DESIGN RESIDENCY IN VILNIUS No.2
2025-11-05
20 – 28th of April, 2026
About
During this one-week residency, design professionals are invited to conduct design research and act as mentors (one professional will work in a group of 2-3 young designers or students, who will also be selected), sharing their experiences and fostering collaboration among communities and designers, exploring Vilnius. Our goal is to raise awareness of the role design plays in everyday life—how designers and design tools can address various social challenges, shape visions for the future, and solve complex problems.
During this residency week our guest designers are invited to various local design and network events and has opportunity to represent their own work and share knowledge to Lithuanian design community as part of international design day programme.
Residency details
Residency is open to a wide range of design disciplines
Residency will be in English
Arrival Date: April 20, 2026
Residency Period: April 20–28, 2026
Public Sharing of Research Outcomes: April 27, 2025
Registration form (Application deadline: January 1) https://forms.gle/1XJ6ipJT67cCQhGh6
We aim to organize this international design residency every year, building it around the theme formulated by the International Council of Design (ICoD).
Last year, the theme was Outlandish Optimism (OO) https://www.dizainodiena.lt/en/apie
In 2024 it was “Is it kind?”https://www.dizainodiena.lt/en/2024
We will select two professional designers to take part in the residency. Designers will be selected by Lithuanian design association board on the basis of designer’s professional experience, motivation to explore the theme of 2026 and diversity.
THEME OF 2026
THE SPACES IN BETWEEN: DESIGN CONNECTS US
Core Idea / Opening
Design isn’t just what we make. It’s what happens between people — in the physical, digital, and emotional spaces where human connection is made possible. These are the thresholds where design mediates how we meet, understand, and care for one another.
This theme challenges designers to consider how their work facilitates genuine connection—not just efficiency, but the quality of human relationship. It invites designers, educators, and leaders alike to look beyond outcomes and toward the shared experiences that bind us—asking not only what design achieves, but how it connects us.
From a poster that helps a movement find its voice,
to a street sign that guides a stranger home,
from a museum experience that sparks empathy,
to a garment that celebrates identity,
from a product that restores dignity through function,
to a digital space that invites participation—
design shapes how we belong, communicate, and coexist.
Premise
Design lives in the in-between—the invisible intervals where ideas become experiences and strangers become communities. These are the thresholds where we negotiate meaning: between creativity and care, between past and future, between what divides us and what connects us. To design is to shape what happens between us.
Why It Matters Now
We live in an age of constant communication—and increasing disconnection. From our neighborhoods to our networks, the spaces that bring people together are under pressure.
Design has the power to rebuild them. It shapes how we move through our cities, how we share ideas, how we care for one another, and how we imagine what’s next.
The Spaces In Between is a global invitation—to designers, educators, city leaders, and changemakers everywhere—to design for connection, not isolation. To use creativity as common ground. To make every street, screen, and shared space a place where people belong.
Because when design bridges the space between us, we build the future together.
Yes, and…” Framework
Each participant builds the story:
Design connects us… to belong.
Design connects us… to care for one another.
Design connects us… to imagine better futures.
Design connects us… to listen.
Design connects us… to act.
On the 27th of April we expect designers to share the results of their research ideas publicly during the design day event.
Location
Museum of Applied Arts and Design in Vilnius.
What we offer
Reimbursement of flight expenses up to 250€
Accommodation in Vilnius: check-in: April 20, 2026, check-out: April 28, 2026
A project budget for one professional designer is 1000€ (materials included)
Organizer
The Design Residency in Vilnius is an initiative created by the Lithuanian Design Association in celebration of International Design Day.
Lithuanian Design Association – an independent creative union uniting professional designers.
If you have any questions, please contact comm@lda.lt.
