Interdesign workshops in the Soviet Union

Yuri Soloviev, head of VNIITE and ICSID representative, believed it was crucial for designers to share ideas on both a theoretical and practical level. With this in mind, he proposed a new kind of design workshop for ICSID, called ‘Interdesign’. The workshops addressed local problems that nonetheless had global significance. Designers had to apply to participate in each workshop, with some twenty to thirty ultimately selected and put into five to eight international teams. Each team had two weeks to develop a project concept, which was then presented for collective discussion. All project proposals became the property of the host country.
The first Interdesign was hosted in 1971 by the Soviet Union in the city of Minsk (today in Belarus). Its primary topic was the production and distribution of bread, and its secondary topic was equipment and furnishings for the street. The Interdesign initiative proved highly successful, enabling designers from VNIITE and other socialist countries to participate in multiple workshops across the globe. Four further workshops were held in the Soviet Union: design for the aged and the handicapped (Kharkiv, 1977); equipment for urban spaces (Tbilisi, 1980); design for rural life (Baku, 1983); and the future of watches and clocks (Yerevan, 1985).