Germany's largest design event, Munich Creative Business Week, organized by bayern design, promotes interdisciplinary exchange as a "platform for new ideas, trends and creativity". To bring the potential of design to life, mcbw brings together designers, experts, companies and students from disciplines such as design, architecture and business with the general public over nine days. We take a look back at mcbw 2024 and review some of the highlights.
The mcbw 2024 in a few figures
If you want to let the numbers speak for themselves, the mcbw event is an impressive total: Well over 65,000 visitors and 190 partners came together in Munich around the motto "How to co-create with nature", and more than 200 events with 290 speakers and guests took place between May 11 and 19, 2024. Another interesting fact: mcbw is a member of World Design Week, a network of over 40 design weeks and festivals around the world. Its declared aim is to promote collaboration in the design sector in the context of these events and thus also the creative industries.
How does nature-centered design work?
One example of this mission at mcbw 2024 was the Design Summit 2024, which dealt with the pressing question of how to live, manage and design with nature. So how can we implement "nature-centered design" with nature as a co-creator and use design to make sustainability desirable? How can we manage to rethink common patterns of consumer society and adapt both design education and our understanding of design accordingly? "This is not about the romance of nature, but about concrete facts and results, because the future of our planet concerns us all. Design in particular has a key role to play here, as 80% of a product's environmental impact is actually already determined in the design phase," said mcbw. Almost 20 speakers spoke and discussed this complex topic, including Italian architect and mcbw creative explorer 2024 Stefano Boeri, Daniela Bohlinger, Head of Sustainability Design at the BMW Group, and other internationally renowned speakers, who focused on nature with their diverse perspectives.
Let's walk together
At the Design Walks in Haidhausen, visitors were able to explore the so-called Franzosenviertel with new eyes. At nine inspiring stations, the respective founders and their regional and sustainable concepts invited visitors to get to know creative minds, their stores and products.
If you want to listen to the design walk again afterwards, you're in luck: the mcbw team has put all the interviews with this year's stations here. Including: Jules & Mel in the HERE store, Suupinga, Macy Munich, Studio B, Studio 11, Wineslingers, REIBOLDS, Silberfabrik and the Stadtmöblierungs Insel der Städtischen. Have fun listening!
Installations and crowd pullers throughout Munich
But even beyond Haidhausen, mcbw had a significant impact on Munich's urban space for the entire nine days: Interactive installations, a very present key visual through to the "Turning Point" installation by BLACKSPACE, which staged a 45-year-old mountain pine on the green space behind the Alte Pinakothek as a representative of the endangered forests; with a crank, it could be brought to life interactively through rotation, light and sound. The two mcbw pop up containers on Königsplatz and "Am Pschorr" on Viktualienmarkt were particular crowd pullers, and the "Feierabendziegel" installation attracted passers-by to Königsplatz: Drees & Sommer's Brand Experience and EPEA campaign questioned the disposal of building materials after they have been used in buildings. The artworks printed with quotes from well-known artists could be taken away by visitors. In our editorial office, one of these bricks also reminds us of both nature and mcbw, which we were able to accompany as a media partner - and is already stirring up anticipation for next year.
More about mcbw
To the bayern design website
