Hasta La Ideas

Guest post by Esin Arsan. Check out her Core77 gallery of IDW 2009 highlights here!

This year, Istanbul Design Weekend took place between the 18th and 21st of June, with the theme “Mediterranean Design between Present and Future”. The four-day event offered two sets of activities, linked by a focus on Mediterranean design. The first group consisted of major exhibitions and cultural initiatives, while the second group allowed ambitious visitors to tour all the participating showrooms, malls and design stores in Istanbul, who were invited to participate in a competition for best installation around the fair’s theme.

Istanbul Design Week used to take place at the old Galata Bridge in Balat. However this year, the city itself—especially the European side—became the exhibition venue for the event. This was a special opportunity to visit the local design firms in their own environment. There were problems posed by spreading into the city, however, like the insane amount of time required to tour all events and the poor way-finding signage, especially for people from outside the city. It is rare to find two parallel streets in many parts of Istanbul due to its hilly terrain and old city planning. Additionally, the maps provided for each event zone were less informational and more abstract graphics. People at Lunapark told us on the first day of the event that they had already heard numerous complaints about this and were seriously considering placing additional signage on the streets to give better directions to the visitors.

Our adventurous tour in Zone 1, which covered the Taksim, Beyoglu and Galata area, brought us to the doorsteps of Ilio, whose showroom was one of the highlights of the event. In fact, it won first place in the weekend’s installation competition. The housewares brand of the Istanbul-based design firm Demirden Design, Ilio has won several Red Dot and IF awards. View photos of their tabletop and furniture designs here.

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