The coffee maker that prepares the breakfast every morning, the shower, the toothbrush, the tube of toothpaste, the clothes we wear, the elevator button we take to go up to the office,… Everything in our lives is design. Moreover, we design our life according to our desires and needs. We express ourselves through design: what we are, what we want to be, where we are and where we aspire to go.
Design is everything and at the Madrid Design Festival (MDF) and they know it. For this reason, in the edition that is already being held in the capital, the spotlight is on the figure of the designer. The sixth edition of the festival focuses its efforts on recognizing the importance and excellence of the work of these creatives whose objective is to improve people’s daily lives.
'RASGOS INTANGIBLES' EXHIBITION. Thus, the festival will bet on the originality of approaches and the youth of ideas to provide solutions to the great challenges of our time, connecting the legacy of national and international reference designers with the most experimental projects of contemporary design. This year, the awards have been granted to Stefano Boeri, Hella Jongerius and Curro Claret, whose ideas we will be able to see first-hand with their participation in the Madrid Design PRO professional conferences.
MADRID ALFAR DE MODERNIDAD.
CERAMICS AND DESIGN IN THE MID OF THE 20TH CENTURY.
ARCADIO BLASCO, 1959. Seville is the guest city of the current edition of MDF. A city with an impressive artistic and creative tradition that is experiencing a design-boom with a large number of studios whose practice combines vernacular techniques and traditional crafts in contemporary spaces.
MARTÍN AZÚA STUDIO‘Natural Connections’ exhibition is one of the most remarkable activities that holds this edition of MDF. It stands out as a public meeting space connecting the human being with its roots by the hands of three pieces made of leafy wood -red oak, cherry and maple- designed by Inma Bermúdez/Moritz Krefter, Jorge Penedés and Álvaro Catalán de Ocón. A natural and sustainable counterpoint to the industrial architecture of the Matadero Madrid.
DUTCH ARTIST HELLA JONGERIOUS PHOTOGRAPHED IN HER STUDIO IN BERLIN. 
'WOVEN COSMOS' EXHIBITION BY HELLA JONGERIOUS.
'BREATHING COLOUR' EXHIBITION BY HELLA JONGERIUS. Each designer was offered a choice of three woods sourced from sustainable American hardwoods: red oak, maple, and cherry. Inma Bermúdez and Moritz Krefter were inspired by the shape of the old wood carving benches to develop a family of five pieces through a completely handmade process that they have called “La manada perdida” [The lost herd]. Its distribution in the Matadero lobby encourages the visitors to sit, chat and connect in a freer and more playful way, inspired by the informal and undefined aspect of the furniture elements.
Jorge Penadés —in collaboration with the American Hardwood Export Council, immersed himself in the new applications of wood, taking it to the limit of its versatility. “Wrap” is an innovative work characterized by modular elements that allow to configure pieces of furniture of different types.
'A LA VANGUARDIA DEL DISEÑO', MAC COLLINS. 
'MAGMA YUTE' CARPET BY MARTÍN AZÚA. Last but not least, Álvaro Catalán de Ocón has created a large “NUBE” using red oak, cherry and maple, transforming the wood into small pieces that, joined by hand, form an ethereal and light element, but at the same time impressive. A cloud that distinguishes the environment adding the warmth of the material and transforming it into a new enveloping element inspired by nature.
UTRECHT CHAIR, BARCELONA CHAIR, PEACOCK CHAIR & UN LOUNGE CHAIR BY HELLA JONGERIUS.
