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ICOM DESIGN ANNUAL CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS| BARCELONA 2026

The Architect Beyond the Building: Design and the Decorative Arts 

Host institution: Museu Nacional D'Art Catalunya (MNAC)

Dates: 11–12 November 2026 (Conference); 13–14 November November 2026 (Post-Conference Tour)

In 2026 Barcelona has been designated the World Capital of Architecture and  commemorates the anniversary of the death of the architect Antoni Gaudí, whose  imprint has shaped the city and its Mediterranean identity. 

Within this context, the 2026 annual meeting of ICOM DESIGN, to be held at the  Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), focuses on the figure of the architect  beyond the traditional role associated with architectural and urban projects. The  conference will revolve around architectural practice through the lens of design,  craftsmanship, and the intimate scale. 

This call invites papers that examine the wide range of outputs that architects  contribute to as part of, or outside of, building projects, including: furniture, glass,  lacquer, ceramics, jewellery, and goldsmithing; fashion and textiles; as well as graphic  design, mural painting, muséographie, and atmosphere, while also addressing the  fields of interior design and architectural ornamentation.  

We welcome submissions that explore these multidisciplinary practices beyond the  large scale, addressing projects, creative processes, and cultural influences from the  Middle Ages to the present day and across the globe.  

Could the intimate scale of design be the true space in which an architect’s identity is  manifested? What does an architect bring to the design of smaller scale objects or  interiors that makes their practice unique? How, in which historical contexts and for  which audiences have architects employed traditional techniques and crafts to enrich  sensorial experience? What are the challenges in conservation, exhibition, and  restoration of this heritage? What intimate stories are behind the creation of the  designs? How do architects use design as a bridge to imagine and construct other  possible worlds or to create playful and imaginative works?  

Proposals offering critical perspectives may consider (but are not limited to) the  following themes: 

- Architecture, a home for the total arts 

- Design and architectural photography 

- Material practices and intimate craft 

- Identity and gender 

- Heritage, conservation and collections

- Microarchitectures 

- Visionary, utopian, and playful creations 

- Sustainability, circularity, and materials 

This international congress aims to gather a limited number of contributions,  representing original studies and intended to foster discussion at the intersection of  academic and curatorial scholarship and professional practice.  

Why MNAC? 

The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), in Barcelona is an ideal site for this  productive dialogue, as an institution dedicated to all artistic disciplines from the  Romanesque period to the twenty-first century, and it houses a unique collection of  decorative arts by architects such as Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol, artists who  pushed the boundaries. 

The museum is entering a new phase marked by an ambitious expansion project at the  Palau Victoria Eugènia, scheduled for completion in 2029 to coincide with the  centenary of the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. This expansion will further  strengthen the Museum’s role as an institution without chronological or stylistic  boundaries, capable of representing and promoting the full scope of Catalan artistic  production.  

The ICOM DESIGN meeting in Barcelona proposes a rich programme of visits to  significant historical sites and museums throughout the city and its surroundings, while  engaging with contemporary collections and makers. 

How do I apply?  

- Abstract of 300-400 words 

- Short Resume 

- Submit to icom-design-2026@museunacional.cat by June 30th. - Notification of acceptance: 15 July 2026  

- Post-conference tour: 13–14 November 2026 

Participants will be expected to give their presentations in English, which should last 15  minutes and include a visual presentation component. Proposals will be peer reviewed  and the results of the conference may be published. 

Presenters will be expected to cover their own registration and travel expenses. Travel  grants for young ICOM members (under 40 years old) will be available. Information will  follow for those applications.  

Membership requirements 

Please note that all participants must be individual members or representatives of  institutional members of ICOM DESIGN at the time of the conference. 

Find more information about how to become a member of ICOM and ICOM-DESIGN  here: https://icom.museum/en/get-involved

The full program of our three sessions and the IC day are online here.

There are three ICOM–DESIGN sessions held at the Dubai General Conference and one IC Day of site visits:

1. A-10 (DESIGN, GLASS) - Adornment and Identity (12th November 2025)
2. B-7 (DESIGN, DEMHIST) - Adornment and Identity in Spatial Design and Objects (12th November 2025)
3. C-7 (COSTUME, DESIGN) - Adornment and Identity (13th November 2025)
4. IC Day - Dubai’s Decorative Arts, Design, and Intangible Heritage (15th November 2025, all day)

For registration, click here: Design Collection Displays Reassessed – Nasjonalmuseet

Premeditated, Nye Nasjonalmuseet (2022) (2), CC BY-SA 4.0

Welcome to ICOM-DESIGN’s international symposium at the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo!

The Design Collection Displays Reassessed symposium will explore collection displays as sites of knowledge exchange and active engagement. It will interrogate how design objects and interiors are displayed, discussed and interpreted, and for whom. What does curating these kinds of collection displays represent and mean today? And how might this practice look in the future? What new museological approaches are needed? We look forward to meeting in person to discuss and debate an ever-changing field – a conversation between scholars and practitioners across borders, institutions and disciplines.

Keynote speakers are Corinna Gardner, Senior Curator, Design and Digital, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Dr Sebastian Hackenschmidt, Curator of Furniture and Woodwork, MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Marco Magni, founder and chief architect, and Maria Cristina Rizzello, architect and partner, Guicciardini & Magni Architetti, Florence, and Dr Leena Svinhufvud, Lead Researcher, Architecture & Design Museum, Helsinki; all leading scholars within the field. The other speakers, all international, will contribute with talks grouped according to the following themes: Approaches to Reinstallations, Perspectives on House Museums, Sustainability and Self-Questioning, Design Mediating Design or Exploring Process and On Specificity and Subject Matter.

Thursday September 25, 2025, 16:00 Paris, 10:00 New York, 23:00 Tokyo
Online Zoom Meeting (approx. 1 hour program)

This talk will explore the exhibition The Shakers: A World in the Making. Co-organized by Vitra Design Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, and the Milwaukee Art Museum, with significant support from the Shaker Museum, the exhibition explores the architecture, design, and material culture of the Shakers, a religious community founded in the late 18th century in the United States.
 
Organized around principles of communitarianism, pacifism, and celibacy, the Shakers made much of what they needed to build and maintain their communities, largely separated from the rest of the US. A World in the Making also features seven contemporary artists and designers, whose newly-commissioned works sit in dialogue with Shaker objects and invites visitors to consider how the Shakers might provide insight into the challenges and questions of contemporary life. 

Join co-curators Mea Hoffmann (VDM), Hallie Ringle (ICA Philadelphia), and Shoshana Resnikoff (MAM) as they detail the development of the exhibition, its themes, and the many challenges and opportunities presented by the rich and complex history of the Shakers.

Register here!

You will be sent a link shortly before the program. 

This ICOM DESIGN organised talk is the ninth in a series of online conversations with decorative arts and design professionals. 

Andreas Hug's ICOM DESIGN Talk "Archiving Moholy-Nagy: A Bauhaus Legacy in America", held on October 17, 2024, is now available online through this link.

In this presentation, Moholy-Nagy Foundation archivist Andreas Hug, grandson of the artist, discussed the digitalization of the extensive archives of the Hungarian artist and Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946). After working in Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, and England in the early twentieth century, Moholy-Nagy moved with his wife Sibyl Moholy-Nagy (1903–1971) and young daughters Hattula (b. 1933), and Claudia (1936–1971) to the United States in 1937, where he founded the School of Design in Chicago, known as the New Bauhaus.

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