Pfister, the 2026 key visual features two stacked, semi-transparent black-and-green cubes shown from shifted perspectives. This deliberate visual distortion acts as a design principle in itself, visually representing the departure from rigid structures. Neon green signage, posters, and black-and-green physical cubes now mark the participating studios, showrooms, and exhibition spaces all over Zurich, accompanied by the festival’s new tagline: “Design is everywhere. We make it visible.”
Innovation, AI, and soundscapes
Technological shifts and digital possibilities form a key pillar of this year’s programme. Partner Polestar presents a sound installation titled Driven by Sound inside the Globus car park. Rather than dynamic engine noise, studio Adrien Rovero composed an ambient soundtrack using the subtle sounds of the new Polestar 5 to rethink the auditory footprint of electric mobility.
At the Design Zentrale, housed within the Swiss Design Lounge at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, visitors can explore technological experimentation alongside festival info. HEAD – Genève presents Probably a Dog, an installation probing creative workflows where artificial intelligence, manual craftsmanship, and artistic practice overlap. Robotics manufacturing takes centre stage at the Machine Arts Kiosk by the Machine Arts Group, whilst Raphael Hermann (Lumbra) and Piet van Harskamp display a pioneering acoustic lamp in their exhibition Luce & Acustica. In kitchen design, V-ZUG’s Table Rituals transforms the dining surface into a single unit where the induction hob rests hidden beneath a continuous mineral finish, keeping the visual focus purely on shared dining.
Urban interventions and augmented billboards
Outdoor spatial projects extend the festival directly into the urban environment. In District 5, the fourth edition of the Poster Safari turns commercial billboard spaces into a public outdoor gallery. Twenty graphic designers have taken over large advertising hoardings to display interpretations of “OUT OF…”. Passing pedestrians can scan the physical posters with a smartphone to activate augmented reality layers. Festivalgoers can also join guided tours led by ALP studio founders Ursina Landolt and Lea Pfister through Kreis 5 to learn about the stories behind the works.
Nearby at Europaallee, the HSLU Design, Film and Art programme, alongside Remo Fässler, has created Die Stadt über unseren Köpfen (The City Above Our Heads). The installation maps out the exact footprint of an unused rooftop from Baufeld F onto the adjacent public ground below, acting as a spatial twin to highlight the hidden potential of empty urban roof spaces. The Civil Engineering Office of the City of Zurich adds to this urban focus with digital scavenger hunts and information panels highlighting ongoing city transit developments.
Materials, circularity, and young talents
Sustainability and circular material use remain core themes throughout the venues. Designer Andres Fravi demonstrates upcycling principles with unique objects crafted from discarded items in Reflections of a Second Life. Robert Wettstein exhibits Plenty, working with retrieved materials alongside the first historical restoration of Erika Schläpfer-Thöne’s SAFFA chair. Material Arguments, presented by the new Master’s programme in Industrial Design at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), traces raw clay, wool, and aluminium back to the exact manufacturing decisions that define them as either resources or waste.
Emerging designers feature heavily across multiple displays. The Newcomer exhibition at the Design Zentrale highlights five selected graduate projects from top Swiss institutions, including work by Myra Theresa Hauser. Schweizerischer Werkbund SWB presents its award-winning Werkbund Jeunes projects, whilst six rising studios present work in the Emerging showcase at the House of Interiors in Binz. Additional youth-focused work appears at Dynamo’s Digitalwerkstatt in the Out of Hand exhibition, complete with hands-on tinkering workshops.
Local manufacturing and spatial staging
Local Swiss production takes the spotlight in several heritage collaborations. Leather manufacturer de Sede has temporarily refitted the Manzoni Bar inside Hotel St. Gotthard into the Craft Café, which transforms into a working leather workshop over four evenings. Floor design history comes together in the fireplace room of the Widder Hotel, where Ruckstuhl’s updated “Atlantis” carpet by Trix and Robert Haussmann, complete with a digital product passport, is staged alongside Tilla Theus’s stone inlay floor from the 1980s.
Furniture brand Horgenglarus showcases historical classics and new releases in Von Glarus nach Zürich at H100 – Das Möbelhaus. At Kunsthaus Zürich, the Design Shop launches Ein Stück Museum, featuring a new fragrance with Favorit, plus limestone vessels crafted by Ivo Allgoewer using leftover Jura limestone from the museum’s Chipperfield building construction. Meanwhile, IKEA Switzerland collaborates with Raw Color on Make space for…, an installation of stacked coloured boxes, paired with a workshop where visitors can assemble custom storage boxes. Live craft demonstrations also feature at FDM Fine Crafts’ A Moment in the Making, featuring artisan Véronique de Soultrait, while MAISON SHIFT runs its Craft Week Fall Edition alongside a Fashion KIOSK pop-up.
Festival details and venue information
Zurich Design Weeks 2026 opens officially today, 17th September, starting with a welcome address at 17:00 in the lecture hall of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, followed by exhibition visits across the city.
- Dates: 17–27 September 2026
- Official Opening: 17 September 2026 at 17:00 (Museum für Gestaltung Zürich lecture hall)
- Poster Safari Walks: Tuesday, 22 September 2026 at 17:30 and Sunday, 27 September 2026 at 17:00
- neue räume 26 Interior Fair: 24–27 September 2026
- Main partner institutions: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (Ausstellungsstrasse, Toni-Areal, and Villa Patumbah), neue räume 26, House of Interiors (Binz), Landesmuseum Zürich, and Völkerkundemuseum UZH
- Key locations: Design Zentrale at Swiss Design Lounge, Globus Car Park, Europaallee (Baufeld F), Hotel St. Gotthard (Manzoni Bar), Widder Hotel, Kunsthaus Zürich Design Shop, Dynamo Digitalwerkstatt, and paus. Stoneground Tea Concept Store
- Full programme & information: designweeks.ch
