Architecture and design exhibitions you need to see in 2026

Elsa Schiaparelli, a pivotal figure in 20th-century couture, revolutionized fashion through a free and open approach to experimentation, combining visual insights derived primarily from her proximity to the Surrealists with technical innovations. From March 28, 2026, the V&A in London will dedicate the first major retrospective in England to her creative talent: a journey from the 1920s to the present day, including the most contemporary creations under the artistic direction of Daniel Roseberry. Over two hundred pieces will be on display, including clothes, accessories, jewelry, works of art, and archival materials, to showcase Schiaparelli's genius, her network of collaborations, and the entrepreneurial role that defined the Maison, also presenting iconic garments such as Skeleton and Tears, created in collaboration with Salvador Dalí.

To celebrate its fifth anniversary, M+ welcomes a generous donation from Herzog & de Meuron, designers of the Hong Kong museum. The exhibition, which opens on September 12, 2026, brings together models, drawings, and material samples that document their innovative design practice, with a focus on projects developed in China, whether built or unfinished: from the M+ museum completed in 2020, to Tai Kwun, also in Hong Kong, to the National Stadium in Beijing, as well as urban interventions that highlight how territory and landscape are crucial in defining urban conformation. The works on display reflect the deep dialogue that the firm has been engaged in with China since the 2000s, in a context of incredible economic growth and major infrastructural transformations.

“If you can't find it, design it yourself”: this is the motto that has defined the long and successful career of Lella and Massimo Vignelli, one of the most brilliant couples in Italian design. The Triennale is dedicating a major retrospective to them, retracing the duo's fundamental role in the development of international design and graphics. Through a rich selection of objects, furnishings, sketches, photographs, manuals, brands, and publications, the exhibition reconstructs their personal and professional journey, from post-war Italy to 1960s New York. The exhibition project, created in collaboration with their children Valentina and Luca and the Vignelli Center for Design Studies at the Rochester Institute of Technology, draws on an archive of over 700,000 documents that testify to the breadth and consistency of their design approach over more than fifty years.

The retrospective Hella Jongerius: Whispering Things traces over thirty years of research by one of the key figures in contemporary design. Hosted by the Vitra Design Museum, this is the first exhibition to cover the entire breadth of Jongerius' work, including textiles, ceramics, and furniture, along with her famous collaborations with Maharam, KLM, Camper, and Vitra. Jongerius' rich archive, acquired in 2024 by the museum in Weil am Rein, reveals the variety of the designer's experimental processes and the critical reflection on the role of design in society that has guided her over the decades.

What does it mean today to talk about “Black Aesthetic” and who is really driving its evolution in contemporary visual culture? The fall 2026 exhibition at the Design Museum in London addresses this question by focusing on designers who are helping to transform the British design landscape, such as Mac Collins, Samuel Ross, Bianca Saunders, and Giles Tettey Nartey. From design to architecture to fashion, the exhibition explores how identity, culture, and personal experience influence creative processes. The title of the exhibition, curated by Charlene Prempeh with the Design Museum, references the Black Aesthetic of the 1960s and the New Black Aesthetic of the 1980s, reinterpreting them in a contemporary key: Nue, from nuer (“to blur”), alludes to the complexity and multiple nuances of the present day.

In the heart of 18th-century Paris, the hôtel particulier—a type of aristocratic residence particularly widespread in the 18th century—was the setting for a new way of life based on elegance, functionality, and refined social codes. The exhibition at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris reconstructs this universe by exploring the French art de vivre through daily life in a private residence, the epitome of urban luxury. The exhibition takes visitors from the street to the courtyard and garden, then inside the house where, from morning to night, rituals, new comforts, and strict social rules take shape: personal hygiene, housekeeping, child-rearing, roles in domestic life, with each room revealing innovations in lighting, heating, and hygiene.

The exhibition Helmut Lang. Séance de Travail 1986–2005 at the MAK in Vienna is the first major retrospective dedicated to the Austrian designer's work. With site-specific installations and a wide selection of materials from the Helmut Lang Archive, donated to the MAK in 2011, the exhibition highlights his creative process and the radical vision with which Lang, constantly moving between Vienna, Paris, and New York, redefined the codes of fashion and identity. With his “Séances de Travail” (work sessions), he reshaped the traditional fashion show, focusing on the intersection between fashion, architecture, sound, and the public. But Lang was also a pioneer of experimentation in communication – from the first online show in 1998 to advertisements on New York yellow cabs – anticipating contemporary digital aesthetics by more than twenty years.

What would happen if design stopped thinking only about humans and started to include all forms of life? More than Human – Design meets Nature, at the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, explores this perspective with over 140 works by international artists, designers, and architects such as Formafantasma, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Julia Lohmann, Feifei Zhou, Paulo Tavares, and the MOTH collective (More Than Human Life Project). Their projects, ranging from habitats for invertebrates and pollinators to algae installations and multispecies maps, are the result of the synergy between scientific research, new technologies, and traditional knowledge.

The first major museum retrospective dedicated to Kho Liang Ie (1927–1975) at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam restores the importance that the designer had in the Dutch and European design scene between the late 1950s and the mid-1970s. Born into a Chinese family that had been rooted in Indonesia for generations, he brought an open vision to design, drawing inspiration from the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, and Italy, combining functionality and material sensitivity. One of the leading figures of mid-century modernism, he collaborated with Rietveld, Crouwel, and Hicks, and at the time of his death in 1975, he was about to start a project with Norman Foster. Many of his creations are still in production today: from furniture for Artifort to Mosa tiles, to the famous slatted ceiling at Schiphol Airport, installed in 1967.

The Japan Modern Poster exhibition traces the evolution of Japanese graphic design from the post-war period to the present day through a selection of iconic posters. From the pioneering generation that assimilated Western models after World War II to develop an autonomous language, the exhibition follows designers who grew up during the economic boom, protagonists of a season of strong innovation and international recognition. Alongside works linked to the prosperity of the period, images emerge that address social issues and invoke peace, revealing the hidden side of that modernization. The exhibition also includes art directors of the digital age, authors of new experiments and visions, highlighting the vitality and universality of Japanese poster culture.

The embassies that Marcel Breuer and John Johansen designed for the United States mark the moment when modernism met international politics. The exhibition at the Onera Foundation, running until March 26, 2026, analyzes the mid-century diplomatic headquarters in The Hague and Dublin designed by the two architects, members of the Harvard Five, the famous group formed at Harvard and active in New Canaan since the 1940s. After creating some of their most innovative residential works in that community, Breuer and Johansen brought to diplomacy the modern language developed through experimentation in the domestic setting, but also a new way of seeing the relationship between architecture and the environment.

Art of Noise, at Cooper Hewitt in New York from February 13 to July 19, 2026, explores how design has contributed to changing the listening experience over the last hundred years. With over three hundred objects and works from the Cooper Hewitt and SFMOMA collections, the exhibition traces the evolution of the relationship between sound, objects, and everyday technology through posters, album covers, radios, hi-fi systems, and portable devices –from CD players to Walkmans to iPods. Two immersive installations enhance the experience: Swedish company Teenage Engineering presents a choir of sound sculptures, while artist Devon Turnbull (OJAS) has created the HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3.