Programs | The World Around

Summit

In Focus

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SUMMIT

Our signature annual program brings world architecture's now, near and next to New York City, exploring the biggest issues of our time through the lens of design

Summit 2025April 27, 2025MoMA, NYC

Collaborating with the Ambasz Institute at MoMA, The World Around presented Architecture’s Now, Near & Next, uniting global visionaries and the second edition of the Young Climate Prize.

Summit 2024May 11, 2024Guggenheim, NYC

The fifth annual The World Around Summit explored the philosophy of homes and housing, the planetary resilience of landscape architecture and the unexpected architecture of skateboarding.

The multicolored entrance facade of the Reggio School by Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation

Summit 2023April 23, 2023Guggenheim, NYC

The World Around's 2023 summit was held on Earth Day and featured the inaugural Young Climate Prize award winners as well as a global panoply of inspiring speakers.

A concrete building with rough-hewn walls lit from within with a golden light against a background of forest-covered mountains.

Summit 2022February 05, 2022Guggenheim, NYC

The World Around joins forces with New York's Guggenheim and Rotterdam's Nieuwe Instituut for this special summit bringing together architecture's now, near and next for a hybrid program.

Summit 2021March 27, 2025Guggenheim, NYC

In the midst of the 2021 global Covid-19 lockdown, The World Around collaborated with the Guggenheim to gather inspiring stories from global architects, all recorded remotely and streamed online.

Summit 2020January 25, 2020TimesCenter, NYC

On Jan 25, 2020, The World Around held its inaugural Summit at the TimesCenter, with global voices from architecture & beyond, featuring Junya Ishigami, Bruce Mau, Liz Diller & more.

SUMMIT

“The work that The World Around does is deeply important to me because it creates space for the urgencies of our time. Not just in theory, but in practice…. It’s one of the few platforms that understands that the built environment is not just about buildings, but about bodies, rituals, landscapes, and the ways we relate to one another.”

In Focus

Our traveling series presents thematic deep-dives in collaboration with leading global cultural institutions

In Focus: TransformationFebruary 21, 2026Los Angeles

Join us in Los Angeles for The World Around In Focus: Transformation co-curated with Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain and presented by Hammer Museum.

Choru Visitor Center, a square building nestled in a valley.

In Focus: LandscapesDecember 07, 2024Shanghai

A series of live talks focused on the future of landscape architecture and design, conceived and co-curated by The World Around and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain.

Illustration of Jakarta, Indonesia, showing the locations of toxic matter and entangled social and environmental injustices in the city's water bodies.

In Focus: ResearchMarch 16, 2024London

A program of talks presented by The World Around & Future Observatory at the Design Museum, investigating the role of research in culture today

In Focus: Radical RepairSeptember 28, 2023Milan

Examining the possibility of an architecture of repair, from urbanism, grafting to indigenous identiies. Co-curated with Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain