Istanbul hosts design festival

This year’s Istanbul Design Week is looking to promote international designers within the expanding Turkish market, as well as promoting the work of Turkish designers to an international audience.

The interior design event, which runs from 16 to 20 October and is organised by Design in Turkey, has so far signed up 60 international design consultancies, though it is still looking for another 20 to get involved.

A full list of participants will be announced next week.

Exhibiting designers will show their work across three locations around the city’s Golden Horn district: the 8000 m2 main exhibition area at the Old Galata Bridge, the Old Hat Factory area and the Basilica Cistern, which is also being used to display design pieces.

The Kadir Has University will also host festival workshops and conferences.

Italian designers and architects Cibic & Partners are overseeing art direction and display design at the festival.

A spokesman for the company reveals that the Old Galata Bridge will be covered by a tent system evoking the atmosphere of the old oriental markets.

Design in Turkey chief executive officer Maurizio Ribotti says, ‘Istanbul Design Week is set apart from other festivals because of the city’s historical heritage as a place where East meets West, and innovation by designers who experiment is encouraged’.