Design District Zagreb - A new design festival

Design District Zagreb is a new design festival which is affirming the creative urban development of the city.It will take place between June 16th and 19th at Martićeva Street, the eastern edge of the city centre.

Between June 16^th and 19^th, Martićeva Street will be the location for the new Design District Zagreb Festival which affirms the creative urban development of the city. The eastern part of the city centre, surrounded by Šubićeva, Zvonimirova, Draškovićeva, Vlaška and central Martićeva streets, was once closely tied to the automobile industry and features numerous abandoned and vacant spaces that have been turned into interesting places for creative and cultural events over the past several years. Martićeva Street is the location of the Croatian Design Superstore, where the idea of this multinational project was conceived, and its author is Ira Payer – the creative director of Design District Zagreb.

The goal of the project is to affirm and merge creative potentials from that part of the city in order to provide a permanent or temporary centre of creativity in Zagreb, which would also be interesting for tourists. Zagreb, like many other cities in Europe, looks to its faded industrial infrastructure for possibilities to organize various cultural events and encourage a creative and urban development of the city. During the four day festival, architects, designers and various other artists will exhibit their works in vacant stores and decorate the public surfaces, and they will also be joined by caterers and other business owners located on Martićeva. Apart from an exhibition, the festival will also feature a diverse concurrent programme with various workshops and happenings that are typical of that neighbourhood of Zagreb.

This project is backed by the Zagreb Tourist Board and the City Office for Strategic Planning and Development of the City since the urban development of that zone fits in with the strategic city project related to the regeneration of the Badel industrial complex, which is surrounded by Vlaška Street, Kvaternik Square, Šubićeva, Martićeva and Derenčinova streets. Among other things, the construction of cultural facilities is in the pipeline.