Every May, New York City transforms into one of the world’s most exciting stages for contemporary design, and 2026 promises to be one of the festival’s most expansive editions yet. Returning from May 14–20, once again brings together the worlds of interiors, architecture, product design, lighting, art, technology and culture through a citywide programme of exhibitions, installations, talks, launches and immersive experiences.

Unlike traditional trade fairs, NYCxDESIGN unfolds across all five boroughs, turning galleries, showrooms, hotels, studios, museums and public spaces into destinations for creative discovery. From collectible design presentations in Tribeca and NoMad to large-scale installations, open studios and forward-thinking discussions on AI, sustainability and the future of urban living, the festival captures the energy and diversity that defines New York’s creative landscape.

This year’s programme will feature more than 250 events spanning ten design disciplines, including architecture, interior design, industrial design, lighting, technology and art. Alongside major fairs such as ICFF and the Afternoon Light Design Fair, visitors can expect keynote conversations, curated exhibitions, international showcases, design district activations and emerging talent presentations that spotlight the next generation of creative voices.

As one of the most influential moments on the international design calendar, NYCxDESIGN continues to reinforce New York’s position as a global centre for creativity; a place where design is not only exhibited, but actively lived, tested and experienced. For brands, designers and visitors alike, it offers a unique opportunity to discover new ideas, connect with the industry and explore the cultural conversations shaping the future of design.

Materials of Joy

Presented at Galerie56 in Tribeca, Materials of Joy: FUMI in New York brings together more than fifteen artists and designers in a richly layered exhibition exploring the relationship between materiality, craftsmanship and experimentation. Marking the beginning of a three-month collaboration between and Galerie56, the presentation reflects the gallery’s longstanding commitment to collectible design that bridges conceptual thinking with hand-led processes and traditional making techniques. From sculptural furniture to tactile objects and lighting, the exhibition offers a dynamic look at contemporary design through the lens of innovation, artistry and material exploration.

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Featuring works by designers including Max Lamb, Rowan Mersh, Sam Orlando Miller and Jesse Schlesinger, the exhibition highlights a diverse range of approaches united by a shared focus on craft and process. Arriving in New York following previous presentations in Los Angeles and Chicago, the showcase continues Gallery FUMI’s growing presence in the United States while reinforcing New York’s importance as a global platform for collectible and contemporary design. Through unexpected materials, intricate detailing and experimental forms, Materials of Joy captures the evolving dialogue between tradition and contemporary creativity at the heart of today’s design landscape.

The DUMBO Projection Project: V7

Transforming the infrastructure of DUMBO into a monumental digital canvas, The Dumbo Projection Project: V7 returns in 2026 with a large-scale public art experience that merges technology, architecture and storytelling. Co-presented by the month-long exhibition projects immersive video artworks across the Manhattan Bridge and the BQE walls in Dr Susan Smith Park, creating one of New York’s most distinctive open-air art experiences. Set against the movement of taxis, trains and city traffic, the installations transform the urban landscape into a living backdrop for contemporary digital art.

This seventh edition explores the evolving identity of DUMBO through works that reflect on the neighborhood’s history, present and imagined future. In a new interactive format, visitors are invited to engage directly with the projections through web-based experiences, games and smartphone interactions, creating a more participatory relationship between audience and artwork. Blending experimental media with public space, The Dumbo Projection Project: V7 highlights the growing role of digital creativity within New York’s cultural landscape while offering a dynamic example of how technology can reshape the way cities experience art.

Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley

Few contemporary practices resist definition quite like Nikolai Haas and Simon Haas. In Uncanny Valley, the Haas Brothers present a mid-career survey that immerses viewers in a world where sculpture, furniture, ceramics, installation and digital experimentation collapse into a single, fluid language. Presented as a nationally touring exhibition organised by Cranbrook Art Museum, the show brings together approximately 85 works that chart the evolution of a practice defined by imagination, humour and technical hybridity. Across hybrid creatures, speculative environments and algorithmically generated forms, the exhibition positions design as something both deeply tactile and technologically expansive.

Haas Brothers, mixed Accretions. Photography: Joe Kramm. Courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen.

At the core of the presentation is the duo’s ongoing exploration of what they describe as “problem-solving fantasies” — a process that merges hand-built craft with computational systems and narrative world-building. From richly detailed ceramic sculptures that feel almost alive to digital landscapes referencing early computer graphics, the works oscillate between the playful and the psychologically charged. Collaboration also plays a vital role, with projects developed alongside beadwork artisans in Cape Town and craft communities in California, underscoring a commitment to shared making and cultural exchange. For audiences encountering the future of design practice at NYCxDesign, Uncanny Valleyoffers a vivid and often surreal proposition: that objects can be emotional, unruly and alive with story, sitting at the intersection of art, craft and emerging technology.

Art Deco Icons of NYC Tour

Taking in Manhattan through a design lens reveals a city where history is not only preserved, but built into the skyline itself. The Art Deco Icons of NYC Tour offers a curated journey through some of the most recognisable and unexpectedly overlooked architectural moments in New York, tracing the city’s evolution through its defining 1920s and 1930s design language. Moving between street level and subterranean passages, the experience reframes Midtown as a layered composition of ornament, symbolism and ambition, where every façade and detail carries a narrative of its time.

From the unmistakable crown of the Chrysler Building to the civic grandeur of Rockefeller Center, the tour explores how Art Deco shaped the visual identity of the modern city. It also uncovers lesser-known details and hidden histories—from the underground intrigue of passages beneath the Waldorf Astoria New York, including the storied Track 61, to the sculptural symbolism of buildings such as the Graybar Building and the General Electric Building. Along the way, the route also touches on cultural touchpoints like the subway grate famously associated with Marilyn Monroe, bringing together architecture, cinema and myth to reveal a city that continues to shape—and be shaped by—its design legacy.

TOWNHOUSE x Costantini & SERHANT.

Set within a rarely seen private residence in New York, TOWNHOUSE x Costantini & SERHANT. transforms a seven-storey townhouse into an immersive installation that merges collectible design, contemporary craft and residential architecture. Presented by Costantini in collaboration with the Thurber team, the project opens a mid-eight-figure listed property to the public for the first time through a curated programme of installations and private events launching during NYCxDesign.

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Curated by Costantini founder William C. Stuart, each floor of the townhouse is conceived as a distinct environment, allowing visitors to move through a sequence of lived-in yet sculptural spaces where design objects are experienced in context rather than isolation. Works by artists and collaborators from Costantini’s wider network are integrated throughout the residence, all available for acquisition, reinforcing the dialogue between collecting, living and display. Alongside the installation, a programme of intimate dinners, conversations and gatherings animates the townhouse, offering rare access to both the works and the people behind them. The result is a uniquely personal lens on contemporary design within one of New York’s most exclusive residential settings.

The Art of Feathers by Julien Vermeulen

Presented by Maison Parisienne gallery in collaboration with Julien Vermeulen, The Art of Feathers marks the first United States exhibition by French feather artist Julien Vermeulen. The exhibition reimagines the centuries-old tradition of feather craftsmanship through a distinctly contemporary lens, unveiling a series of sculptural decorative panels composed from goose, peacock, turkey and pheasant feathers. Through layered textures, deep black surfaces and iridescent reflections, the works explore the relationship between material, light and abstraction, transforming feathers into powerful architectural compositions.

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Drawing inspiration from artists including Kazimir Malevich and Pierre Soulages, Vermeulen approaches feathers not as ornament, but as a medium capable of depth, movement and emotional intensity. Burned, curled, woven and hand-dyed, each composition pushes the boundaries of traditional savoir-faire while preserving the meticulous handcraft at the heart of the practice. Blending art, material experimentation and contemporary design, The Art of Feathers offers a striking example of how heritage craft techniques can be reinterpreted for a new generation of collectors and design audiences.

Tom Dixon: THE CARPARK

For NYCxDesign 2026, Tom Dixon brings his distinctive industrial aesthetic to New York with The Carpark, an immersive presentation that reflects the experimental spirit and material-led philosophy that has defined the British designer’s globally recognised studio. Known for iconic pieces including the Melt pendant and Mirror Ball lighting collections, Dixon has built a practice that sits at the intersection of sculpture, engineering and contemporary interiors, combining honest materials with bold, instantly recognisable forms. Set within an unconventional urban setting, The Carpark continues this exploration through an installation that blurs the boundaries between design showroom, architectural intervention and experiential environment.

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Founded by the eponymous designer, has become one of the most influential contemporary design brands of the past two decades, with works held in institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Centre Pompidou. From lighting and furniture to accessories and interiors, the studio’s output is defined by innovation, durability and a fascination with material experimentation. At NYCxDesign, The Carpark offers visitors an opportunity to experience that design language in an immersive context, highlighting Dixon’s ongoing influence on the global conversation around contemporary living and collectible design.

New Artists & Works

Presented by Twenty First, New Artists & Works brings together recent additions to the gallery’s programme alongside significant new pieces by established collaborators, offering a material-driven exploration of contemporary collectible design. Spanning sculptural furniture, lighting and wall-based works, the exhibition foregrounds process as both concept and craft, highlighting how carving, weaving, casting and patination can transform raw materials into highly tactile and architecturally expressive forms. Across the presentation, wood is hand-chiselled and charred, bronze is textured and polished, and woven fibres become painterly compositions that blur the boundary between functional object and sculpture.

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The exhibition introduces new voices, including Clotilde Ancarani, Géraldine Cornette de Saint Cyr, Kaspar Hamacher and J McDonald, alongside works by Jean-Marie Fiori, Alice Gavlet, Alexandra Mocanu, Emmée Parizot, Marcin Rusak, and Rowin’Atelier. Together, the works create a dialogue between organic silhouettes and architectural structures, from monolithic seating and cabinetry to luminous wall pieces that challenge traditional typologies. Unified by a commitment to material integrity and hand-led experimentation, New Artists & Works captures the evolving language of contemporary design through objects that feel both deeply crafted and conceptually progressive.

House of Finn Juhl x Sea New York special edition Japan Series launch

Bringing together Danish modernism and contemporary New York fashion, this special NYCxDesign pop-up sees collaboration between House of Finn Juhl and Sea New York on a reimagined edition of Finn Juhl’s iconic Japan Series. The presentation transforms the celebrated mid-century furniture collection through richly embroidered textiles developed in collaboration with Denmark’s historic Kjellerup Væveri, introducing a new tactile and material dimension to Juhl’s sculptural forms. Blending furniture, textile craft and spatial storytelling, the installation creates a dialogue between heritage design and contemporary fashion craftsmanship.

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Set within an immersive environment conceived alongside Copenhagen-based, the pop-up reinterprets Finn Juhl’s original design language through layered colour, pattern and texture. Sea New York’s handcrafted aesthetic brings softness and intricacy to the collection, allowing the furniture to function simultaneously as collectible design and textile expression. By merging two distinct creative disciplines, the collaboration highlights the growing intersection between interiors and fashion, offering visitors an intimate opportunity to experience iconic Danish design through an entirely contemporary lens.

Look Book Offsite

Presented ICFF and AvroKO during NYCxDesign, Form and Feeling transforms Host on Howard into an immersive exhibition exploring the relationship between materiality, craftsmanship and contemporary form. Co-curated by Julia Haney Montanez and AvroKO, the presentation extends the spirit of ICFF beyond the fairgrounds, creating a more intimate platform for independent North American design studios working across furniture, lighting and sculptural objects. Through tactile surfaces, organic silhouettes and experimental processes, the exhibition examines how traditional materials can be reshaped through contemporary design thinking.

Featuring works by studios and designers including Cuff Studio, Crafted Glory, Brett Paulin, Ian Love, Kate Dannessa, ridezign, Coil + Drift, Vy Voi, Thomas Yang and Simon Johns, the showcase brings together emerging and established voices united by a shared focus on material exploration and process-led making. Set within AvroKO’s Host on Howard gallery space, the exhibition encourages conversation and discovery, positioning collectible design within a more experiential and hospitality-driven context during one of New York’s most important design weeks.

From collectible design and immersive installations to architectural tours, experimental craftsmanship and cross-disciplinary collaborations, NYCxDesign 2026 once again demonstrates why New York remains one of the most influential creative capitals in the world. Spanning galleries, showrooms, public spaces and cultural institutions across the city, this year’s programme highlights a growing dialogue between art, technology, interiors, fashion and material innovation. Whether exploring emerging talent or internationally recognised studios, NYCxDesign offers a compelling snapshot of where contemporary design is heading, and the ideas, materials and makers shaping its future.