Barcelona Design Week 2025

Offering a diverse list of exhibitions, installations, conferences, round tables and workshops to choose from, they all highlighted one shared matter: how design transforms technical and temporal limits into opportunities for creativity and beauty, exploring how we can adapt to forge a more humane and sustainable future. With such a wide offer, and because there are so many hours in a day, we have put together a list of some of the activities that caught our attention.

The opening event of the Barcelona Design Week (BDW25) took place on Tuesday, 7 October at the Roca Barcelona Gallery. The session revolved around a conversation between Andrés Reisinger and Isern Serra, two influential voices in contemporary design, who reflected on design as a driver of change and creativity as a vital attitude. Under the slogan of this 20th edition, “Creative Resilience,” they emphasised that the value of design lies in its ability to positively impact people and cities.

The exhibition that kicked off the Barcelona Design Week was “Inspired in Barcelona: Luce”. Premiered at Milan Design Week by the creative initiative Inspired in Barcelona, the exhibition was reinterpreted for the occasion, shining in all its glory at the Disseny Hub. Showcasing 63 pieces in a unique platform, the array of creations all reuse materials. Bathing the space in a primary red, they pose beneath the Barcelona sign that recalls the way we read the city. It was curated by Stefano Colli, with spatial and set design by Carles Novell and the architectural lighting by Simon and Michela Mezzavilla.

Kave Home surprised us with three unique experiences open to different audiences, from art lovers to industry professionals, in collaboration with artists and institutions. Our favourite was the art installation by Paula Cabral that took over the Kave Home store in Barcelona. In it, her work “¿vencer o convencer?” (win or convince?) dialogues with pieces of furniture from the brand. In honour of this, the brand hosted an artistic workshop entitled “Artistic expression through painting”, where Paula led a session of emotional exploration through colour, form and acrylic painting.

Paying homage to USM and Leica’s collaboration, which seeks to redefine two essential spaces—office and living room—the two brands created an event uniting their worlds of design and cinema. Building on this, Elisava Research explored how these disciplines intersect through contemporary research. The event featured an original audiovisual piece examining the portrayal of women in fiction films about product design, based on research by Guim Espelt Estopà, followed by an intergenerational dialogue between Ana Mir (emiliana design studio) and Maria Ruedas (Elisava student) on women’s roles in the field and their representation in popular culture.

Orac Decor and Vibia also took part in the city’s design week honouring their collaboration: the inauguration of Orac’s first international showroom in the city. Designed by The Room Studio, the Orac Experience Center is conceived as an immersive interior design experience, and a revolutionary meeting point. Each space is meticulously conceived to blend technology and tradition, innovation and decoration, with Vibia selected to provide the lighting throughout the entire project. From “The Cave” to the “Musa” and the “Tempo”, and many more, Vibia’s lighting fits each one of the six different atmospheres and environments that constitute the new showroom.

MINIM and Agapecasa joined forces for the screening of the documentary “Alfabeto Mangiarotti”. The event took place at the MINIM showroom, and marked the non-festival premiere in Spain of the acclaimed production. Through Davide Maffei’s documentary, produced by Airpixel, we immersed ourselves in the philosophy of Angelo Mangiarotti, an artist and architect whose work continues to influence us today.

With only two days left of the Barcelona Design Week, we encourage you to hit the streets of the city and immerse yourself in the different shapes, forms, colours and textures that converge and make up design. From the installation by the Degree in Design from Elisava, Faculty of Design in collaboration with USM Modular Furniture to the presentation of Vertisol’s new Color Book and a practical breakfast with Deltalight and Kronospan, don’t miss out!