Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 23/09/2024

Scotland’s Climate Week from 23-29 September encourages organisations to come together to share their stories on climate action. With this in mind, we thought Dundee Design Festival would be a prime candidate for this Q&A.

Dundee Design Festival will take place at the Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc, its dates coinciding exactly with Scotland’s Climate Week.

The design festival champions Scottish and international design with an ambitious programme of exhibitions, events, talks, and workshops. It is also leading the way in its commitment to sustainable development.

We spoke with Dr Stacey Hunter, Creative Director at Dundee Design Festival to find out more.

What are the key principles values driving the festival’s focus on sustainability?

We are surrounded by a strong and successful design community here in Dundee.

One of the reasons Dundee was designated a UNESCO City of Design is the city’s commitment to design and innovation driving our commitment to sustainable development.

It’s natural for us to want to create one of the world’s most sustainable design festivals and ensure that the best in design is showcased to as many people as possible.

We are developing partnerships with a variety of organisations who share our values around sustainability and the value of design. It's been an exciting phase, as a team, we push ourselves to minimise waste and maximise opportunities.

Stacey Hunter Creative Director at DDF. Photograph by Grant Anderson

Stacey Hunter, Creative Director at Dundee Design Festival. Credit: Grant Anderson

As details have emerged about our amazing site at the Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc and our sustainability goals, design-centred organisations like V&A Dundee and Bard reached out to us with generous offers of materials and infrastructure.

For me as a designer and a curator this is a natural way of doing things in Scotland.

We are a tight-knit community and Scotland has always been known around the world for its capacity for frugality. Any kind of waste is something that most people working in design are always keen to eliminate and the partnerships we are developing are symbolic of that urge to be efficient.

How did your partnership with Ember, your sustainable travel partner, come about?

Partnering with the Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc as a hub for sustainable and green innovation businesses gave us the opportunity to connect with companies like Ember who are based on site.

Ember charge their bus fleet from the same renewable energy source that will power the festival. Their commitment to green travel and their ability to provide transport from not just the centre of Dundee but Glasgow and Edinburgh too made them a perfect fit for the festival.

Are there any other festivals or organisations you take inspiration from?

Our partners, Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc and V&A Dundee, have played a big role in showing how generosity, openness, and partnership working are the first steps in delivering sustainable projects.

Our decision to hold the festival all under one roof at Scotland's biggest innovation park was the first step.

Underpinning all activities at the Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc is a collaborative approach to achieve the goal of net zero, so it's the perfect environment for us to learn and grow.

We are working with designers who are pushing the boundaries of their own practice and, through conversations, we're able to strengthen our own knowledge.

Dundee Design Festival Dispensary. Photo by Grant Anderson

Dundee Design Festival dispensary. Credit: Grant Anderson

One of the moments that reaffirmed the value of our approach was an excellent event hosted by Custom Lane in Edinburgh in November 2023.

Loreta and Ben Bosence of Local Works Studio spoke about how they creatively utilise site-based resources and processes to plan, make, or repair the landscapes and communities they work with.

What was so inspiring was that this very common-sense methodical approach -that really appealed to me- confirmed we were on the right path for how we planned to deliver the festival.

Taking resourcefulness as a designer and pushing it to extremes, they spoke about sourcing materials from the shortest distance as possible, sorting them and grading them which mirrored our own plans.

In terms of visiting other design festivals, what struck me the most was how unsustainable the status quo is. It is no longer a valid approach in a climate emergency to commission bespoke displays and installations covered in branding that renders them useless the day after the festival ends.

Our approach at the Dundee Design Festival will become the standard way to deliver similar design events. I hope it happens sooner rather than later.

Are there plans to measure environmental and social impacts of the festival?

As part of our ambition to host the world's most sustainable design festivals, we have committed to using less than 30% virgin materials.

As well as a drive to re-use as much material as possible, we have developed a materials palette, guiding the festival’s overall aesthetic with items that can either be borrowed or reused. For example, breeze-blocks, Heras fencing, scrap timber, and bricks.

For all decisions the team has had to ask: "What is the most sustainable way to do this?".

What we've found is that if you parse every conversation through a sustainability lens, it cuts out all the noise and prevarication. Ultimately, everyone's on the same page, they get what the values are, and it just speeds up the process.

The complexity is removed by taking a common-sense approach to choose that which was used, renewable or recyclable.

We are not delving deep into the data comparing statistics on carbon emissions, water use or toxicity. We're not experts in sustainability. We're not scientists. We're on a journey.

What can locals and visitors expect from this year’s festival?

Visitors will be welcomed to a world of Scottish contemporary design. It is free to visit the festival and there's a host of exhibitions, installations and activities for visitors of all ages.

There opportunities to discover new and existing designs in furniture, interiors, jewellery, homewares, craft, graphic design, and fashion across a programme of exhibitions and installations, aligning with the festival theme of "multiplicity".

Festival goers will also be able to unlock their inner designer with a series of hands-on activities for all ages. Those exploring the knitted forest can learn how to make beasties with the team from Donna Wilson’s Dundee based knit shop.

Visitors with a feel for fabric can try their hand with screen printing their own bags and clothing at the Timorous Beasties installation.

Stefanie Ying Lin Cehong Stories Sculpture

Stefanie Ying Lin Cehong's Stories Sculpture

Sustainability expert and designer Alicia Storie of ADesignStorie will lead interior design workshops at her Tiny Home installation the House of Wellbeing. Drop-in visitors can see and hold pioneering sustainable materials.

As part of our exhibition programme, there's an opportunity to see the work of over 70 Scotland based designers in "Framework".

It's a unique snapshot of contemporary Scottish design illustrating the multiplicity of ways that design overlaps and intersects with other artforms and industries.

We'll also be showcasing design from other UNESCO Cities of Design in "Hyper Local" and "Bookends". This presents a specially commissioned collection of 20 bookends designed and made in Scotland.

These were inspired by the adventures of pioneering Dundonian journalists, Marie Imandt and Bessie Maxwell.

Describe Dundee Design Festival in 10 words?

An unforgettable celebration of Scottish design all under one roof.

Find out more on dundeedesignfestival.com

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