Seattle Design Festival block; looking east. (Ariel Rosenstock)

Sure this month is Archtober in New York. But last month non-profit group Design in Public got things rolling when it hosted the second annual Seattle Design Festival. The weekend-long event showcased projects, promoted design, and featured discussions and panels. One notable highlight: a block in the South Lake Union neighborhood was taken over by transformed shipping containers housing various interior designs, a feedback space for comments on an upcoming design plan for Seattle, and a design product pop-up shop.

Film screenings explored the legacy of the Pruitt Igoe housing development in St. Louis, the design, decay, and rediscovery of Cuba’s National Arts School, as well as a prominent designer of Viennese shopping malls. Walking tours of South Lake Union gave visitors a history of the local architecture. In the Belltown neighborhood, the Seattle Architecture Foundation (SAF) brought together architectural models by Seattle firms for the exhibit “Natural Systems/Emergent Forms”, exploring the intersection of nature and technology. That’s just the beginning. Click on an image to start the slideshow of the events below.