Mid-September is a vernissage-packed time in the German capital, with almost every art gallery in the city opening its autumn show during the annual Berlin Art Week. And, thanks to Currents – a new festival that presented the work of local designers and manufacturers across more than 60 venues last weekend – another industry has crashed the party.

You might ask, “Who needs another design fair?” After all, even the finest pieces of furniture might find it hard to compete with Berlin’s high-calibre artists and museums. The showcase was also taking place around the same time as design weeks in London, Paris and Zürich. So it helped that Currents, founded by journalists Jasmin Jouhar and Laura Ewert, wasn’t jostling for the dollars of international collectors or a jet-set crowd but catering to everyday Berliners. Refreshingly, the furniture on show was almost all contemporary and fairly affordable.

As I wandered through various event venues, I found plenty of objects that I suddenly felt I needed in my life. Berlin-based studio Gonzalez Haase AAS and Munich’s Marbledworks presented small side tables assembled from coloured marble, which could be mixed and matched or stacked into a shelf – precious stone in a portable, unfussy form. Daftar made perforated steel versions of cake doilies, which they used to serve up tea and ice cream in a Kreuzberg carpet shop. Cutlery brand Mono launched an instant Berlin essential by Universität der Künste student Oskar Poetsch: a tool that serves as a French-fry fork, ice-cream spoon and bottle opener all in one, and can be attached to a keychain.

Part of the fun was exploring the venues themselves. All weekend, a motorcycle-themed bar operated within the Eternithaus in Hansaviertel. Fourteen designers had set up shop at Jalousiefabrik, an abandoned shutter factory in Kreuzberg that Berlin-based firm Bächlemeid and Taneli Mansikkamäki Architects will soon convert into apartments. Many vast, disused warehouses were filled with new design (if, admittedly, of uneven quality).

One of the highlights of Berlin Art Week was also architectural. Just for the weekend, the Neue Nationalgalerie arranged a public peek into the still-incomplete Museum des 20 Jahrhunderts next door. The huge construction site’s floor was the perfect setting for screenings of the work of artist Gordon Matta-Clark who, in the 1970s, filmed himself cutting a circle through an apartment building and slicing a suburban home in half.

It felt as though this curatorial stunt was for local residents rather than art-world sharks. People like to complain that Berlin has changed but the city still has plenty of disused and unfinished spaces, and smart people finding uses for them. Few places are better for people who create, make and build – and for those of us who just enjoy the results.

Stella Roos is Monocle’s design correspondent.

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