2026: Worlds in Motion

Global Design Forum is London Design Festival's curated thought leadership talks programme.The theme of this year’s edition isWorlds in Motionand the programme will explore the exchange of ideas, culture, context and expertise. Across three days, the programme will bring together speakers from a range of disciplines and geographies to discuss new practices and forms of design, those that will inform our way of living - looking at how design is a catalyst for global change.London Design Festival is pleased to introduceRhiarna Dhaliwalas the curator of this year’s edition. Rhiarna is a British-Indian architectural designer, researcher and curator whose practice explores the intersection of design, technology, ecology and geopolitics. A Design Researchers in Residence alumna at the Design Museum, co-founder of the interdisciplinary collective Xcessive Aesthetics, and having co-led Studio Digital Native at Design Academy Eindhoven for the past four years and been an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, her work spans exhibitions, research and public programmes. Her curation of the Global Design Forum brings together internationally recognised voices from across design, architecture, science, culture and business to examine the ideas shaping our future.With thanks to our Programme Partners — Bowmore and Sun Media Group, and Session Partners — Ithra and L-Acoustics.Day 1 | Saturday | 12 September:Designing FuturesTechnologies are no longer simply design tools, they are increasingly embedded within the systems and decisions that shape everyday life. As computational systems, and emerging technologies transform how we live, interact and create, Global Design Forum explores how these shifts are changing the role of the designer. From human–machine collaboration to new forms of authorship and creative practice, it considers how designers can question, reappropriate and reshape technology, embracing experimentation and uncertainty to play an active role in the futures it creates.Day 2 | Sunday | 13 September:Designing AtmospheresSupported By Programme Partner BowmoreDesign extends beyond what we see. It exists in the atmospheres we inhabit, the sounds we hear, the materials we touch, and increasingly, mediate and encounter at a distance. Through conversations spanning colour, sound, light, taste and contemporary craft, the programme explores how design shapes perception and embodies spatial experiences. From immersive technologies to sensory environments and practices of making, it considers how the intangible qualities of design impact the way we feel and interact with the world, revealing design as something experienced as much as observed.Day 3 | Monday | 14 September:Designing Common GroundsSupported By Programme Partner Sun Media GroupDesign is a vessel through which cultural knowledge, craft and ways of living are constantly renewed. Through conversations spanning heritage, material culture, architecture and collective practice, Global Design Forum explores how inherited traditions, oral histories and local knowledge continue to shape contemporary design. From the reflective qualities of making to collaborative approaches to community-led practice and regenerative material systems, the forum considers how design can deepen our connection with ourselves, one another and the environments we share.