The Malta Design Week (MDW) will this year showcase some of the best national and international design practitioners, promote good design and also ask critical questions about society and the role of design.

Returning for its fourth edition with Design Dialogues 2018, a curated series of lectures, presentations and discussions, MDW will be held at the University of Malta, Valletta Campus Theatre from tomorrow to Saturday.

Design Dialogues is a Valletta 2018 project and is part of the Valletta 2018 – European Capital of Culture Programme, produced by 808, in partnership with Valletta 2018 and the Valletta Design Cluster.

V18 chairman Jason Micallef said: “One of the main aims of Valletta 2018 is to facilitate, promote and celebrate development across the arts and culture sector, including the design industry in Malta. MDW will provide several designers and workers within the art industry with the opportunity to meet, discuss, create and share their knowledge together.”

Marco Casamonti of Archea (Italy).Marco Casamonti of Archea (Italy).

Speakers will include: award-winning Japanese architect Tetsuo Kondo, founder of Tetsuo Kondo Architects (Japan); Dmitri Jajich and Karl Micallef from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (US), a world-renowned architecture and urban planning firm with a portfolio that includes some of the most important architectural accomplishments of the 20th and 21st centuries; Toby Blunt, senior partner at Foster + Partners (UK), the  innovative global studio for sustainable architecture and design; Prof. Arch. Marco Casamonti, co-founder of Archea (Italy), a network for architecture, research and communication of over 100 architects operating in six locations; local graphic designer Marco Scerri (Malta); Prof. Andrew Walters, director of research at PDR (Wales), a company that promotes improvement in design through intervention at organisational and government policy levels; 72 Hour Urban Action (Germany), the world’s first real-time architecture competition, where 10 international teams have three days and three nights to design and build projects in public space in response to local needs; product designers OS ∆ OOS (the Netherlands); Germans Ermičs (Latvia/the Netherlands); and Neil Pace O’Shea (Malta), local designer of custom kayaks and founder of ‘The Floating Project’.

Germans Ermičs, Studio Germans Ermičs (Netherlands): Ombre Glass Chair (2017).Germans Ermičs, Studio Germans Ermičs (Netherlands): Ombre Glass Chair (2017).

Although coming from far and wide, many of the speakers and organisations have strong connections to Malta. Archea designed the recently renovated Is-Suq Tal-Belt, Tetsuo Kondo is designing the new Valletta Design Cluster roof garden and Foster + Partners have designed the Manoel Island Masterplan.

Design Dialogues presentations will be followed by an open forum where members of the audience can propose questions, join in the discussions and learn more about these and many other projects of local and international significance.

For more information, e-mail info@designweek.com.mt or visit http://designweek.com.mt/ or maltadesignwk/ on Facebook.

Neil Pace O’Shea: The Floating Project (Malta).Neil Pace O’Shea: The Floating Project (Malta).

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