Former Michelin Tyre Factory Transformed for Stunning Design Festival
Words: Cameron Foster 
Timorous Beasties Fabric Maze installation photo by Grant Anderson
Dundee Design Festival opened its doors yesterday and is already being described as one of the most exciting events to hit the city in years. Showcasing the work of over 180 designers across 10,000 sqm of transformed factory space at Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc the festival has garnered rave reviews from early visitors.
A young visitor enjoys Biome Collective’s Street Pixle installation photo by Cameron Foster
Now in its 5th year Dundee Design Festival has launched its most ambitious iteration yet to celebrate the city’s 10th anniversary as the UK’s only UNESCO City of Design. The festival features ten installations and exhibitions including a fabric maze, customisable uniforms, Tiny Home interior ideas and FRAMEWORK, an exhibition providing a snapshot of Scottish design with over 70 designs. Hands-on activities include a host of workshops on everything from sustainable interiors to fabric printing, woolly beastie making and even lace design and production.
Set across two enormous halls the festival is also set to include a talks programme that includes insights from leading Scottish designers such as Donna Wilson and Timorous Beasties as well as industrial designers David Keating and Sam Prentice of Sonos, leading Artificial Intelligence academic from Abertay University, Dr Martin Zeilinger and sustainable biophilic interior designer Alicia Storie.
Visitors to the festival can also discover new and existing works in lighting, homewares, furniture, textiles, product design, graphic design, jewellery, fashion, digital technology and sound.
BLT table by Clare Morris photo Cameron Foster
The World’s Most Sustainable Festival
Not content with putting on a staggering amount of exhibits in a frankly, jaw dropping space, the organisers are also hoping to be the most sustainable festival in the world! Using electricity from the onsite wind turbines every aspect of the festival’s build and delivery has been powered by green energy. Electric bus service Ember brings audiences to the festival from Dundee City Centre, Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow while the majority of the festival build has used salvaged or repurposed materials smashing the festival’s initial target of 30% virgin materials.
The commitment to becoming one of the world’s most sustainable design festivals saw the Scottish design and manufacturing community answer a call for support and make generous donations to the festival. Exhibition materials from V&A Dundee and Bard have been repurposed for the festival, Halley Stevenson, KC Collective and Sseams have worked with offcuts and deadstock of waxed cotton for the staff and volunteer clothing, Craig & Rose paints have donated mistinted paint stock as have Crown Decorators in Dundee. This has been added to with donations from MYT Textiles of over 1500sqm of fabric; steel cabling donated by Timorous Beasties and innovative hook and loop textiles from Tayport’s Scott & Fyffe.
“good design makes our lives better”
Dr Stacey Hunter, Creative Director of Dundee Design Festival
Despite all this, perhaps the greatest achievement of the festival is simply how engaging and enjoyable it is. While design exhibitions might not be everybody’s cup of tea its hard to imagine someone not finding at least one or two things to pique their interest and most will find many more than that.
Add in the opportunity to have a nosey around the huge Michelin Tyre Factory and you have one of the few properly “must-visit” exhibitions to happen in Dundee in recent years.
The Festival runs until the 29th and the E10 bus by Ember Buses runs twice an hour from outside Dundee Train Station.
Dundee Design Festival 2024
Open daily 10am – 6pm (10am – 7pm on Thursday 26th)
23 – 29 September
Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc, Baldovie Rd, Dundee DD4 8UQ
