International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam

The International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) is an independent cultural institution for knowledge and design that stimulates debate on how the societal challenges of our time translate into spatial challenges. Drawing on the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design, IABR brings together designers, policymakers, researchers and the wider public to develop new perspectives on the challenges of today and tomorrow. 

Every two years, IABR organises an international biennale featuring exhibitions, debates, lectures, workshops, guided tours and other public activities. It provides a setting in which design, research and society come together, creating new ideas, collaborations and pathways for action. 

Climate change, the energy transition, housing, water safety, food security, heat stress and a healthy living environment are ultimately all spatial challenges. Designers help to make these complex challenges tangible, envision possible alternatives and demonstrate how change can take shape. Design research is an important instrument and methodology for developing new insights and identifying pathways for action. 

Since its first edition in 2003, IABR has demonstrated how design and design research can contribute to societal change. Central to this is the development of a healthy, just and resilient living environment, in balance with people, nature and other ecosystems. 

From 18 September to 29 November 2026, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) presents its 12th edition: SYSTEMS OF SUPPORT. For more than 20 years, the IABR has brought together designers, researchers, policymakers, knowledge institutions and residents to explore how design can contribute to the major challenges facing society today.

With SYSTEMS OF SUPPORT, the IABR focuses on the systems that make our daily lives possible, from water, energy and materials to housing and infrastructure. Many of these systems are under pressure. How can we transform them to make them not only more efficient, but also fairer, more resilient and fit for the future? And what role can architecture, urban design and landscape architecture play?

At the Piekfabriek at the former Hunter Douglas site in Rotterdam, the biennale brings together an exhibition, an extensive public program and collaborations with partners. For many years, this was a place of industry and production. Today, the former factory site is being transformed into a new place to live and work. This makes it a fitting location for SYSTEMS OF SUPPORT. The changes taking place here raise questions about housing, energy, materials, the surrounding neighborhood and what we carry forward from the past. The site itself makes the themes of the biennale visible.