Gdynia Design Days return for the 19th edition, from June 20 to 28, 2026. The festival is a design platform – culminating in its summer festival – dedicated to finding tangible solutions to contemporary challenges. Rather than treating design as an elite luxury, the organizers view it as a democratic, universal tool for positive change that impacts everyone’s daily life.

Gdynia Design Days 2026
June 20-28
18+ exhibitions
Opening hours: 
At PPNT h. 12:00 – 8:00 pm
Exhibitions at other locations around the city will be open according to the descriptions

 

Gdynia Design Days 2026 

The core theme of this year’s Gdynia Design Days, “Closer,” marks a pivotal shift in perspective, moving away from catastrophic narratives, information overload, and the paralyzed pursuit of perfection. Instead, it champions a grounded approach that focuses on what is immediate, tangible, and within human agency. Rather than inventing endless new solutions, the festival explores how to optimize, care for, and improve what already exists.

The theme is articulated through five interconnected pillars:

• Empowering Stories & Agency: In a world paralyzed by fear and complex data, design is utilized as a tool to simplify and organize reality. By replacing anxiety with attentiveness and isolation with collaboration, the festival brings back the joy of experimentation, processing, and mutual learning.
• Community & The “Third Place”: Shifting focus from grand gestures to everyday bonds, this pillar highlights the importance of the spaces between home and work. It fosters a new kind of local patriotism rooted in shared responsibility, accessibility, and turning urban infrastructure into spaces for genuine human connection.
• Designing for Health & Bioregionalism: Environmental care becomes tangible when linked to personal well-being (air quality, temperature, and comfort). By adopting a bioregional perspective, design works in harmony with local natural ecosystems—such as local landscapes, water, and greenery—rather than separating humans from nature.
• Human–Technology Proximity: Instead of viewing Artificial Intelligence as a threat or a replacement, the festival explores how technology can support human intuition. Paradoxically, the rise of AI highlights the irreplaceable value of human imperfection, empathy, and relationship-building.
• One Step Bette (Protopia over Utopia): Rejecting unattainable utopian ideals, the festival introduces protopia—the concept of building a better future through gradual, small, and tested adjustments. Looking toward Gdynia’s upcoming centenary, the theme emphasizes that the future is not a distant, perfect destination, but a daily process shaped by incremental, resilient choices.

The program: the exhibitions

Zero Waste Lab – Design from Bacteria

This exhibition bridges the gap between advanced laboratory bio-science and everyday consumer design. It explores the potential of raw, 100% biodegradable biopolymers (such as PHA and PHB) as an eco-responsible alternative to traditional plastics, showcasing real, durable, and contemporary prototypes of furniture and home accessories.

Antyaltana – reversed gazebo

Installed outside the festival venue, this spatial and architectural intervention completely flips the traditional concept of a garden gazebo. The piece challenges visitors to rethink the boundary between public and private space, questioning how we shield ourselves from, and interact with, urban weather elements.

Project Furniture: Futuro Classic

An exhibition dedicated to industrial and interior furniture design that examines the evolution and future standards of design classics. It focuses heavily on manufacturing optimization, demonstrating how everyday seating and objects can be redesigned to be resilient, ergonomic, and closer to real human needs.

CASTCERAMICS – International Ceramic Exhibition

An international collective showcase focusing on the art and craftsmanship of ceramics. It sets up a dialogue between ancient manual techniques, cultural memory, and contemporary experimentation, celebrating material imperfections and the spirit of cross-border artistic cooperation.

Living Forms: Symbiosis

Adopting a deeply bioregional and ecological perspective, this exhibition highlights design projects born from a harmonious dialogue with nature. It explores how human structures (buildings, objects, and furniture) can live in perfect symbiosis with local ecosystems, strengthening regional flora and fauna rather than isolating us from them.

Doing Nothing

A highly conceptual and provocative display analyzing the luxury of time, mental health, and modern information overload. Through minimalist objects and artistic installations, the exhibition tackles urban anxiety, burnout, and the psychological necessity of rediscovering the therapeutic value of taking a pause.

Plaything | A Statue Of Felicity, A Monument to Pure Bliss

Situated in the outdoor green areas of the venue, this large-scale interactive installation serves as a physical monument to carefree, unapologetic play. It intentionally disrupts the rigid, serious monotony of urban architecture to foster spontaneous joy, laughter, and lighthearted interactions among strangers.

Momento Sospeso. Towards Connection

Hosted within the unique atmosphere of the Barańska Design studio, this sensory exhibition explores the profound concept of physical and emotional connection. Through the artistic manipulation of glass and light, it creates a suspended, meditative atmosphere that urges visitors to reflect on interpersonal proximity.

100 Vases

A vast display of one hundred unique pieces celebrating the archetypal form of the vase. Each artifact explores varying materials, raw textures, organic imperfections, and artisanal insights, serving as a visual metaphor for the creative wealth that emerges when diverse design styles and approaches unite.

Spiders

This exhibition modernizes and reinterprets pająki – traditional Polish straw and paper geometric chandeliers historically hung from rural ceilings. Contemporary designers take these complex, fragile structures and scale them into modern spatial installations, showing how ancestral heritage can serve as an emotional anchor today.

Desire Paths

Dedicated to urban planning guided by actual human behavior, this exhibition studies “desire paths” (the spontaneous shortcuts people tread across grass). It champions a move away from rigid, top-down city planning, arguing instead for an empathetic, flexible urbanism based on citizens’ true habits.

Closer to trashes

A raw and direct exhibition addressing the systemic crisis of urban and industrial waste management. Instead of hiding rubbish from view, the display physically confronts the visitor with discarded materials, highlighting innovative recycling and upcycling technologies that transform waste into valuable structural resources.

DyplomyFest

The official showcase collecting the finest graduation projects and theses from the young designers of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. It offers a fresh, unedited look into the future of the discipline, highlighting the anxieties, dreams, and drive for agency within the new generation.

Why visit

As one of Poland’s premier cities and a popular Baltic Sea tourist destination, Gdynia’s seaside location brings a unique and fascinating perspective to its Design Week. The festival’s diverse exhibitions deeply delve into the vast potential of design, complemented by a rich lineup of guest speakers addressing critical topics like well-being, harmonious living with nature, and how design can pave the way toward a better life. From cultivating hydroponic vegetables and researching algae to utilizing recycled materials, Gdynia Design Days truly serves as a treasure trove of practical solutions for a more sustainable lifestyle.

Gdynia Design Days, June 20-28, 2026

For professionals and general public
Size: 18+exhibitions, 20,000 visitors
Main venue: PPNT – Pomeranian Science and Technology Park Gdynia
(Pomorski Park Naukowo-Technologiczny)
Opening hours:
At PPNT h. 12:00 – 8:00 pm
Exhibitions at other locations around the city will be open according to the descriptions
Visit Gdyniadesigndays.eu for info