Southern Sweden Design Days 2025

For the 2025 edition of Southern Sweden Design Days, visitors can expect to explore a broad program filled with exhibitions, seminars and workshops at locations all over Malmö.

Lokstallarna is the festival’s main location with 6 000 square meters of exhibitions, including a live studio with seminars and talks, activities for kids, and a food court. The theme this year is ‘ECHO’ and it encourages exploration of the dynamic relationship between the past, present, and future. “Like an echo, design is not isolated—it resonates, evolves, and influences its surroundings. Every design solution creates ripples, impacting both the environments it exists in and the people who interact with it.”

Some event highlights include; Breathe Critical, a fictional rehabilitation machine that doesn’t cure any physical symptoms, ‘but may cure deep-rooted beliefs that we have about the control between medical devices and one’s body’. It was developed by Piyakorn Koowattanataworn as a part of a design research project at IT University of Copenhagen in collaboration with MUNCH museum in Oslo. ‘Clay’ is a special exhibition featuring work by Kristine Thenman and Joel Stuart-Beck, who are both ceramicists working in Arvika. ‘Always Leather’ will include leather workshops and information about designing and working in leather, one of the oldest materials. ‘Made from Bangladesh, Dumped in Ghana, Back in Malmö – Three ways to be complicit’ is a unique exhibition highlighting the environmental impact of fashion consumption and our collective responsibility. ‘Crafting new from old: Textile play workshop’ is a playful exploration on a serious subject that highlights the impact of textile waste and how we can reimagine its potential value. It will feature The Cloth Lab and Brigitta Helmersson Studio.

“This year’s participants are especially focused on bringing attention to questions surrounding consumption and fashion – both as forms of expression and as part of the broader sustainability conversation. There’s a clear ambition not just to showcase design, but to use it as a tool to explore responsibility, identity, and how we can rethink our choices, as consumers and fellow humans,” says project manager Ann Isler.

The Keynote speaker is Maria Bruun, a globally recognized Danish furniture designer and the second recipient of the newly established Brun Mathsson Design Residency. At the festival’s Main location, Lokstallarna in Kirseberg, SSDD Studio offers interesting and inspiring panel discussions, seminars and interviews. This year’s Studio host is Magnus Göransson – speaker, innovation leader, and former design director at LEGO. With over 25 years of experience in creative leadership, he is also known as a judge on “LEGO Masters Sweden.”

For more information and to book a ticket visit: Southern Sweden Design Days.

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