“The month of design had to transform,” admits the director of Zavod Big Novak wins.

The event, which has been held since 2003, is presented for the first time this year as Design Week Ljubljanabut it is limited in time to events between October 5 and 7 and is nothing more than a month-long event.

In addition to domestic designers, invited foreign industrial and fashion designers are also exhibiting this year. The presentation of products in these urban bivouacs, which are located at three junctions in Old Ljubljana, is slightly different. With its continuity, the event continues to strive for a public debate on the importance of design for society and its contribution to the success of companies.

In the renovated Academy of Music, awards for the design of 2023, for private and public interior and perspective design (architecture, industrial design, fashion design) were also presented this year.

Among the more interesting 13 prize winners for design of the year, it is worth highlighting A durable capsule for the last journey (design: Katjuša Kranjs and Rok Kuhar, RAKETA), which intervenes in the design of the segment of our life, which we talk about and deal with the problem – death. “The shape of the cremation capsule associates the theme of travel with concentric circles that resemble the years in the trunk,” the commission wrote in its explanation.

Or a serving bottle RE water (Gašper Puhan; JRE-Slovenia, Tanja Mudrinič; Design Studio Hrastnik1860), who wants to raise awareness of the importance of clean drinking water in fine dining restaurants. For this purpose, its bottom reflects light.

Tiny mobile home (Adria Dom, doo; Isabella Piluscio) has an extremely minimalist exterior and is made of sustainable materials. “Such an approach to design makes it possible to place the house in any environment, as it will work harmoniously everywhere, which is an extraordinary achievement,” adds the commission.

Interesting reads it is also in the 2023 interior awards, among which it stands out in the public interior category Open library at Vič elementary school in Ljubljana (Matjaž Bolčina, Ernest Milčinovič, Jan Žonta; ARP studio), and for the private interior, the house renovation project New square (Jan Šimnovec), who has a wind trap solution implemented in such a way that the preserved old door leads into the house. Renovated Home of Illyria in Ljubljana (Manica Lavrenčič), with minimal interventions in the existing walls of the floor plan, he gained an element of circulation and, as a result, freer movement around the space.

More about the winners in the gallery, you are invited to read the interview with Zmag Novak:

Design Week Ljubljana is both a conceptual and temporal innovation, if I understand correctly, Design Month remains as a brand?

Design Month had to transform. This has always been our wish, but we kept it as it was an interesting cultural invention. But if we want to fill Ljubljana with what we set out to do last year and this year, we must offer conferences and a design fair in the city at the same time. Design Month and Ljubljana Design Week, which also has an international dimension, as it can attract foreigners, will always show the content that Zavod Big can create throughout the year.

How hard is it to get designers to participate at all. Some want payment, others more visibility. Is this a problem for you?Of course, it presents a problem for us, because neither Slovenia nor the whole of SE Europe is a market. People don’t have the money for a high standard, and those who have it are not directing it to purchases in Slovenia for now, which may be a shame. But I have a feeling that with all this activity and promotion, public opinion is being directed towards buying domestic things. Judging by myself, I’m not so interested in foreign brands anymore, I prefer to wear what is of good quality and the examples are attractive.

Okay, that’s clothing, but what about industrial design? Likewise, Zavod Big, which also organizes Big architecture and in which around 2,000 architects from the entire region participate, bought 200 lamps by Matej Štefanac and they will be used as fair equipment at the event. This means that the architects will see them.

What a challenge it is to present awards in the Slovenian part. It seems to me that this year there were slightly fewer award winners than in previous years? I really don’t know the exact amount, maybe it’s a little less. But I am proud of what we awarded this year. It’s hard for me to judge compared to last year.

What about product quality? This is growing, as is awareness among Slovenian companies.

Well, have you heard the data that only five percent of Slovenian companies agree that design is an added value of a product! This is a fact, but it is not unique to Slovenia. It will be interesting to listen to Professor Molnár Péter (head of the Design Institute of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest), who explained the same principle of KCDM (Competence Center for Design Management), which Gigodesign is implementing here for the third time. They did the same in Hungary and will tell how they measure the designs, I think the results are comparable.

Do they measure design? They measure what the contribution of design is to the company and how many companies are taking it up in the first place. Our ambition is to transfer the measurement, as we know it with KCDM and Hungary, to all the countries of Southeast Europe.

Last year we talked about the fact that the Design Month rose like a phoenix after the epidemic, because it was faced with the question: to be or not to be. Did you keep anything from last year or improve anything in this year’s performance? Mainly the details. We are still at the center of the transit center, as we want to show the design to a wider audience. We began to perceive Ljubljana, especially its center, as a fairground, as an Economic Exhibition Center, let’s say.

What does that mean? There is no infrastructure, which is why we started to develop it in terms of exhibition units, which will be on Stritarjeva street, Ciril-Metodov trg and Mestne trg, as some facilities. Why? Last year we invited exclusively Slovenian brands and designers, but this year we also wanted those that we reward with the BIG SEE awards. A few of them responded, although it was difficult, because we know that Slovenia is not a market for this. Those who succeed with design as manufacturers in Slovenia do so because of good sales effects abroad.

Nevertheless, I am honored that we have convinced some design brands and they are exhibiting in the city center in these urban bivouacs, which we designed especially for them and gave a sense of how Ljubljana could expand in this creative sense. Secondly, Design in the city means to design the city. But what does that mean? What do we design if everything already exists? Streets, squares, facades. We want to shape the atmosphere in the city.

In terms of giving him content? Yes, both with the content and the atmosphere created by the people.

What a great challenge everything you’ve said so far represents for the future of Design Month and Ljubljana Design Week. You yourself mentioned that you also had to invite foreign exhibitors in order to have enough content? If we want to offer foreigners…

… I know where you’re going with your answer, but I’m wondering how big a challenge it will be for you to organize Ljubljana Design Week next year? It will be a big effort, we will have to put a lot of energy into it. I repeat once again, why would foreigners even come to Slovenia if their market is not here? It is still a laboratory – Slovenia as a laboratory for new ideas and for networks of creative people from Southeast Europe. If we pursue the goal of Ljubljana being a new creative center in Europe, it will be necessary to invest in it.

You are a private company. I am thinking, if Design Week is a contribution to the city of Ljubljana, also to the Slovenian economy and tourism, has any step been taken in this regard? It was, this year the Ministry of Economy supported us financially. If we were to engage even more with other ministries, I am sure that we would also get their attention. The municipality of Ljubljana also perceived this as the quality of cultural content, which wants to compete with the sports events in Ljubljana, of which there are already too many. There are many sponsors there that are not in the culture.