Athens Design Forum began with conviction: a concentrated week of cultural programming that proposed a novel way to engage design—to be specific in place, stature, identity—and to bring the audience closer to the abyss that is the hand of the creator. ADF’s 2021 inaugural edition shaped twelve events across seven Athenian neighborhoods, establishing a cultural axis through which to read the city’s evolving identity. With the participation of museums, artist houses, an international design residency, curated independent contributors, and a stand-alone exhibition of emerging talents inside an abandoned furniture factory in Moschato, the week offered an intimate encounter with the personalities and conditions shaping design from within Athens itself.

A core event was the opening of the Alekos Fassianos Papagos Home and Atelier, where the interior bears his hand in all finishes—terrazzo flooring, built-in thresholds, and the imminent character that only a home can possess of an artist’s spinning heart.

The inaugural edition offered a vision of what concentrated design events could become when rooted in the perspective of critical discourse—all accessible to those who searched for it. At the time, no other model quite resembled it. Guiding international journalists into the city’s infrastructure, coverage within Architectural Digest, Wallpaper*, Domus, and Office Magazine affirmed that its resonance extended far beyond. This beginning became a foundation for the years to come: expanding into film programming, international collaborations, and establishing an online editorial on the stories we cannot find published elsewhere.

The founding edition was made possible with the generous support of the Behrakis Foundation and the City of Athens, whose commitment to cultural infrastructure and civic imagination helped bring the platform into being. We are also grateful to our media partners, The Design Release, founded by Julia Montanez and Leo Lei.