Architectural Events 2026

Hans Ulrich Obrist Archives Ch. 6: Zaha Hadid — “I Think There Should Be No End to Experimentation”

LUMA Arles, The Tower, France – Exhibition

LUMA Arles presents the sixth chapter of Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Archives series, dedicated entirely to Zaha Hadid. Marking the tenth anniversary of her passing, the exhibition brings together drawings, models, and archival material that trace the boundless experimental ambition of one of architecture’s most transformative visionaries — installed inside Frank Gehry’s monumental Tower at the Parc des Ateliers in Arles.

1 May 2026 – 31 March 2027

Maritime City

South Street Seaport Museum, New York – Exhibition

Opening October 1, 2025, this exhibition at the historic A. A. Thomson and Co. building within the South Street Seaport Museum in NYC runs all the way through December 31, 2026. It showcases New York’s deep maritime roots and their enduring influence on the city’s global cultural and financial identity, weaving together architecture, trade, and urban history across one of Manhattan’s oldest streetscapes.

1 October 2025 – 31 December 2026

He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model

Museum of the City of New York – Exhibition

The Museum of the City of New York presents this ongoing exhibition celebrating a handmade architectural model of New York City constructed over 21 years by Queens-born artist Joe Macken. On display in the Dinan Miller Gallery through December 31, 2026, it marks the first time the model has been publicly presented — a staggering labour of love and an extraordinary document of the city in miniature.

12 February – 31 December 2026

Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses

Brooklyn Museum, New YorkFashion & Design Exhibition

The North American debut of this sweeping retrospective celebrates one of the most innovative fashion designers of the 21st century. Running May 16 through December 6, 2026, on the fifth floor of the Brooklyn Museum, the show explores van Herpen’s boundary-dissolving practice where couture, architecture, science, and natural phenomena converge into wearable sculpture that challenges what clothing — and building — can be.

16 May – 6 December 2026

Helter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince

Ca’ Corner della Regina, Venice, Italy – Exhibition

Fondazione Prada presents this major two-person exhibition at its Venetian venue, coinciding with the 61st Venice Art Biennale and running through November 23, 2026. Curated by Nancy Spector, former Artistic Director of the Guggenheim, the show brings together Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince in a dialogue around image, appropriation, and the visual language of American culture — raw, confrontational, and deeply felt.

9 May – 23 November 2026

National Pavilion UAE at La Biennale di Venezia 2026

Studio 19, Abu Dhabi / Venice, Italy – Venice Biennale

Curated by Bana Kattan, Associate Head of Exhibitions at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project, the UAE Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition runs through November 22, 2026. The presentation engages with ideas of identity, place, and cultural narrative, positioning the UAE’s creative voice within one of the most prestigious international art platforms in the world.

9 May – 22 November 2026

Hybrids. Leandro Erlich at Negozio Olivetti 2026

Negozio Olivetti, Piazza San Marco, Venice – Solo Exhibition

A solo exhibition by Argentine artist Leandro Erlich running May 9 through November 22, 2026, at the historic Negozio Olivetti in Piazza San Marco — one of Venice’s most architecturally significant retail spaces, designed by Carlo Scarpa. A collateral event of the 61st Venice Biennale, the show presents surreal sculptural forms that blur the boundaries between architecture, nature, and the human figure in ways only Erlich can engineer.

9 May – 22 November 2026

CONVIVIUM: Food Systems at the Limit 2026

Architekturmuseum der TUM, Munich, Germany – Exhibition

The Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Munich presents this major exhibition exploring the spatial, architectural, and territorial dimensions of global food production, running April 22 through October 18, 2026, at the Pinakothek der Moderne. Through large-scale installation, drawing, and photography by Johannes Schwartz and others, CONVIVIUM asks what it means to feed the world — and what architectures make it possible or impossible.

22 April – 18 October 2026

NIGO: From Japan with Love

Design Museum, London, UK – Retrospective

The Design Museum in London presents the first museum retrospective of Japanese creative director NIGO outside of Japan, running May 1 through October 4, 2026. Featuring over 700 objects charting a career spanning more than thirty years across fashion, music, architecture, and interior design, the exhibition is a dazzling survey of one of the most influential creative minds to emerge from Tokyo’s street culture and into the global design conversation.

1 May – 4 October 2026

Cao Fei: Dash

Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy – Multimedia Exhibition

Fondazione Prada presents this new multimedia project by Chinese artist Cao Fei at its Milan headquarters, running April 9 through September 28, 2026. The exhibition occupies the ground and first floors of the Podium — OMA’s central exhibition building — and is produced in close collaboration with Fondazione Prada. Cao Fei’s work navigates digital reality, labour, identity, and the accelerated pace of contemporary life with characteristic wit and visual invention.

9 April – 28 September 2026

Architecture of Connection

Austrian Cultural Forum, New YorkSolo Exhibition

A major solo exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York dedicated to the work of internationally renowned Austrian architect Dietmar Feichtinger and his Paris-based studio, running March 5 through September 20, 2026. Founded in 1994, the practice has developed a distinctive approach grounded in structural clarity, technical precision, and sustained engagement with public space — bridges, civic infrastructure, and the connective tissue of cities.

5 March – 20 September 2026

William Kentridge: The Battle Between YES and NO 2026

Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, Czech Republic – ExhibitionKč160

The first large-scale presentation of William Kentridge in the Czech Republic, running April 16 through September 7, 2026, at Kunsthalle Praha. The exhibition brings together drawing, animation, film, sculpture, and installation within a single spatial narrative that reflects his multidisciplinary approach — a sweeping, politically charged meditation on resistance, doubt, and the contested nature of truth, assembled by one of contemporary art’s most urgent voices.

16 April – 7 September 2026

Gerrit Rietveld: Wealth of Sobriety 2026

Center for Architecture, New York – Exhibition

Presented at the Center for Architecture in New York through September 2, 2026, this exhibition examines the residential work of Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld through photography, archival interpretation, and modernist design history. It positions Rietveld’s radical domestic interiors — stripped of ornament, precise in geometry — within wider conversations about minimalism, space, and the everyday life of twentieth-century modernism.

7 May – 2 September 2026

Calder. Rêver en équilibre 2026

Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France – Exhibition

Held at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris through August 16, 2026, this exhibition is dedicated to Alexander Calder and explores his practice across sculpture, movement, and spatial composition. Staged within Frank Gehry’s remarkable museum building, the architecture itself becomes an active part of the curatorial experience — a fitting container for an artist whose life’s work was making space kinetic, unpredictable, and alive.

15 April – 16 August 2026

Isamu Noguchi: ‘I am not a designer’

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, USARetrospective

The artist’s first design retrospective in nearly twenty-five years, running April 10 through August 2, 2026, at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Featuring nearly two hundred objects — many never or rarely exhibited — the show spans all facets of Noguchi’s output across architecture, industrial design, stage sets, ceramics, and sculpture. It is an expansive, overdue portrait of a singular artist who spent a lifetime defying every category ever assigned to him.

10 April – 2 August 2026