Real World Laboratory: Central European Design

The Real World Laboratory is presenting designs from six countries of Central Europe: Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.

The exhibition is looking at the design from this region through the lens of the relationship between experimental design and industrial production.

Conceptual design is treated as an intellectual testing ground, a source of new ideas; industrial production, on the other hand, economically justifies the designer's work.

Each country will present exhibits of a selected type: Austria - furniture, the Czech Republic - glass and porcelain, Poland - lighting, Slovakia - transportation, Slovenia - footwear, and Hungary - architectural components.

The exhibit is meant to familiarize the design of the countries of Central Europe, emphasizing its most trademark attributes.

This region (with the exception of Austria) is generally viewed as being backward in terms of industrial development.

As a result, the design work is regarded as being behind the times compared to that of highly industrialized countries.

Of late, however, both the economy and the design of Central European countries have been dynamically developing, and the local designers are abandoning tried-and-tested designs and are increasingly putting forward new and innovative products.

This exhibition presents the changes taking place in Central European design.