Out of familiar patterns of thought, familiar materials and predetermined categories: from 17 to 27 September 2026, Zurich Design Weeks invite visitors to look at design from new perspectives under the motto “OUT OF…”. The fifth edition once again leads across the city — from museums and studios to offspaces and Paradeplatz.
Sometimes, something new begins by leaving a sentence unfinished. “OUT OF…” is this year’s theme of Zurich Design Weeks — deliberately leaving it to the designers to decide how to fill the gap. Out of the Box, Out of Office, Out of Curiosity or Out of the Blue: what is called for is a step beyond the familiar, not only in terms of design, but also intellectually and socially. From 17 to 27 September 2026, Zurich will once again become an expansive design parcours. What began five years ago from the wish to create stronger connections within the Swiss design scene today brings together museums, universities, studios, brands and young talents. The programme ranges from textile Gesamtkunstwerks and rediscovered Swiss design history to a journey into outer space — at least in the windows on Paradeplatz.
Out of Category
Anyone beginning their tour at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich should allow a little extra time. Alongside the Design Zentrale, the exhibition “Christoph Hefti – The Missing Cat and Other Textile Stories” is particularly worth seeing. The first comprehensive solo exhibition of the Swiss textile designer opens up a colourful cosmos that consistently resists simple categorisation. Hefti, who has worked for Dries Van Noten and Jean Paul Gaultier, among others, moves between textile design and art, fashion and stage. Hand-knotted carpets meet patchwork and textile prints, ceramics meet furniture and performative stagings. Even an entire room becomes a textile Gesamtkunstwerk. In this sense, Hefti fits surprisingly well with a design festival that encourages visitors to leave familiar boundaries behind. The exhibition runs until 3 January 2027.
Out of Stock
What already exists does not necessarily have to have outlived its purpose. Zurich designer Robert Wettstein makes this thought the starting point of his work with “Plenty”. He collects materials that have “come his way”, been given to him or rediscovered, and transforms them into sculptural design objects. Design here happens not despite abundance, but precisely because of it. Particularly interesting is one object that is not new, but almost 70 years old. Wettstein is showing for the first time publicly the restored SAFFA chair by Erika Schläpfer-Thöne from 1958. The rediscovered piece of furniture brings a chapter of Swiss design history back into the present — and thus fits almost perfectly with a project that asks what deserves a second life.
Out of the Blue
Blue is not just blue. The installation “Blau machen” is dedicated to ultramarine and Prussian blue, two pigments that have written art, design and architectural history. Visitors learn how precise colour recipes are created from historic pigments and what role light, material and production play in their effect. The trail leads to Yves Klein, Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier, whose works were shaped by the particular depth and luminosity of blue tones. At the same time, the focus is on perception: How does blue change a room, why do we experience certain shades as calming, and how can colour be used deliberately to create atmosphere?
Out of the Box – And out of this World
How differently a motto can be interpreted is perhaps most beautifully shown by two names one would not necessarily mention in the same breath: IKEA and Hermès. IKEA Switzerland, together with the Dutch design studio Raw Color, has developed the immersive installation “Make space for…”. Its starting point is one of the simplest things of all: the box. From countless boxes emerges a colourful landscape that changes familiar spatial perspectives. In the “Keepsake Box Atelier”, visitors can then design a box themselves — as a place to store things they are not yet ready to part with, and at the same time as space for something new.
While IKEA quite literally thinks out of the box, Hermès goes straight out of this world. For the windows of its store on Paradeplatz, the Lausanne design studio Panter&Tourron has created a cosmic scenario entitled “Venture Beyond”. Inspired by the visionary journeys of Jules Verne and the fantastical visual worlds of Moebius, dragon-like flying objects move through an imaginary universe, somewhere between spaceship and Hermès icon. Colourful planets become unknown worlds on which one lands, discovers and continues travelling. Two interpretations could hardly be further apart: here, the everyday box; there, infinite outer space. What they share is the invitation to imagine what becomes possible when one leaves familiar space behind.
Out of one Place
And that is exactly what visitors should also do in very practical terms during Zurich Design Weeks. The event is not concentrated on a single exhibition site, but spread across the entire city. Anyone who wants to see as much as possible would therefore do well to plan their route in advance — and head for places where several positions come together. One of these is located in Zurich-Oerlikon. The biennial interior exhibition “neue räume” brings together more than 100 exhibitors across around 7,000 square metres. Alongside furniture and product innovations, curated special exhibitions are part of the concept of what is now the 13th edition.
And anyone in need of a break along the way will find the perfect Design Week interpretation for it. The Zurich concept store paus. combines stoneground tea with design and ritual. Tea is freshly ground there on a stone mill; a special drink is being created especially for Design Weeks, while workshops with a tea sommelier offer an introduction to the craft.
17 to 27 September 2026
Zurich Design Weeks
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