The World Around Summit 2026

Details

The World Around’s annual flagship program returns to NYC with presentations from Alejandro Aravena, Tatiana Bilbao, Piet Oudolf, Søren Pihlmann, Sara Zewde, and more.

The World Around, the global platform for architecture and design, and The Museum of Modern Art announce the international lineup for The World Around Summit 2026, an all-day program of presentations, panel discussions, and original videos highlighting the multidisciplinary voices at the forefront of “Architecture’s Now, Near & Next.”

Summit 2026 will take place on Saturday, May 9, from 11 AM to 6 PM at The Museum of Modern Art. The program 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.

Highlights from the program include three new videos commissioned by The World Around, exploring recent projects by Piet Oudolf, the celebrated Dutch garden designer who brought his distinct vision to the Calder Gardens in Philadelphia, and Danish architect Søren Pihlmann, whose practice’s renovation of a 1960s Copenhagen factory at Thoravej 29 demonstrates a radically conservative model of structural reuse.

The day will also feature a presentation from Mohamed Salem Mohamed Ali, a permaculture designer and the Young Climate Visionary winner from Cycle 02 of The World Around’s Young Climate Prize. Ali will share the improbable story of his Nomad Garden, an experimental farm he started in the Smara Sahrawi refugee camp, located in the Algerian Sahara—one of the driest places on Earth—to address water scarcity and food insecurity within his community.


The program will conclude with a major panel on mass housing, convening some of the most influential architects addressing the future of accommodating urban populations today. The discussion is conceived as an opportunity to bring the specific and grounded expertise of architects into the public sphere—offering concrete models, lessons, and policy-relevant ideas that could meaningfully contribute to NYC’s housing agenda.

The conversation will be moderated by Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times, and joined by Leila Bozorg, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning in New York City. Throughout her tenure in public service, Bozorg has played a central role in landmark initiatives including the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning reform, public housing preservation efforts leveraging billions in public and private investment, creating the City’s first comprehensive fair housing plan, and designing innovative housing finance and development programs.

Confirmed speakers include:

Alejandro Aravena, Executive Director, Elemental (Santiago, Chile)
Tatiana Bilbao, Founder, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio (Mexico City, Mexico)
Gabriela Carrillo, Founder, Colectivo C733 (Mexico City, Mexico)
Marie Combette & Daniel Moreno Flores, Founders, La Cabina de la Curiosidad (Quito, Ecuador)
François-Xavier Gbré, Photographer (Abidjan, Ivory Coast / Lille, France)
Roísín Heneghan, Founder, Heneghan Peng Architects (Dublin, Ireland)
Mariam Issoufou, Founder and Principal, Mariam Issoufou Architects (Niamey, Niger / New York City, USA)
Nguyễn Hải Long & Trần Thị Ngụ Ngôn, Founders, Tropical Space (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
Piet Oudolf, Garden Designer (Hummelo, Netherlands)
Søren Pihlmann, Founder, Pihlmann Architects (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Bas Smets, Founder, Bureau Bas Smets (Brussels, Belgium)
Peggy Weil, Artist and Designer (Los Angeles, USA)
Sara Zewde, Founding Principal, Studio Zewde (New York City, USA)
Mohamed Salem Mohamed Ali, Permaculture Designer and The World Around Young Climate Prize winner (Smara Camp, Tindouf Province, Algeria)