Seattle Design Festival

The Seattle Design Festival is a platform for bold design conversations. We believe that design is for everyone and that inclusive co-design practices are essential to shaping an equitable Seattle. We are multidisciplinary, socially engaged and civic minded. We unleash the design thinker in everyone to illuminate Seattle’s challenges and ignite action. The Seattle Design Festival was founded in 2011 as a strategic initiative of AIA Seattle to promote public dialogue and community engagement about the role and impact of design in urban life. We envision a culture of design that fosters equitable, resilient, and thriving communities.

We collaborate with diverse communities, architects, designers, civic and business leaders, nonprofits, artists and activists to generate solutions to complex social, cultural and ecological challenges that affect all of us. We produce the Seattle Design Festival – our region’s largest multidisciplinary design events attracting 30,000+ attendees annually. The Seattle Design Festival turns 12 in 2022! We curate compelling and relevant exhibitions at the Center for Architecture & Design. We run global design competitions that generate innovative solutions to pressing social issues. We inspire multidisciplinary design professionals to work alongside community groups and civic partners to apply the principles of design thinking to solve pressing social issues.