Since its recent foundation in 2018, the Madrid Design Festival has sought to be known as an international event that advocates the value of design and its power to drive change in the broadest sense. During its first years, the foundations of this festival have focused on showing a democratic view of design where the hybridisation of disciplines and the cross-cutting nature of concepts will offer a plural programme that signifies the importance of an essential discipline for society’s development and progress.

The festival will allow relevant figures from the Spanish and international design arena together with emerging talents to give voice to some of the most pressing issues society will be facing in the near future through a programme that will highlight the functional side of design, its power to drive change, its social and educational dimension, new materials, sustainability and responsible consumption. Madrid Design Festival has built the identity of this event on the “Redesigning the World” premise, alongside professionals, brands and organisations who share this same purpose.

In its third year, the Festival takes a step further to boost the visibility of this “world under redesign” by adding new ideas, venues and institutions to enrich a dialogue that will stimulate the creation of design culture, from Madrid for the entire society.

Therefore, a large part of the MDF20 programme will offer proposals and initiatives that may start locally but go far beyond to solve global matters and major universal challenges that society should face responsibly and in good conscience.

Madrid Design Festival 2020 promotes the culture of design through over 250 activities that advocate the legacy of design and its potential to tackle major future challenges. The third annual festival will be held in February 2020 and its programme represents an X-ray of the world we live in to help us decipher the future world. Featuring 66 exhibitions, 12 installations and the participation of over 400 design experts, MDF20 will open on 29th January with two exhibitions: Nature Morte Vivante by Patricia Urquiola and I Work! Because that’s what I’m like, at the Fernán Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa venue.The functionality of design, its power to drive change, its social and educational facet, new materials, sustainability and responsible consumption will be some of the core topics on the programme headed by Álvaro Matías, with an advisory committee made up of Deyan Sudjic, Juli Capella, Marisa Santmaría, Ippolito Pestellini and Pilar Marcos. The festival will also be featuring Giorgetto Giugiaro, Bruno Monguzzi, Mario Ruiz, Elvis Wesley, Willie Williams, Enorme Estudio, Mayice, Juli Capella, Izaskun Chinchilla, Waugh Thistleton Architects, Oteyza, Francesca Zampollo, Carlos Fontales or Saenz de Oíza and H Muebles.

Turin will be the guest city of Madrid Design Festival 2020. Through its exhibitions and forums, the festival will reveal the history and current landscape of design in a city that became a UNESCO “Creative City” in the field of design in 2014. One of the activities hosted by the festival with a view to highlighting the Italian city’s design proposals is the brand exhibition called MARCA, which displays everyday objects that can be customised by the end-user to show some of the latest designs from Turin.

The Madrid Design Festival and Barcelona Design Week will be joining forces in a project that aims to tackle future global challenges faced by both cities. They will work together on a group project where students from design schools from both cities will seek ways to tackle the future challenges faced by these two cities that have so much in common. Together with the consultancy firm Soulsight, they will develop a strategic design project and its conclusions will be introduced at the venue called Espacio Fundación Telefónica. The result of this work will also be shown as an installation at the next Barcelona Design Week.

MadridDesignPRO will be hosting three one-day conferences with relevant figures in Spanish and international designers who will take part in talks, workshops, masterclasses and shows. Festival OFF will count on 62 spaces, including galleries, shops, architecture and interior design studios, restaurants and pop-up stores.

Di_MAD/ Design Centre will host three exhibitions: Fresh Product 2020, a project that will reveal the year’s best products designed by Madrid designers or produced by local businesses. Murcia will be the guest region for this year’s Fresh Product 2020.

The Complementary 2020 exhibition will show projects by designers and design studios that are a model of creativity, innovation and sustainability and have the power to fuse trade, craftsmanship and design in each project. Lastly, the Slow Fashion Next 2020 exhibition will reveal business proposals to tackle the major challenges involved in buying fast fashion.

The festival exhibition proposal is completed with tours and workshops that have been specially created by three key museums in Madrid’s cultural landscape, to help us discover the items linked to design in their permanent collections.

Madrid Design Festival will pepper the streets with installations across the capital such as Electric Green designed by Mayice architecture studio for MINI, an installation that urges us to reflect on the need to preserve nature in the city. A sustainable lighting experience produced with minimum power consumption and materials that will turn the iconic vertical garden of CaixaForum into a dreamlike space.