Barcelona
DESIGN WEEK
14-25.10.2026.
PRO-TEST
Barcelona Design Week celebrates its 21st edition. From 14 to 25 October, Barcelona will once again become a meeting point for creativity and design. Under the theme PRO-TEST, this year’s edition will focus on the value of process, experimentation and design’s ability to transform ideas into real proposals.
PRO-TEST is rooted in two essential stages of the design process: prototyping and testing. These are the moments when ideas move beyond the abstract and begin to engage with reality—with materials, uses, needs and the people they are intended to serve.
The concept highlights a space for exploration where proposals are tested, questioned, reviewed and allowed to evolve. A process that helps us understand what works, what needs to be reconsidered and what can ultimately become a meaningful solution.
PRO-TEST also suggests another way of responding to uncertainty: not only through criticism, but by proposing, experimenting and building visible, tangible alternatives that remain open to change.
BDW 2026 will explore design as a practice capable of turning questions into processes, intuitions into prototypes and alternatives into evidence. An edition dedicated to ideas that are willing to be challenged and to the creative processes that can help us imagine and build more liveable futures.
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
19.10.2026 10:00
YOUNG CREATIVES RESIDENCY
The 10 young designers, winners of the Next Gen Design Open Call, will participate in a residency programme organized by the Barcelona Creativity & Design Foundation at Fab Lab Barcelona. Based on inspirational talks on sustainability and circular economy and on an immersive approach, the participating designers will work in teams of two in a 3,5 days programme delivered across 4 calendar days to identify opportunities, define concepts and materialize them into prototype outcomes that provide responses to a proposed challenge.
22.10.2026 13:00
EDU TALK: Design Like a Renegade: Designing from Belief, Not a Brief
Emile Smeenk
Founder of Nature Nomads and CoolBricks
22.10.2026 13:30
EDU TALK: The Art of Validation. Why every great idea needs a prototype
Juan Umbert Rosselló
CEO and Co-Founder of Makeat, a food design and innovation studio focused on rethinking how food systems are conceived, produced and experienced
22.10.2026 19:00
Next Gen Design EXHIBITION Opening | VIP Opening – By invitation
“FUTURES WORTH LIVING” The 50 selected projects from the second edition of the Next Gen Design competition are showcased at Underground BDW, presenting a broad spectrum of creativity, innovation and visionary thinking from Europe’s next generation of changemakers. Rooted in the principles of circular design, each project responds to global challenges with clarity, creativity, hope and conviction—from reclaiming data sovereignty and designing for co-creation and repairability to reimagining healthcare and food systems, and developing more-than-human approaches to our shared environment.
22.10.2026 19:00
YOUNG CREATIVES RESIDENCY | CLOSING
23.10.2026 16:00
Next Gen Design EXHIBITION | Open Access
“FUTURES WORTH LIVING” Exhibition is free and open to all upon registration. The visiting hours are from 16.00-21.00CET.
24.10.2026 12:00
Next Gen Design EXHIBITION | Open Access
“FUTURES WORTH LIVING” Exhibition is free and open to all upon registration. The visiting hours are from 12.00-21.00CET.
Find out more about BDW
VISIT BDW
07-17.10.2025.
Design for Human Future
This October, we celebrate 20 editions of BDW! From October 7 to 17, Barcelona will once again become the epicentre of creativity. Under the theme “Design for Human Future”, this special edition will focus on Creative Resilience, the concept that will guide the reflections and activities of BDW 2025.
Creative Resilience is the ability to face adversity with intelligence and creativity, aiming to improve and transform our environment with an optimistic outlook on the future. This edition will explore how creativity can become a key tool in fostering resilience in an increasingly complex and ever-changing world, where global challenges demand creative and sustainable solutions.
To tackle these challenges, we embrace informed optimism: the belief that, despite the obstacles ahead, creativity and design can be a powerful force for resilience, reinvention, and regeneration.
BDW 2025 will be the space to explore how creativity can help us build a more resilient future.
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
16.10.2025 18:00
Resilience in design
Amaia Celaya
Architect, Master Urban Planner and Master in Humanitarian Action, expert in resilience working with United Nations and European Commission.
16.10.2025 18:30
Designing Togetherness
Amanda Pinatih
Design & Contemporary Art Curator at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
15.10.2025 11:00
TOURING EXHIBITION
OPENED until October 17th
The 52 selected projects will be exhibited at Underground BDW, showcasing a wide range of creativity, innovation and visionary thinking from the next generation of changemakers in Europe. Each project is based on the principles of circular design and presents inspiring and forward-thinking concepts that redefine our shared future through sustainable, inclusive and impactful design.
The exhibition is touring the main design festivals in Belgrade, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Vienna and Skopje. It has the support of the European Commission as part of the New European Bauhaus initiative.
13.10.2025 10:00
BARCELONA RESIDENCY
with Plat Institute and several guest mentors
The 10 young designers, winners of the Next Gen Design Open Call, will participate in a residency programme at Disseny Hub Barcelona.
Based on inspirational talks on sustainability and circular economy and on an immersive approach, the participating designers will work on small teams to seek solutions to a challenge posed, using the knowledge and inspiration gained from the visit to guide their creative process.
16-26.10.2024.
Design for Human Future
The Barcelona Design Week 2024, which will celebrate its 19th edition from October 16th to 26th, returns with the theme Design for Human Future focusing on water.
Barcelona, a city facing an unprecedented water scarcity emergency, becomes the perfect setting for reflection to explore how design can contribute to accelerating the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the construction of a future in balance between the planet and human beings.
The Barcelona Design Week will be an opportunity to inspire, educate, and mobilize the local and global community, showing how design and creativity, applied with awareness, can be a powerful tool to address the critical challenge of water management and conservation.
The Design for Human Future Conference, on October 17th and 18th, will tackle the water scarcity problem through talks and round tables, and will present innovative cases and design proposals to improve the situation. The conference will include a Next Gen Design workshop on Circular Economy and 2 Talks.
Other activities such as the ROCA One Day Design Challenge addressed to young designers or the Next Gen Design urban installation to sensibilize the citizens will be part of the What if… water movement.
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
23.10.2024 11:00
UNDERGROUNG BDW
TRAVELLING EXHIBITION What if…water
Exhibition is opened until 24.10.2024 at 19:00pm
19.10.2024 10:00
Disseny en Diagonal Day
TRAVELLING EXHIBITION What if…water
16.10.2024 10:00
EXHIBITION What if…water
COSENTINO City Barcelona
Exhibition is opened until 26.10.2024 at 19:00pm
17.10.2024 15:45
NEXT GEN DESIGN WORKSHOP / Circular Economy
<h4><strong>Markel Cormenzana Uriarte</strong></h4>
Transition Designer & Founding Partner
<h4><strong>Marc Benito Padró</strong></h4>
Product Manager & Founding Partner
18.10.2024 17:00
Design a flag for a Human future: The International Flag of Planet Earth
Oskar Pernefeldt
President of International Flag of Planet Earth Org
18.10.2024 16:30
Design as an enabler of hope: the curious case of ecosystem restoration
Fabio Palma
Head of Strategic Partnerships, Plant for the Planet