Design Week was organised as a part of the Budapest Autumn Festival for the first two years, but last year it went independent. This year, the event has stepped out of the design galleries and the design schools and has spread all over the city. Programme venues are as far apart as Soroksári űt in the south of Pest and Bartók Béla út in the north of Buda.
We start at a bathroom fixture store near Móricz Zsigmond körtér. On the door is a poster announcing the store is part of the Test Run programme. In addition to bathroom fixtures, the store is also showing the work of a designer. We travel further to a boutique in Alkotás út, where we find something similar, as we do again in the Alkotás Point office building. Test Run chooses an intellectually partisan manner for popularizing design by placing unique creations together with products for sale. In a decorative arts store in Lánchíd utca, we find a portable wind generator, elsewhere we see clothing creations, accessories, furniture plans, jewellery or even a plan to give a store an entire new look.
Eszter Kármán's Madách cards
Starting up Andrássy út from Erzsébet tér, we find one or two new designers in practically every style-dictating store along the avenue until the Oktogon. The same can be said for other streets well known for their galleries and design shops - Ráday utca, Dohány utca and of course Király utca. The narrow streets and the wide pavement in Király utca as well as Ráday utca create a much different atmosphere from busy Andrássy út, and the proximity of the venues where new designs are displayed means they are better for our walk.
The only think missing from our walk is the Design Terminal, housed in earlier Design Weeks in the old bus terminal on Erzébet tér. Just a few steps away, though, is the Gödör Club, which will host the Golden Pin Awards acknowledging Hungary's best graphic artists. It will also host the closing party of the week.
