As if it wasn't intense enough three weeks ago, I had booked a city trip for my one-year-old son and myself to Copenhagen for #3daysofdesign 🇩🇰. As a working mom who is always mentally on the go, this was too much for me. But I couldn't resist making the impossible possible again. Three days of quality time with my little one, surrounded by design, exhibitions, first-class architecture and urban culture. It sounded tempting, the universe threw me signs and we set off 💫.

Copenhagen reminds me of St. Petersburg, a bit of Amsterdam and Hamburg. Of course, we couldn't visit all the event points in three days. Gabriel's interests also had to be taken into account. Visiting a few showrooms - then throwing a few stones into the canal. Chatting with designers, then rocking on a woven outdoor chair for a long time. We're a team and we both want to have fun 👍.

I have summarized my spontaneous and unstructured insights for you:

✅ A completely different event to DDW, much more furniture-focused, with a much more classic home interior character. The difference to the Eindhoven product and technology world is due to its origins. The Copenhagen showrooms are often based on a different aesthetic, more love of tradition than critical, disruptive, raw innovation. Here, ideas seemed more mature and ready for the market. The audience too: more mature professionals and more settled mindsets with experience.

✅ The architecture center in BLOX has impressed me the most so far. A multifunctional building with exhibition spaces, coworking spaces, indoor and outdoor areas for families and excellent gastronomy. Among other things, we came across the "Awareness" exhibition: Immersive spaces were created for numerous architectural projects prior to construction, presenting the effects of concrete architectural moves in a tangibly oversized way. Walk through and experience architecture before it is built.

✅ New manufacturers with sustainable production, the use of circular materials and simply cool objects and solutions have been added to the renowned and already well-known manufacturers in my design library. As usual, I'm looking forward to using them in my new projects and providing your brand spaces with fresh inspiration 🎁!

✅ And now a very deep architectural insight! An authentic architectural landscape of the city is created when it is built using a certain technology typical of the time. When treated with appreciation, an overview of it emerges generations later, a meta-level of this past zeitgeist. New architecture is created on this original basis, adopting its characteristics, such as proportions and/or materiality, and integrating itself gently into a natural environment that has evolved over time. Can you follow me? Copenhagen is, it feels, riddled with such developments, which is a real pleasure for a critical eye. I miss something like that in Germany. I wonder what Germany would look like if past Zeitgeist architecture hadn't been destroyed in the war... I wonder how my Russia will cope with this trauma 😞.

✅ At the airport, I was kindly let through security without unpacking ("she's traveling alone with the child"). Thank you for that. I just hope that a woman with darker skin and a headscarf would also be let through without being checked. Unfortunately, I have seen some families being full-program-searched.

✅ I experienced so many present moments with my little one over these three days. I really slowed down, sat next to him, watched and supported him. And then sometimes suddenly poked his cheek with my nose: smells like a fresh brioche 🥰. Despite my cold and all the hurdles, I am very grateful for this time with the two of us 🙏.

The highlights of the event and the city have shown me that there is so much more to discover! On the way back, as I rushed past gift stores with beautiful Danish decorations, I realized that I really must come back next year. This time with more support and more time for myself.