Photo by Andre Furtado

While the 2025 DesignTO Festival has exhibitions, events, and installations across the city of Toronto, you’ll notice there are areas with higher concentrations of Festival programming popping up.

Here are city neighbourhoods and venues where you can experience multiple projects within walking distance of each other. (View map on the Festival Schedule to explore yourself.)

King East Design District / Old Town Toronto

Also known as Toronto’s downtown design district (and even “design mile”), this stalwart strip serves up some of the best furniture and lighting showrooms the city has to offer. And many of these showrooms and other destinations are participating in the Festival with an assortment of displays and events, including creations in fibre, fabric and ceramic, salon style gatherings, even ideas for multi-generational home design.

Berry Baskets

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
Andreu World Toronto Showroom
340 King Street East, Toronto
Reception: Jan 30, 6 PM 

Visit the Andreu World Toronto Showroom to see a textile installation by industrial designer Laura Carwardine made from repurposed berry baskets and nylon rope. This study in repetition allows the process of prototyping to be shared with the viewer.

Connect & Collaborate: A Design Salon

Jan 25–Jan 31 2025
Éstheteak
411 Richmond Street East, #203, Toronto

A fun and approachable salon-style community gathering designed to help you meaningfully connect with fellow design enthusiasts, share your work and ideas, and be open to possible future creative collaborations.

Fables in Yarn

Jan 24–Feb 04 2025
Home Société
570 Adelaide Street East, Toronto

‘Fables in Yarn’ is a collection of six hand-punched tapestries by Alisa McRonald that weave together the vibrancy of Scottish and Irish fairy tales and folklore with the artist’s unique narratives.

From The Ground

Jan 20–Feb 01 2025
Bulthaup Toronto
280 King Street East, #100, Toronto
Reception: Jan 29 | 6 PM

‘From the Ground’ is an art exhibit by OCADU students Christina da Graça and Songshu Liu, featuring woodworking and ceramics. Their work celebrates the natural beauty and imperfections of clay and wood, hosted at the Bulthaup Toronto Showroom.

Homes That Care

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
NEUF architect(e)s
8 Market Street, Toronto

NEUF architect(e)s displays an architectural installation showcasing typical residential spaces in Toronto within their storefront window that directly faces St. Lawrence Market. This display showcases design interventions that Torontonians can do to improve their homes for multi-generational use.

Under Construction: Cozy Edition

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
Engel & Völkers
71 King Street East, Toronto
Reception: Jan 24 | 8:30 PM
Talk: Jan 24 | 7 PM

This quilt reimagines urban landscapes through collages of construction photos, linking details by color, texture, and line. Using upcycled bedding, it challenges visibility and power, inviting viewers to rethink who shapes shared spaces and what is deemed worth seeing.

Yonge + St Clair

Let’s head north now to one of the busiest intersections in the city. With the streets buzzing and high-rises soaring overhead, visual stimuli are all around. And there’s more! Pop into our partnering destinations for a little reprieve and exposure to design-thinking. Here, events and exhibitions showcase wearable art, inflatable quilts, mirrored waterfalls, and carnival photography. There’s also a walking tour.

Beyond the Body

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025|
95 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto

‘Beyond the Body’ by Pixel Heller transforms costumes into sculptural extensions, blending wearable art and abstraction. These pieces explore the fluidity of masquerade and evoke rituals, memory, and ancestral ties, bridging identity and time between the past and present.

Bubble Quilt

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
55 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto

‘Bubble Quilt’ by Studio Rat is an immersive inflatable installation and lighting concept quilted from reclaimed waste plastics. Hand-crafted inflated modules form a soft-glowing grid, illuminating surface patterns inspired by traditional quilt motifs.

DesignTO Tours: Dualities

Feb 02 2025 | 2 PM
2 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto

This walking tour invites you to take a closer look at three temporary artworks in the Yonge + St. Clair neighbourhood. With firsthand insight from the artists and designers behind the projects, delve deeper into the installations, their stories and how they came to be.

Homing (Pigeon Store)

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
95 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto

‘Homing’ is an ongoing performance, relational, and research piece by Toronto-based artist Maddy Young. Pigeons are the ultimate urban survivor, and for DesignTO they will be transformed from nuisance to stoic observers high above the St. Clair Avenue commuters.

Narcissus Falls

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
2 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto

‘Narcissus Falls’ explores our obsession with digital reflections by inverting the Narcissus myth. An overhead mirrored waterfall reflects viewers, while fragrant narcissus flowers below offer a sensory contrast. The installation juxtaposes untouchable reflections with tangible, yet artificial, nature.

Tangled Paths

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
40 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto

‘Tangled Paths’ by Nargiza Usmanova symbolizes Toronto’s urban life, where millions of journeys intertwine, reflecting the city’s dynamic interactions and connections. Made from 90% recycled materials, it highlights sustainability and the endless possibilities of urban evolution at Yonge + St. Clair.

The Archivist

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
2-22 St Clair Avenue East, Toronto

This exhibition by Pixel Heller centres on ‘The Archivist’, a performative photographer character dedicated to documenting and preserving the traditions of carnival.

Yes, And

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
30 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto

Experience ‘Yes, And,’ an interactive art installation by Gensler that evolves with each visitor’s touch. Using provided objects, you contribute to its ongoing transformation, fostering community, collaboration, and creativity. Visit the lobby and leave your mark on this living artwork.

Bathurst + Front

Ok – there’s only one destination for this location and it’s STACKT Market. Which qualifies as a neighbourhood due to its size and community gathering focus. The city’s famous shipping container marketplace is host to 9 events including exhibitions of sculpture, furniture, lighting, jewellery, portraiture, and tapestries. Oh, and there’s an industry meet-up and massive party, too.

A Name To It

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
STACKT Market, Unit 4-103
28 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 6 PM

‘A Name To It’ by Boris Yu confronts buried pasts to illuminate the complex sentiments of (un)narrating the language of manhood. A space of rest commemorates past versions of manhood that have protected while building space for the versions to come.

About Time

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
STACKT Market, Unit 5-105
28 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 6 PM

‘About Time’ is a collaborative exhibition exploring how the passing of time and changing of contexts alters our ideas. Works of furniture, lighting, sculpture, and interactive design are presented by six Sheridan Craft and Design Alumni.

Design Collection @ STACKT Launch Party

Jan 25 | 6 PM
STACKT market
28 Bathurst Street, Toronto

Meet the designers and curators of a collection of projects organized as part of DesignTO. The Design Collection @ STACKT will host 10 days of designer residencies, creative showcases and entertainment. Join the public opening and industry meet-up on Saturday, January 25 from 6pm at STACKT market.

DUSKSHAPED: Bad Graces

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
STACKT Market, Unit 2-101
28 Bathurst Street, Toronto

DUSKSHAPED — a New York–based sculptor making design objects in the most sustainable common building material, metal — is thrilled to show a selection of works from the ‘Bad Graces’ collection, including plant stands, jewelry hangers, bowls, and small tables.

Filamentous

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
STACKT Market, Unit 2-101
28 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 6 PM

Filamentous’, 2020-2023, grew out of the daily rituals and art practices of the pandemic. Cyanotype portraits hang in individual net canopies connected by rope nests against a backdrop of solar-dyed teabag tapestries that chronicle seasons passed during lockdown.

Fluid Connectivité

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
STACKT Market, North Hall Gallery
28 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 6 PM
Talk: Jan 30 | 6 PM

‘Fluid Connectivité’ by Gabrielle Lasporte reflects on life, knowledge that our individual stories meshing into wider expanse of flow and connectivity brings expansion, understanding to our collective experiences.

Mapping Out Calm

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
STACKT Market, Unit 2-101
28 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 6 PM

‘Mapping Out Calm’ is a large-scale paper tapestry by Steph Cloutier that explores the impermanence of life through water. A hand-stitched map made of lake water and pulp reveals Lake Ontario’s evolution and resilience, and our shared experience with transition and renewal.

Sonic Interiors

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
STACKT Market, Unit 3-121
28 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 6 PM

‘Sonic Interiors’ is an eight speaker sound installation by Mathew Garland that aims to showcase how public spaces can be designed to support people who identify as highly sensitive, specifically through the aural sense.

The Leg Table Project

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
STACKT Market, Unit 2-101
28 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 6 PM

‘The Leg Table Project’ by Hamish Greenland examines the allure and meaning of crossed legs. Do these intersecting silhouettes captivate us universally, or does context—bare feet or running shoes—transform their effect? A striking exploration of form and meaning.

The Spatial Series – Cube

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
STACKT Market, Unit 2-106
28 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 6 PM

‘Cube’ is a large LED installation by MattCreative designed to allow visitors to play with light as it moves through 3D space with nothing but their presence, or to stand back and watch as it creates vibrant visualizations in real-time.

West Queen West

Over to the wild west we go, from Bathurst all the way to Dufferin. Talk about a transformation – this strip has experienced a lot of change over the past two decades. And it continues. Here we have hotels as well as big box and mom-and-shop venues presenting a huge swathe of design typologies. There are upcycled wooden architectural beams, deep dives into embroidery and pattern, nostalgic sculptures, unconventional jewellery, and so much more.

Daylight Trees

Jan 24–Feb 04 2025
gh3 Architects
55 Ossington Avenue, Toronto

The humble tree participates as a vital part of our ecosystem and built environment yet its intrinsic beauty often goes unnoticed. ‘Daylighting Trees’ reveals this beauty through a collection of sculptural objects made from weathered and reclaimed wooden architectural beams.

Fried Egg Embroidery Workshop

Feb 01 2025 | 2 PM
The Drake Hotel – Modern Wing Lobby
1150 Queen Street West, Toronto

In this workshop, Laura Carwardine will guide you through the process of stitching her ‘Fried Egg Magnet 3D Embroidery Kit’. Enjoy a comfortable social afternoon at the Drake Hotel as you’re stitching and learning about the tactile joys of embroidery.

Pattern: Method and Motif

Jan 17–Apr 29 2025
Gladstone House
1214 Queen Street West, Toronto
Tour: Jan 27 | 7 PM
Talk: Jan 29 | 7 PM
Reception: Jan 30 | 6 PM

Pattern is everywhere. In art and design, it can be a motif, a way to organize and a compositional device. Five installations and exhibitions at Gladstone House respond to the idea of pattern.

Recent Works – Dennis Lin Studio

Jan 25–Feb 01 2025
47 Milky Way
47 Milky Way, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 6 PM

Dennis Lin’s recent work seeks to preserve fragments of a past that feel increasingly fragile. Lin has collected and tended to culturally and personally nostalgic materials to rebuild ties to his heritage and its culture.

Server Farms of Miscellanea

Jan 16–Feb 23 2025
The Drake Hotel 
1150 Queen Street West, Toronto

Get your back up at the Drake Hotel with Wind Up Radio’s video and sound installation/cautionary message from the Server Farms of Miscellanea. We’ve got your multitudes.

Superposition

Jan 22–Feb 02 2025
gravitypope
1010 Queen Street West, Toronto

‘Superposition’ is a series of textile sculptures by Shao-Chi Lin that explore the nature of waves. Meticulously crafted with woven textiles and natural dyes alongside modern technologies, these sculptures bridge the two worlds of observed scientific facts and subjective understandings.

Tides of Structure

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
The Drake Hotel – Modern Wing Lobby
1150 Queen Street West, Toronto

Hop over to The Drake Hotel for Klara VY’s latest exhibition, showcasing over 16 feet of woven textile that explores structure and fluidity. This striking black-and-white piece features manipulated patterns that evoke movement, inviting viewers to explore its intricate design

Void: Jewellery by Chu Winnie Cheung

Jan 11–Feb 23 2025
Craft Ontario
1106 Queen Street West, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 2 PM

‘Void’ is a solo exhibition of jewellery by Toronto-based Chinese artist Chu Winnie Cheung that explores constraint, censorship and discrimination in the context of contemporary Chinese society. Through her jewellery, Winnie juxtaposes rigid socio-cultural norms with the raw, unbridled energy of nature – symbolized by free-floating clouds.

Winter Waiting

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
DUER Toronto Flagship Store
44 Ossington Avenue, Toronto

Through woven and paper works crafted from discarded textiles, ‘Winter Waiting’ by Ruth Wickremesooriya is an exhibition with accompanying events exploring what winter trees can teach us about how to avoid despair when there are no signs of life around us.

Trinity Bellwoods

Ah, Dundas Street. Who knew this unbeaten path between College and Queen would blow up the way that it has. To walk it is an adventure for sure – a walk with some design inspiration thrown in is even better. Plan to see concrete shopping bags, colourful skateboard decks, blown glass sculptures, and fluid, wearable artworks.

Chromatic Echoes

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
Cafe Pastel
862 Dundas Street West, Toronto

An immersive installation by Nadira Narine that uses light, mirrors, metal and colour to evoke memories and emotions to create ∼*memory landscapes*∼ titled ‘Colour Fields’.

DesignTO Talks: Material Expressions

Jan 26 2025 | 2 PM
Collective Arts Taproom Toronto
777 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Through expressive works in glass, Lauren Rice and Nadira Narine navigate community connections current and past, evoking nostalgia for what has been, and a celebration of what is. Join DesignTO for a presentation and discussion with the artists as they explore identity, memory, and emotion.

Drawing and Improvisation in Paper and Wood

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
bookhou
798 Dundas Street West, Toronto

A collection of works on paper alongside wooden furniture pieces. Despite differences in materiality, they share a common theme — a process-based design whereby repetition leads to variation and standardization yields an organic quality. Furniture making as drawing.

Family Stories

Jan 19–Feb 12 2025
Comrags
812 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Reception: Jan 24 | 5 PM

‘Family Stories’ by Diana Watters is a textural study of materials blended and bound together through macrame and weaving.

Iluminación

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
VdeV Maison
797 Dundas Street West, Toronto

‘Iluminación’ by Desiree Martinez explores the recession of daylight during winter. It represents the feelings of humans confined in the shortness of daylight. Often finding ourselves in urge to immerse in any kind of illumination.

On This Spot

Jan 24–Feb 01 2025
Saving Grace
907 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Inspired by aerial photos in the Toronto Archives, ‘On This Spot’ by Paul Dotey looks into the deep time of a Toronto neighbourhood, the footprints we leave on the land, and how geological forces shape the territory

Plasticity

Jan 19–Feb 08 2025
Storm Horse Tattoo
847 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Through the installation ‘Plasticity’ Shira Yavor challenges the normalized use of plastic in everyday fashion. Corset-like bodices were molded from acrylic plastic sheets, and transformed into fluid wearable art. These bodices float in space, evoking a futuristic, dream-like ambiance.

Queer Connections

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
Worth Gallery
830 Dundas Street West, Toronto

This installation by Lauren Rice is a heartfelt expression of queer community, celebrating the vibrant spectrum of queer joy and the need for connection. Featuring a window installation of blown glass sculptures, attached and connected by handcrafted, recycled leather harnesses.

Run From the Dumpster Fire

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
Dirty Laundry
808 Dundas Street West, Toronto

‘Run From the Dumpster Fire’ by Kira K. is a burst of colour designed on blank skateboard decks. The theme is healing from an old life. The pop of colour and the boards will redefine the venue – a laundromat.

Stone and Stone: Undo Burden

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
Milky’s
760 Dundas Street West, Toronto

This installation by Rob Shostak explores the unseen burdens, pressures and strains we and the people around us shoulder every day. An assembly of concrete shopping bags float while the weight of their contents seem to stretch the vessels to their limit.

Weaving the Fibreshed

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
Capri Shoes
818 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Hand-woven yardage made from raw materials produced exclusively within Canada, including local wool and locally foraged dye plants. Exhibited as a craft object, this work by Charlotte Little highlights the importance of considering our clothes at all stages of production.

Roncesvalles

Finally: Roncy. An established neighbourhood, this tree-lined thoroughfare is always bopping. Sidestep strollers and leashed dogs as you make your way to each of these 8 hotspots. Inside our participating venues you will find everything from stackable ceramics and fish-shaped body pillows to screen-printed textiles and ambient lamps.

A Fine Kettle of Fish

Jan 21–Jan 31 2025
313 Design Market
313 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Reception: Jan 25 | 6 PM

A pile of fresh fish from Mark Krebs. Hand woven fish-shaped body pillows filled with shredded memory foam, woven in three colourways and made of fibre dyed wool yarns.

Agape

Jan 23–Feb 02 2024
Michelle Ross Studio
197 Sorauren Avenue, Toronto

‘Agape’ features a collection of ambient lamps designed and produced for PERPETUAL ITCH. With inspiration taken from tongue, tooth, and mouth, these lights seek to impart a sense of stillness and awe upon the viewer. It is recommended to view this installation at night, to appreciate the illumination to its’ fullest extent. To stumble upon them in wonder; a proverbial light in the desert.

Cairns for Home

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
Mellah Rugs
309 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto

A collection of stacked, hollow ceramic forms, inspired by the ancient tradition of stacking stones. Made by Toronto-based ceramicist Vicky Pratt Becker of Vicky Makes Things.

Emovere

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
Scout
405 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto

‘Emovere’ by Carrie Perreault is a sculptural series of drystone casts from HVAC ducts. Unpolished and raw, they evoke incomplete spaces and home, inspired by “emovere,” meaning to move through. Displayed en masse, they render air and space tangible.

FORGIVENESS/RESENTMENT

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
She Said Gallery
384 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto
Reception: Jan 31 | 7 PM

Trauma-informed artist Olivia Mae Sinclair explores forgiveness, devotion, and healing through screen-printed textiles and poetry. ‘FORGIVENESS/RESENTMENT’ uses transitional space to examine memory, pain, and recovery, inviting viewers to reflect on the tension between letting go and holding on.

flodström x Woyote

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
flodström interiors | flodström wallpaper
2224 Dundas Street West, Toronto

This series of furniture is displayed in the window of the flodström office and showroom in Roncy. The flodström x Woyote collaboration brings a combination of refined and bold furniture that is as unique as you are.

Permission to Celebrate

Jan 24–Jan 31 2025
Miraki Life Workspace
35 Golden Avenue, Unit 114, Toronto
Reception: Jan 24 | 6 PM
Talk: Jan 31 | 6 PM

An immersive exhibition for self-celebration featuring interactive installations, a hypnosis lounge, and creative workshops. Participants are invited to explore intentional living, personal growth, and community, discovering a renewed sense of joy while blending work and humanness with unapologetic celebration.

Sculptural Ribbons in Clay

Jan 24–Feb 02 2025
Mararamiro
2090 Dundas Street West, Toronto

A new series of ceramic sculptures by Filipa Pimentel explores fluidity, movement, and the delicate balance between form and function. The flowing ribbons of porcelain offer a fresh, contemporary interpretation of organic form.