May 9, 2026, 11am
New York NY 10019
USA
The World Around, the global platform for architecture and design, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York are proud to present The World Around Summit 2026 on Saturday, May 9, from 11am to 6pm.
Held annually in person and online since 2020, the Summit is an all-day convening bringing together the now, near and next of contemporary architecture. Practitioners and thought-leaders join to present newly-completed buildings, research, landscapes, and civic projects, and discuss the works and ideas shaping the present and defining the future of architectural practice.
This year’s program is organized around three themes: Landscapes, Cultural Heritage, and Housing, exploring ways in which architects are confronting the environmental and social conditions that define our time.
Tickets for Summit 2026 are free and available now. Seats in the theater are limited and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. As part of The World Around’s mission to make the best ideas in architecture and design accessible to all, a livestream will also be available. More information on how to access the program can be found on The World Around website.
Confirmed speakers include:
Bureau Bas Smets (Belgium)—Seven years on from the fire that ravaged Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral, Bas Smets will discuss how his office has designed its surrounding public spaces to reframe the city as an “urban biosphere”
La Cabina de la Curiosidad (Ecuador)—Founders Marie Combette and Daniel Moreno Flores will discuss how their Chaki Wasi handicrafts center, built in collaboration with the Shalalá Indigenous community, embodies Andean culture through traditional building techniques
Colectivo C733 (Mexico)—Gabriela Carrillo will share how her collective’s design for the Bacalar Eco-Park has created a delicate tourist infrastructure at a lagoon home to the world’s largest freshwater bacterial reef
Elemental (Chile)—Alejandro Aravena will share global lessons from his practice's innovative low-budget housing projects in South America, where the "Do Tank" has defined a new model of provision in the face of constraint
François-Xavier Gbré (Ivory Coast)—Through a selection of recent projects, the photographer will discuss the built environment as an evolving record of economic development, social change, and memory
Heneghan Peng Architects (Ireland)—Founder Róisín Heneghan will share how the studio defined a contemporary architectural language in dialogue with ancient Giza at the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum
Mohamed Salem Mohamed Ali (Algeria)—The World Around Young Climate Prize winner will share the story of his Nomad Garden, an experimental farm he created in the Smara Sahrawi refugee camp to address protracted food insecurity within his community
Peggy Weil (United States)—Presenting two video installations from her “extended landscapes” series, the artist and designer will explore her penetrating approach to visualizing planetary change
Piet Oudolf (Netherlands)—The celebrated garden designer behind New York’s High Line will offer reflections from his latest major commission: Calder Gardens in Philadelphia
Pihlmann Architects (Denmark)—Presenting his practice’s renovation of a 1960s Copenhagen factory into community hub at Thoravej 29, Søren Pihlmann will speak to a radically conservative model of structural reuse
Studio Zewde (United States)—Landscape architect Sara Zewde will present her studio’s redesign of the grounds surrounding the Dia Beacon, a contemporary art museum in upstate New York, which honors the deeper histories of the site to build climate resilience for the future
Tatiana Bilbao Estudio (Mexico)—Drawing on her studio’s extensive research developing models to address Mexico’s critical shortage of homes, Tatiana Bilbao will discuss the future of housing provision in an ever-warming, urbanizing world
Tropical Space (Vietnam)—Founders Trần Thị Ngụ Ngôn and Nguyễn Hải Long will discuss how their design for the Terra Cotta Workshop and visitor center in rural Vietnam was built around a living local craft tradition
waiwai (Dubai/Tokyo)—Wael Al Awar will present his studio’s masterplan for the multi-layered revitalization of Bukhara’s heritage district
Summit 2026 is co-organized by Beatrice Galilee, founder and executive director of The World Around, and Martino Stierli, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, marking the second collaboration between the two institutions.
The World Around is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and is supported by its board of directors and Global Cultural Partner the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and its Partner UniFor. The Summit is made possible thanks to the generosity of individual and corporate members of The World Around Circles. For inquiries about partnering with The World Around, please contact: inquiries[at]theworldaround.org.
