"Global Design Forum Istanbul concluded its inaugural edition between May 13 and 16, 2026, bringing together architects, designers, urbanists, and cultural practitioners through a city-wide programme of installations, talks, screenings, and public events. Presented by London Design Festival in collaboration with People Places Ideas, the forum was developed under the artistic direction of Melek Zeynep Bulut and the curatorial direction of Beatrice Galilee. Organized around the theme “Worlds in Contact,” the programme featured contributions from figures including Lina Ghotmeh, Marina Tabassum, Liam Young, Tom Dixon, Lesley Lokko, Ma Yansong, Andrew Waugh, and Olaf Grawer, positioning Istanbul as a platform for interdisciplinary discussions on design and the built environment."
"Over four days, the forum unfolded across a series of conversations and site-specific interventions hosted within Istanbul's historic urban fabric, including Hagia Irene, located within the Topkapı Palace complex. Rather than separating architecture from broader cultural and environmental questions, the programme positioned design as a civic and collective practice shaped by ecology, memory, identity, and public life. This perspective informed sessions such as Nothing New Under the Sun, where Ma Yansong, Andrew Waugh, Han Tümertekin, and Olaf Grawert discussed adaptive reuse, anti-demolition approaches, and the potential of working with existing material resources."
"Similar themes emerged in The Museum Has Left the Building, where Alper Derinboğaz, Beral Madra, Ömer Selçuk Baz, Guta Moura Guedes, and Anastasia Sinitsyna examined the museum as an evolving public framework informed by accessibility, ecology, and community participation rather than as a fixed institutional typology. The programme also explored speculative and socially engaged perspectives on architecture and urbanism. Liam Young's Planet City, presented alongside a live performance by Forest Swords, combined"
Global Design Forum Istanbul ran from May 13 to 16, 2026, bringing together architects, designers, urbanists, and cultural practitioners through city-wide installations, talks, screenings, and public events. The programme, themed “Worlds in Contact,” was presented by London Design Festival in collaboration with People Places Ideas, with artistic direction by Melek Zeynep Bulut and curatorial direction by Beatrice Galilee. Activities took place across Istanbul’s historic urban fabric, including Hagia Irene within the Topkapı Palace complex. Design was framed as a collective civic practice shaped by ecology, memory, identity, and public life. Sessions addressed adaptive reuse, anti-demolition approaches, and museums as evolving public frameworks grounded in accessibility, ecology, and community participation.
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