A new international platform for Design in İstanbul.
Global Design Forum İstanbul is launching a new programme of talks, installations and citywide experiences taking place 13–16 May 2026 in İstanbul, Türkiye.
Organised in collaboration with People Places Ideas (PPI), this is a new design platform where global perspectives and İstanbul’s living cultural landscape meet. The Forum brings global voices into conversation with local contexts, traditions and futures – creating an innovative space for design, culture and ideas in one of the world’s most layered cities.
At its core, Global Design Forum İstanbul is a thought leadership programme, featuring two days of curated keynotes, panels and in-conversations shaped around the theme Worlds in Contact.
Across the four days, the programme extends beyond the Forum through citywide programming including İstanbullar: Design Route, public installations, and a design competition, creating encounters that move between ideas, places and people across the city.
Artistic Direction is led by Melek Zeynep Bulut, Founder of People & Places & Ideas, with curation by Forum Content Advisor Beatrice Galilee. The core team is supported by Beral Madra (Art & Culture Advisor) and Celâleddin Çelik (Architectural Advisor).
Worlds in Contact explores how design moves across cultures, histories and futures. Curated by Melek Zeynep Bulut (Artistic Director) with Beatrice Galilee (Forum Content Advisor), the programme frames İstanbul as a meeting point where Eastern and Western design traditions meet, reshape one another, and generate new possibilities. Under the guidance of Beral Madra (Art & Culture Advisor) and Celâleddin Çelik (Architectural Advisor), the 2026 edition invites speakers, practitioners and publics into a dialogue that spans keynote conversations, walking routes, public installations and a citywide design competition.
Global Design Forum İstanbul is launching a new programme of talks, installations and citywide experiences taking place 13–16 May 2026 in İstanbul, Türkiye. Organised in collaboration with People Places Ideas (PPI), this is a new design platform where global perspectives and İstanbul's living cultural landscape meet. The Forum brings global voices into conversation with local contexts, traditions and futures - creating an innovative space for design, culture and ideas in one of the world's most layered cities. At its core, Global Design Forum İstanbul is a thought leadership programme, featuring two days of curated keynotes, panels and in-conversations shaped around the theme Worlds in Contact. Across the four days, the programme extends beyond the Forum through citywide programming including İstanbullar: Design Route, public installations, and a design competition, creating encounters that move between ideas, places and people across the city. Artistic Direction is led by Melek Zeynep Bulut, Founder of People & Places & Ideas, with curation by Forum Content Advisor Beatrice Galilee. The core team is supported by Beral Madra (Art & Culture Advisor) and Celâleddin Çelik (Architectural Advisor).
Topkapı Palace, Istanbul · View on map
14 May Thursday
-
10:00
10:30
WELCOME / INTRODUCTION
-
10:30
12:00
SESSION ONE: WORLDS IN CONTACT
-
12:00
13:00
SESSION TWO: DESIGNING DESIGN WORLDS
-
13:00
13:30
SESSION THREE: PLANET CITY
-
13:30
15:00
LUNCH
-
15:00
16:00
SESSION FOUR: DESIGN OF OUR TIME
-
16:00
17:30
SESSION FIVE: THE MUSEUM HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
-
17:30
18:30
SESSION SIX: HUSSEIN CHALAYAN KEYNOTE + TOWN HALL
15 May Friday
-
10:00
11:00
SESSION ONE: WORLDS IN CODE
-
11:00
12:00
SESSION TWO: NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
-
12:00
13:00
SESSION THREE: IDENTITY & DESIGN
-
13:00
14:30
LUNCH
-
15:30
16:00
SESSION FOUR: WORLDS IN HANDS
-
16:00
17:00
SESSION FIVE: WATER BUFFALO & OTHER STORIES (sustainability/ecology)
-
17:00
18:00
SESSION SIX: MARINA TABASSUM KEYNOTE + TOWN HALL
-
17:00
18:00
K IS FOR KARAOKE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSFORMATION
